Not mandatory for ISL clubs to sign OCI players: AIFF

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Wednesday reversed its earlier directive and said it is not mandatory for Indian Super League (ISL) clubs to sign Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders.

In a media statement on June 20 after the special general meeting, the AIFF had said it had “proposed and approved that clubs in the ISL and the (second tier) Indian Football League (IFL) may field a starting XI comprising three foreign players and one OCI player”.

But at a press conference to announce AIFF’s agreement with ISL teams on a club-led model for running the top-flight league, deputy general secretary M Satyanarayan said signing OCI players was optional.

Satyanarayan also said that the earlier instruction to the clubs to ensure that one Indian striker would remain on the field for the entire 90 minutes of the match was also optional.

«From now on, we are telling the clubs that we encourage you, if you want, please engage OCI players to play in the league. Other than that, there is no change in the way they (the clubs) get their players,» Satyanarayan said.

«There are six foreigners, they can get some OCI players to play. And AIFF doesn’t get involved in telling the clubs what to do. That was the general statement they made.» If a club signs an OCI cardholder, he is considered part of the foreign player quota.

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Talking about the background to the AIFF’s decision, Satyanarayan said, “When the Sports Ministry released that NITI document for sports (Khelo Bharat Niti 2025), they said they would like to field all OCI card-holder Indians to come and represent the country.

“But as far as OCI players are concerned playing football, FIFA has its own rules. AIFF President (Kalyan Chaubey) has been behind this for over a year and a lot of correspondence has been done, meetings have been held and the government is working on it.

“This is a government decision that has to be taken at the central level, it is a cabinet decision. So as soon as anything comes from the government regarding OCI players, we will implement it.

«We have just set out the broad outlines. It is up to the government. As soon as there is some direction from the ministry, we will implement it, perhaps from next season.»

He said that according to FIFA rules, a player must have the passport of the country he represents on the day he plays.

«The day you play for your country, you have to have the country’s passport. Now he has an Indian passport,» Satyanarayan said about Australian-born Ryan Williams playing for India.

Asked about the requirement for an Indian striker to be on the field for the entire match, he said: «We leave it to the clubs. The clubs are also aware that the lack of good strikers has been our Achilles heel. So hopefully the clubs will help with that and show us.»

«But this may be something that we cannot implement. You cannot tell the clubs to put a number 9 because ultimately it is up to the coach and his tactics will be different for every match. Some matches they want to win, others maybe they will be happy with a draw. So it is very difficult for us, or even for them, to implement it.»

«We’re not pushing for that. But in general they know that we need to concentrate on signing some good strikers. So that’s what we’re working towards.»

‘Previously MRA ended halfway through the season, it was wrong’

Satyanarayan said if the ISL clubs want to stop running the ISL after the first two years, they will give the AIFF ample time to make plans.

«The clubs have asked that if they want to, they can exit this particular model after two years. So if the clubs want to exit this model after two years, the AIFF will have to reconsider how we do that.»

«But the way they’ve come forward, the confidence they’ve shown, I don’t see that happening (an exit after two years), but let’s see. There are certain guardrails in place that they need to let us know in advance so we can plan in advance.»

«That was a mistake that may have been made when they (the AIFF led by Praful Patel) signed it (the MRA in 2010) because December 8 was in the middle of a season. From now on it is from the start of the season to the end of the season.»

Asked about the participation of Diamond Harbour, which was promoted to the ISL after winning the second-tier Indian Football League in the 2026-2027 season, Satyanarayan said: “We don’t know why this question is coming up.

«As far as we are concerned, there are fourteen teams in the league at the moment. Diamond Harbor has been promoted and when their club license comes, they have a year to get their house in order. That’s why I said we will send letters to all fourteen clubs and give them two weeks to confirm this by paying a certain amount.»

“So then we will find out that there are 14 teams coming into the league or they are new etc. But as far as we are concerned, we have not received any letter from Diamond Harbor so far that they are not going to participate or that they have a problem.

«So we assume that all fourteen teams are ready. But maybe in the next two weeks we will know exactly what the position is. So I mean, yes.»

Published on July 8, 2026