WFF 2016: "Our goal is to get the Indian national team into the World Cup" (S. Dhar, I-League)

"We had a league (the I-League), but it was not achieving the goals for the progress we badly needed in Indian football. So that's why we went to our commercial partners, and conceived the Indian Super League (ISL)," stated Sunando Dhar (pictured), the CEO of the I-league - which had been the Indian first division since 2007 - on 08/07/2016, the second day of the World Football Forum 2016.

This convention took place on 07 and 08/07/2016 in Paris (FRA), around the theme of "The New Geography of Football", which analysed China's impact on world football and its economy, the emergence of India in football, and opportunities in emerging football markets: Russia (host of the 2018 World Cup), Qatar (host of the 2022 World Cup), Southeast Asia and Africa.

"The merger (of the I-League and the ISL) is simply necessary. Our goal is the Indian national team, and get the team into the World Cup. The I-League itself was not achieving this," said Kushal Das, the general secretary of the AIFF, during the round table titled "India: Reform and Re-structuring in a Rapidly Growing Market", at WFF 2016…