The All India Football Federation announced the launch of the Indian Women’s League, "which will kick off at" Dehli’s Ambedkar Stadium on Jan. 28, according to the HINDUSTAN TIMES. The IWL will comprise six teams, "short-listed after two stages of competitions." Twenty teams from nine states "took part in the preliminary qualifiers, and nine qualified for the IWL preliminaries held in October." The teams "will play on a league-cum-knockout basis" with the final to be held on Feb. 14. AIFF President Praful Patel was "confident the league will rapidly expand and urged the country's top clubs to start a women's team as well." He said, "Our aim is to have 16 teams soon. We will request all the national clubs to have women's sides too" (HINDUSTAN TIMES, 1/24). ESPN.com reported Patel said, "Our women's team is ranked 54 in the world which is higher than the men's ranking of 129. This means that for the upcoming FIFA Women's World Cup in 2019, if we put in the right effort our women's team will have an outside chance of qualifying for the World Cup before the men. This in itself is a huge achievement" (ESPN.com, 1/24). THE HINDU's Uthra Ganeshan reported unlike the other leagues, however, "the first edition of the IWL would be a short, two-week affair." Hoping that the IWL would "help bring in more professionalism in women’s football -- at par with the men -- Patel added that it was important to move beyond the traditional pockets of the game to make the game more inclusive and widespread." IWL side Jeppiaar Institute of Technology FC (Puducherry) captain Sumithra Kamaraj agreed. She said, "I think this league would go a long way in bringing the club culture and professionalism in women’s football and hopefully enough money as well to make it a lucrative career" (THE HINDU, 1/25).
NO MERGER: THE HINDU reported Indian football circles "may be awash with talks of a unified National league, and rumours of the I-League dying out after a merger with the Indian Super League," but Patel has "brushed aside any possibilities of the same in the near future." He said, "I have my doubts and frankly, I don’t see any merger happening at least this year. Also, I don’t see any reason for a conflict and I cannot understand why it is constantly being touted as, ‘I-League merging with ISL?' Why can we not say that the ISL might merge with the I-League? The name is not important." At the same time, Patel "was critical of the traditional football clubs, slamming them for resisting change and refusing to invest in the sport" (THE HINDU, 1/25).
