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[caption id="attachment_28570" align="alignnone" width="854"] AIFF secretary Kushal Das not concerned over I-League clubs opting out | Image : XtraTime[/caption]   Kolkata: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is not losing sleep over the exodus of Goa clubs from forthcoming I-League, according to AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das. “We are not going to request anyone to rethink about their decision. We already have eight teams playing in the Indian Super League (ISL). We also have three more franchises waiting with their bid documents. So, we are not concerned at all with the present situation,” said Kushal Das in Kolkata on Thursday. The AIFF secretary was in the city to discuss on the State Development Project of AIFF. Also present were Scott Odonell, Mr Subrata Dutta (senior Vice President of AIFF) and IFA secretary Utpal Ganguly. Indian football fans and experts feel the exodus of the clubs signals another crisis in Indian football. But Das remained unperturbed and described such people as "negative". "Look at the new teams that have come in. FC Bardez has a bigger fan following than these clubs. I have seen them in the Goa Pro League. Minerva (Academy FC) has a state-of-the-art academy in Punjab and Chennai City FC also is so enthusiastic. Look at the eight teams in the ISL." "I really don't know who these people are saying these are dark days for Indian football. People look at everything negatively," Das said dismissively. The main concerns for most of the I League clubs are the way the league is being projected. According to the new model the I League is shown as the Tier Two League of the country while ISL enjoy the status of Premier League of the country. On being asked about the clubs being complaining about the new model, Das quickly responded, “What has the clubs done so as to improve the standard of the I League? ISL franchises have shown how professionally they can run compared to clubs like East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.” The AIFF secretary was a bit defensive when he was asked that talking about professionalism, why the fixtures of I Leagues are released so late as compared to top leagues of the world. According to Das, “Yes, I do agree we have some shortcomings but we are in the process of getting things in shape. A lot of emphasis has been given to Youth Developments throughout the country. Women’s football is also given due importance.” He added, "People should look at the fan following (ISL side) FC Goa has. It's amazing and Salgaocar or a Sporting Clube de Goa has nothing compared to it." Das was part of the I-League bid evaluation committee which on Wednesday failed to zero in on a direct entry from among the three bidders. The committee has now called for fresh bidding and evaluation. Besides Sporting Clube, former I-League champions Salgaocar have also decided to opt out of the league. Reports suggest that Dempo SC will also follow suit. Grasping at straws, the AIFF has now decided to retain Aizawl FC despite the Mizoram side having been relegated last season. When the likes of Bengaluru FC, the now-defunct Bharat FC or Pune-based DSK Shivajians were handed direct entries to the I-League some years ago, the AIFF asked for a performance bank guarantee of Rs 100 crore if the companies did not have a net worth of Rs 500 crore and above. On top of that there were five-year contracts. But now with the dwindling number of teams in the league and the proposed revamped roadmap on the horizon where the Indian Super League (ISL) will replace the I-League as the top-tier competition, "maybe the stringent criteria needs to be relaxed", Das said. "We may have to relax the criteria, mostly financial ones. The stringent bank guarantees are an aspect we will look at, if we can relax it a bit," he said. "Previously, we used to say a company which has a net worth of Rs 500 crore will be able to bid to have an I-League team. Now they (the three clubs in question) have asked if only bank guarantee (of Rs one crore) is enough." "Maybe, we will look into revised financials and ease the criteria which the clubs want. Since they do not have a longer window now that there are talks of merger, their demand is also fair enough," Das observed. The committee is expected to meet again on Friday and along with accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers India, they will take a call on the future course.