Panaji: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has made it mandatory for clubs in the top two tiers of Indian football to have a domestic striker on the field from start to finish.If the starting striker is being replaced due to injury or form, his place should mandatorily be taken by another domestic striker, according to new guidelines that will come into force for the 2026-27 season.The drastic change was proposed and approved during the virtual special general body meeting on Saturday. AIFF said this is being done “to ensure adequate match exposure and development opportunities for Indian forwards.”Indian Super League (ISL) and Indian Football League (IFL) clubs will also have to include an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) player among its four foreign players on the field. Should they choose not to sign OCI player, their onfield foreign quota will be restricted to three players.The quota of six foreign players to be registered remains unchanged.The inclusion of OCI and PIO players in Indian football has been a topic that has invited a lot of debate ever since Stephen Constantine first made a mention. Since then, Bob Houghton, Wim Koevermans, Igor Stimac and Manolo Marquez have all pointed out how several countries, including neighbours like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, have counted upon imports to strengthen their national teams.India, however, do not allow dual passports, and the AIFF is hoping PIO/OCI players will follow in the footsteps of Ryan Williams who surrendered his Australian citizenship to take up an Indian passport and represent the country. The Bengaluru FC winger scored on his international debut against Hong Kong earlier this year.The compulsion to field a domestic striker and include OCI player among the foreign contingent is likely to invite fierce opposition from clubs, who have a majority in the ISL managing committee. It includes five club representatives — Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru FC, NorthEast United, FC Goa and Sporting Club Delhi – and three officials from AIFF.“I think most, if not all clubs will be rather surprised by the developments in the general body meeting regarding player guidelines for ISL,” a club CEO told TOI late on Saturday. “The proposal on OCIs and Indian strikers is essentially forcing a quota system. Quota system will only lead to inflation of salaries as was visible when clubs were forced to sign Asian players. In the backdrop of conversations where a vast majority of clubs are aiming to be prudent with their spending, these proposals put those plans two steps back.”Meanwhile, AIFF deputy secretary general M Satyanarayan informed the general body members that it has reached an understanding with clubs over running ISL, instead of accepting Genius Sports’ bid, its initial favourite. A final decision on the structure will be taken next week, once the federation hears from Genius who bid approximately Rs 2130 crore for a 20-year (15+5) period, to secure rights of ISL and Federation Cup.According to AIFF, the next edition of ISL will kick off on Sept 4.
