Panaji: India’s top tier football clubs are in favour of signing OCI card holders as domestic players, with an undertaking that they will take up Indian citizenship within two years of setting foot in the country.The All India Football Federation at its last general body meeting proposed and approved that, in the Indian Super League and the Indian Football League, clubs may field a starting eleven comprising three foreign players and one Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) player. Should they choose not to sign OCI player, their onfield foreign quota will be restricted to three.There is no formal communication to the clubs from AIFF yet. But in virtual discussions with the federation, ISL clubs have pointed out that compulsion to sign OCI players will drive wage bills and place the league’s financial sustainability under strain.Instead, clubs feel they should be permitted to sign a maximum of two additional OCI players, who would be counted as an Indian, with no cap on their number on the pitch and no obligation to field them.“If the (AIFF) plan is to eventually get these OCI card holders to take up an Indian passport and become eligible to represent the country, then treating them as domestic players allows clubs to integrate them naturally on merit,” a senior club official told TOI. “It is unfair to force the clubs to sign OCI players. Like it happened with the mandatory signing of Asian players as part of the previous 3+1 foreign player rule, it will create an artificial scarcity with player prices being hiked.”Some clubs feel OCI players who make a move to Indian clubs should provide an undertaking that they will take up Indian citizenship within two years. “The objective is to make the players eligible for the national team, so it’s imperative that the players arrive here with a similar mindset,” said another official.When clubs were asked for their feedback in an official WhatsApp group, only two – Mohun Bagan and East Bengal – backed the move to mandatorily sign OCI players.Bagan have now written to AIFF with their own suggestions which includes an “upper limit in age” for short-term benefit.“For short term benefit, an upper limit of 30 year can be imposed on the OCI player, who can get a passport in two years and can represent India for (the next) three years,” Mohun Bagan CEO Vinay Chopra said in an email to the federation. “Alternatively, we can give this incentive of signing OCI player as domestic player to clubs for younger players, say below under-26, targeting World Cup 2034. Maybe we can also allow up to a maximum of two or three OCI players per club as domestic players to fast-track this process.”
