Pune: In an unified effort, 12 I-League club owners/ representatives have decided to launch the Indian Professional Football Clubs Association (IPFCA).
The decision was taken following a meeting held at the Ashok Piramal Group Business Centre - Lotus Lounge, Mumbai on Saturday, 10th March, 2012. The conclusive idea of forming the IPFCA is to safeguard the interest of its member clubs, promote and popularize the football in India.
The IPFCA, it was decided will be funded by member clubs and formed under the Society Registration Act 1860.
The clubs also spelt out IPFCA objectives, which include
- Promote and safeguard the common interests of the clubs
- Popularize the I-League across India
- Help make the I-League sustainable and profitable
- Encourage the formation of new professional clubs
- Share best practices among member clubs
- Get the I-League teams to play in the Asian Champions league.
There was detailed discussion amongst the club owners and representatives regarding the progress made towards setting a focused approach for making I league a separate entity in which the clubs would have major stakes.
Members expressed deep concern with regards to departure of Mahindra United and JCT from Indian Football and expressed their anguish that unless corrective suitable action is taken, others may follow suit.
The members who met and outlined IPFCA were;
1. Kingfisher East Bengal - Shantiranjan Das Gupta
2. McDowells Mohun Bagan - Anjan Mitra, Debashish Dutta and Alokesh Banerjee
3. Prayag United SC - Siddhartha Bhattacharya
4. Salgaocar SC - Shivanand Salgaocar and Raj Gomes
5. Dempo SC - Srinivas Dempo and Suvrat Thatte
6. Sporting Clube de Goa - Peter Vaz and Victor Fernandes
7. Chirag Kerala - Prashantan
8. Mumbai FC - Atul Badgamia
9. Air-India SC - Godfrey Pereira
10. Shillong Lajong FC - Larsingh Ming
11. Pune FC - Nandan Piramal and Chirag Tanna
12. Churchill Brothers requested ‘Leave of Absence,’ but offered total support to the decisions and the formation of the IPFCA.
It was also proposed that the registered office of the IPFCA will be the Pune FC office.
