New Delhi, May 18 (IANS): I-League champions Punjab FC have been promoted to the Indian Super League (ISL), the All India Football Federation (AIFF) announced on Thursday.
Punjab FC got the promotion to ISL 2023-24 by winning the I-league 2022-23 title but needed to clear the licensing guidelines to play in the league.
"Punjab FC, on the basis of being the Hero I-League champions in the 2022-23 season, have been promoted to the 2023-24 Hero ISL after securing the Premier 1 Lice"se," AIFF said in its statement.
The development comes after the Club Licensing Committee of the AIFF, chaired by Dr Girija Shanker Mungali, met via video conferencing on Thursday. Present in the meeting were committee members Ravishankar Jayaraman, Yash K. Nayak and Madhu Kumari, Anirban Gupta, Pradip Choudhury and Shekhar Nagar were granted leave of absence.
Notably, Indian Super League (ISL) clubs under the latest regulations are required to apply for an "ICLS Premier 1" license, which would grant them participation in all AFC Club Competitions (subject to qualification on sporting merit) and the Indian Super League.
The I-League clubs are required to apply for an "ICLS Premier 2" license, which would grant them participation in AFC Cup (subject to qualification on sporting merit) and the I-League.
The AIFF statement further said a total of 12 clubs applied for Premier 1 License for the 2023-24 club licensing process.
After going through the entire Club Licensing process for the 2023-24 season, the "ICLS Premier 1" licenses were granted to Mumbai City FC, ATK Mohun Bagan FC, FC Goa, Jamshedpur FC, Bengaluru FC, Chennaiyin FC, Odisha FC, Kerala Blasters FC and Punjab FC.
However, NorthEast United FC, Hyderabad FC and East Bengal FC failed to secure licenses due to multiple "A" Criteria Failures.
The Committee also approved a shortfall in spending over the Club Development Plan of F10 Criteria in the financial year 21-22 due to the ongoing pandemic as clubs provided a declaration to spend the shortfall in the next three financial years.
They will meet again to decide on the Premier 2 License applications.