City Football Group to exit Mumbai City FC; AIFF proposes two formats for league

calcutta: metropolis football game aggroup (CFG) testament no longer be a part of Mumbai City FC, the Indian Super League (ISL) club has informed the All India Football Federation (AIFF).

No one at the club was available for comment but an AIFF official said on Wednesday that the former Indian Super League (ISL) champions have written about a “change in the shareholders.” CFG’s stake will be bought by the club, said the AIFF official who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue.

In November 2019, CFG, which includes Mumbai City and Manchester City, have 13 clubs in five continents and calls itself the world’s first truly global football organisation, had acquired 65% stake in Mumbai City FC. While Atletico Madrid and Scotland’s Rangers FC have had partnerships with ATK and Bengaluru FC, Mumbai City FC were the only ISL club that was part of an international group.

Mumbai City FC have won two ISL league shields and two ISL cups making it one of the most successful teams in the competition. The league shield is awarded to the team that finishes on top after the league phase and the cup is given to the team that wins the ISL final.

An official at Mumbai City FC said nothing else has changed and that the first team is training. On Wednesday, a club representative attended a meeting in New Delhi to explore ways to start the league this season.

Anirban Dutta, general secretary of the Indian Football Association (IFA), the sport’s apex unit in West Bengal, said two proposals for 2025-26 were put to the clubs at the meeting. One was to split the 14 teams into two zones and stage matches in two cities followed by a knockout round with the top two or three teams from each zone. The other was to stage a single-leg league with each team playing a fixed number of away matches.

Dutta is part of the three-member committee appointed by AIFF that in consultation with representatives of five ISL clubs will try to end the impasse over India’s top tier men’s league. Reigning ISL double winners Mohun Bagan Super Giant, Chennaiyin FC, Delhi SC and NorthEast United were also represented at the meeting. Another meeting has been scheduled for Friday, said Dutta, speaking over the phone from New Delhi.

“Reviving the league will be a challenge if this edition is not held,” he said. “To that end, we must work together to find a solution, first in the short-term and then long-term.” Dutta said broadcasters would be approached after the format was decided and dates finalised.

The men’s top tier league has been paused this term for lack of a commercial partner.

“The clubs have had it very hard especially this season and hence the plan to look at possibilities that cuts travel and hotel costs,” said another official who was at the meeting.

If the proposal to split the teams into two zones, or conferences as it is called in Major League Soccer which runs on a similar format, Kolkata and Goa will be the likely venues, said the official quoted above. “There aren’t too many cities with practice grounds for seven teams.”

The AIFF committee, which also has Goa Football Association president Caitano Fernandes, and Navas Meeran, president of the Kerala Football Association, has told the clubs that a deadline-based approach to a long-term solution can be worked out together after a format for this season is agreed, said Dutta.

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