Kolkata: Likewise last year, in this year’s CFL Premier Division League too four teams will be relegated to Premier Divison B and promoted to Divison A. The decision was taken at the IFA office today during a meeting with all the Premier Division A clubs apart from the three giants East Bengal, Mohun bagan and Mohammedan Sporting.
It was also decided that three foreigners will be registered while two will be allowed to take the field. If any one of the foreigner gets the marching orders, then an Indian player can be replaced by a foreigner.
in the last edition of the CFL, two U-23 players were mandatory to be on the field but this year it is decreased to one. But IFA has also mentioned that if the U-23 player gets injured or receives red card then it is mandatory to field another U-23 player in place of him.
Before the tournament begins 20 players can be registered for each clubs. The registration date for the non I-league playing clubs is from 27th June to 14th July. The I-league clubs will get an extension of 15 days to register their players. The I-league clubs will get a chance to sign a maximum of 50 players while the non I-League clubs will get to sign 45 players.
Meanwhile, CFL Premier Division will start from the third week of July. There will be eleven teams who will compete against each other in the Super 11 stage which will start from August. The venues selected are East Bengal Ground, Mohun Bagan Ground, Mohammedan Sporting Ground and Barasat Stadium. The venue for the derby is yet to be decided. The matches in the Mohun Bagan ground may be played under newly built flood lights.
A new addition was made in the structure of the league as IFA has decided this time that each and every Premier Division A clubs must have an U-18 team ready which is mandatory. IFA secretary Utpal ganguly said, ” We have added the U-18 team just to improve the youth development for every clubs so that they take it seriously. But this rule is not mandatory yet for Army XI. We will decide on this issue further discussing with the clubs.”