Further information on the mass failings has become available
Bengaluru FC and Mumbai Tigers are the only two teams certain to be playing I-League football come October.
The remaining sides all failed the licensing tests set by the All India Football Federation AIFF and will have to apply for exemption by August 14th or risk not playing in the I-League at all.
The exemption grants clubs a 12 month period to rectify the faults found by the AIFF.
The main reason for the failure, according to Sportskeeda, is the failure to protect the I-league brand, there are 5 categories within the licensing test and within that 40 stringent conditions that must be met, the penalty for not meeting any of these requirements is the refusal of a national license .
The worst offenders are two of Kolkata’s biggest sides, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, one of the tests key focus is on building a youth infastructure, teams must have at least three functioning youth sides between U10 and U21 level.
Instead the two sides have accrued a hotch potch of players who are brought together before tournaments and do not play regularly, both clubs have spend big on foreign players and have neglected the Youth, they could be about to pay a serious price for the error..
Pune FC, widely regarded as the most professional of I-League clubs were the country’s top performers, followed by Mumbai FC and Salgoacar.