Owners of all four I-League clubs, Shrinivas Dempo, Peter Vaz (Sporting Clube de Goa), Shivanand Salgaocar (Salgaocar FC) and Churchill Alemao (Churchill Brothers), met for the first time at a city hotel yesterday and resolved to oppose several initiatives that the AIFF is to force on the clubs.
The conference model set to be adopted for this year's I-League on the lines of the United States' Major League Soccer (MLS) where teams are divided into two groups based on zones, has found no acceptance among the Goan clubs.
"The Federation Cup format has also been opposed but the biggest disagreement was on the capping of teams from Goa. This is something that is not acceptable," said Raj Gomes, secretary of the Salgaocar club.
The AIFF emergency committee has decided to put a cap on the number of teams from any particular city in the I-League and 2nd Division put together. If additional teams from Goa and Kolkata qualify in subsequent editions, those particular teams have to relocate and play in a different venue subject to approval of the AIFF.
"Goa has got a raw deal. This anomaly has to be corrected," Gomes stated.
