Indian football's future roadmap remains undecided at the end of stakeholders' meeting with AFC

A scene from today's meeting

The Indian national football team might be on a run of seven straight wins, but in the grander scheme of things, Indian football is in a state of flux at the moment. Earlier today, in the stakeholders’ meeting to draw a roadmap for Indian football, the AFC offered recommendations to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) but nothing concrete came out at the end of it.

A statement on the official website of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) read: "Stakeholders in Indian football have agreed a clearly defined roadmap to create the right structure for Indian club football in the coming years which would culminate in a new and sustainable future for the game across the country.

"At a roundtable meeting held today Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur - facilitated by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) - a consensus was reached on working together to find the way forward for the development of Indian club football."

The vague nature of AFC's statement suggests that a lot was discussed regarding the development of Indian football, but nothing has been confirmed as to how to develop Indian football.

Furthermore, the following words seem to suggest that not all stakeholders were on the same page regarding the future of Indian football. "In the meeting, it was agreed that the history, commitment and contributions made for more than 100 years as well as the new skills, investments and marketing and promotional skills required respect," read the report on AFC's official website which implies that a common ground is yet to be reached by the legacy clubs of Indian football like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal and the new wave of ISL and I-League clubs.

East Bengal and Mohun Bagan stayed away from submitting bid documents for entering the Indian Super League, whereas Bengaluru FC were the first I-League to pick up the invitation to bid document in the tendering process.

It remains to be seen what course of action has been decided, but an official present at the meeting said that the AFC told everyone present to keep a discretion about the discussions. 

AFC General Secretary Dato Windsor John's words also back up the assumption that the future of Indian football still hangs in the balance with no obvious solution available. He said: "The objectives were clear; to help provide a roadmap for the future development of Indian football by reaching a consensus on the way forward. It was a significant step forward that there was unanimous agreement that the right structure for the game should be paramount.”

What significant step was taken is yet unclear, and a consensus hasn't yet been reached regarding handing an AFC slot to the ISL. A source close to Sportskeeda said: "The AFC slot for ISL was discussed at the meeting, apart from other issues regarding the merger of ISL and I-League."

However, an expanded ISL is well on the cards as AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das said in the aftermath of the meeting: "In the meantime, we have to decide on the short-term future of the game as soon as possible.” 

A new day, but Indian football's structural mess remains the same. For the hype that the AFC meeting received, there was very little progress concerning the general scheme of things in Indian football.