Take pay cuts to save season: ISL clubs to players

Panaji: India’s top-tier football clubs have unanimously told the sports ministry and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) that a financial reset, particularly with player salaries, is essential to sustain owner interest and ensure continued investment into the sport.At least nine club officials who spoke at the meeting were in agreement that they will have to terminate or renegotiate contracts “for the good health of Indian football.”Termination of valid player contracts without a mutual agreement could land dozens of cases with the player status committee. Foreign players will knock on the doors of FIFA, the governing body of world football. Anticipating rising cases, the clubs have requested support from the AIFF or the sports ministry – through a notification – particularly since the league would be truncated this season.The AIFF, though, remained noncommittal.“Whatever we do has to be in accordance with FIFA statutes or there must be a precedent (anywhere in the world),” AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey told the clubs at the meeting. “If there is any legal opinion on this, that in the past in any other country it has happened, and for what reason the players had to take a pay cut, we will put this before our legal team and take it forward. Whatever the global practices, whatever FIFA and AFC guides, AIFF has to follow.

Clubs spend approximately 60-70% of their budgets on player salaries. The top-tier Indian Super League (ISL) has a salary cap of Rs 16.5 crore, but more than half of the clubs are known to spend much more to remain competitive and battle for top honours.“The only way the ecosystem becomes anywhere close to viable without a commercial partner in place is if we redo the player salaries,” a senior club official said during Thursday’s meeting.

“All clubs have ensured that they’ve paid the players till now. They’ve received 50% of their salaries till now, despite playing minimal games.”“We need to dwell a little bit more on a hard reset, just get everyone’s opinion as to how this can be done in the coming months because without a hard reset, even an interim solution is very challenging for us as clubs,” another official from an ISL-winning club said at the meeting.“The ISL in its previous form isn’t happening, at least this season, so technically the clubs can invoke the Force Majeure clause and terminate contracts. We are ready to fight this in courts because the situation is unprecedented. The players have to understand that at a time when everyone is bleeding, they cannot remain immune to the situation,” a club official who attended the meeting but did not want to be named told TOI after the meeting.There were suggestions to allow clubs to retain some players while all other contracts be terminated. The players can then select their price for either a domestic player draft or auction, something on the lines of the 2017 event when the ISL expanded from eight to 10 teams, following with the inclusion of Bengaluru FC and Jamshedpur FC.“When clubs speak of a (sustainable) model for the long term and involves cost cutting, we welcome this.

Reduce your cost, and if the cost cutting can be possible with assistance from AIFF in any manner, we are ready to help. Jointly with the sports ministry, we will ensure support for the clubs,” the AIFF president said.The Indian Super League has not kicked off till now, and unlikely to start until February, due to AIFF’s failure to find a commercial partner for the top tier league. The ISL commenced in Sept last season, but uncertainty has forced clubs to stop first team operations. The 15-year master rights agreement between AIFF and its commercial partner, Reliance-subsidiary FSDL, ended at midnight on Dec 8.