New Delhi: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Wednesday climbed down from its earlier directive and said it is not mandatory for Indian Super League (ISL) clubs to sign Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders.
In a June 20 media statement after its Special General Body Meeting, the AIFF had said it had "proposed and approved that in the ISL and the (second tier) Indian Football League (IFL), clubs may field a starting eleven comprising three foreign players and one OCI player".
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But, addressing a press conference to announce AIFF's agreement with ISL teams on a club-led model of running the top-tier league, deputy secretary general M Satyanarayan said the signing of OCI players was optional.
Satyanarayan also said that its earlier instruction to the clubs to ensure one Indian striker remaining on the field for the entire 90 minutes of the match was also optional.
"As of now, we are telling the clubs that we encourage you, if you want, please enlist OCI players to play in the league. Other than that, there is no change in the way they (the clubs) get their players," Satyanarayan said.
"There are six foreigners, they can get some OCI players to play. And AIFF doesn't interfere in telling the clubs what to do. That was the overall statement which they made."
If any club signs an OCI card holder, he would be considered as part of the foreign player quota.
Regarding the background of the AIFF's decision, Satyanarayan said, "When the sports ministry put out that NITI document for sports (Khelo Bharat Niti 2025), they said they would love to utilise all the OCI cardholder Indians to come and represent the country.
"But as far as OCI players playing football is concerned, FIFA has got its own rules. AIFF president (Kalyan Chaubey) has been behind this for the last more than a year and lots of correspondence have gone, meetings have happened and the government is working on it.
"Now this is a government decision which has to be taken at the central level, it is a cabinet decision. So, as and when something comes from the government with regard to OCI players, we will implement it.
"We just set out the broad outlines. It is up to the government. As and when any direction comes from the ministry, we will implement it, maybe from the subsequent season.
He said under FIFA rules, a player will have to have the passport of the country he is representing on the day he plays.
"The day you play for your country, you must have the country's passport. Now he has got an Indian passport," Satyanarayan said regarding Australian-born Ryan Williams playing for India.
Asked about the requirement of an Indian striker to be on the field throughout the match, he said, "We are leaving it to the clubs. The clubs are also aware that our Achilles heel has been the lack of good strikers. So, hopefully the clubs will help in that and let us see.
"But this can be something which we cannot implement. You can't tell the clubs to put a No. 9 because finally it is for the coach and his tactics will differ for each match. Some matches they want to win, some maybe they will be happy just to draw the game. So it is very difficult for us or even them to implement it.
"We are not insisting on that. But, broadly, they know we have to focus on getting some good strikers. So we work towards that."
Earlier MRA ended mid season, was a mistake
Satyanarayan said if the ISL clubs want to pull out of running the ISL after the first two years, they will give ample time to the AIFF to pre-plan.
"The clubs have requested that if they want, they can exit from this particular model after two years. So at the end of two years, if the clubs want to exit from this model, then the AIFF will have to rethink how we do it.
"But the way they have come forward, the confidence they have shown, I do not see that happening (exiting after two years), but let us see. There are certain guardrails put in that they have to give us advance notice so that we can plan before hand.
"That was a mistake which perhaps was done when they (the AIFF led by Praful Patel) signed it (the MRA in 2010) because December 8 was in the middle of a season. From now on, it is from the start of the season to end of season."
Asked about the participation of Diamond Harbour, which got promoted to the ISL after winning the second tier Indian Football League, in 2026-27 season, Satyanarayan said, "We don't know why this question is coming.
"As far as we are concerned, there are 14 teams in the league as of now. Diamond Harbour has been promoted and whenever their club licensing comes, they have one year to get their house in order. So that's why I said that we will be sending out letters to all the 14 clubs and give them two weeks to confirm by making a certain amount of payment.
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"So then we will get to know that 14 teams are coming in the league or who are new etc. But as far as we are concerned, as of now, we have not received any letter from Diamond Harbour that they are not going to participate or they are having any problem.
"So we assume all 14 teams are ready to go. But maybe in the next two weeks, we will get to know what exactly is the position. So I mean, yes."
