panaji is this the beginning of the end for goan football since the inception of the national football league in 1996 and later rechristened ileague goan clubs have always held a pride of place winning a record nine titles and enjoying the biggest representation six clubs for instance in the 2005 edition of nfl when the next edition of the ileague presumably also the last kicksoff next year there wont be any goan club battling for top honours after salgaocar fc and sporting clube de goa decided to pull out and there were indications that dempo sports club will follow with a decision of their own likely to be announced next week over the past few weeks salgaocar football club and sporting clube de goa have had several rounds of discussions and have deliberated the impact that the may 17 proposal will have on the state of the sport it is clear that the proposal is highly discriminatory goes against sporting merit is unworkable for ileague clubs and hampers goa which is the best represented state in the ileague the most the clubs said in a joint statement on friday the clubs however made it clear that they will continue to field teams for local and other domestic tournaments the may 17 proposal tabled by the all india football federation aiff and its marketing partners imgreliance during a meeting in delhi seeks to make the twoyear old indian super league a tournament in the words of the aiff president praful patel until a few months ago indias toptier football competition from 201718 and relegates the ileague indias premier football competition since 1996 when the league kickedoff to the second division or league one as it will be called there will not be any promotion to the top tier from league one and existing ileague clubs some a century old are not guaranteed of a place in the top league even those who are accommodated like bengaluru fc mohun bagan and east bengal are likely to be charged a franchise fee given that monetary incentives were never a contributing factor the two goan clubs said there is no incentive for a club to participate in the restructured ileague and were particularly piqued after the aiff did not respond to any of their letters when comments and suggestions were sought a fresh start taking all stakeholders into confidence was requested in order to come up with a comprehensive reformulated plan via a transparent and democratic process these suggestions were sent over a month ago by multiple stakeholders the lack of response from the aiff is telling and makes it clear that the fate of the worlds most popular sport in the worlds second most populous nation would be decided unilaterally the clubs said in the statement salgaocar and sporting clube are not the first to withdraw from the ileague last year pune fc newcomers bharat fc and royal wahingdoh all decided to opt out of the league