Notwithstanding the pressure from the sides relegated in the National Football League Premier Division, the championship would remain a 10-team affair in the next season, the All India Football Federation said on Sunday.
Several teams approached the AIFF with a request to include them in the top division based on their performances in the Federation Cup. But the Federation has decided to stick to its decision of having a 10-team premier league," AIFF President Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told reporters in New Delhi.
"The relegated teams will have to fight it out in the second division of the league," he said after the Annual General Meeting of the Federation.
AIFF would also begin a third division league, the modalities of which would be worked out in due course, and a new tournament, the President's Cup, would be staged on an experimental basis from the next year.
"This eight-team competition would feature teams relegated from the NFL top division and emerging outstanding sides who have done well in the Durand Cup, IFA Shield and other zonal tournaments," Dasmunshi said.
This would encourage these lesser known sides to maintain themselves and keep their players together, he said.
He, however, said the Army XI, which won the Durand Cup on Saturday, would not be taken in the NFL's second division.
"Some of their talented youngsters could be taken into the trial camp for the Asian Games. We need young players as the Asiad is restricted to Under-23 players and not every player of the SAFF-wining team is under that age limit."
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