{"id":32816,"date":"2026-07-09T05:05:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/oci-players-indian-striker-not-mandatory-in-isl-aiff-football-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T05:05:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:35:48","slug":"oci-players-indian-striker-not-mandatory-in-isl-aiff-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/oci-players-indian-striker-not-mandatory-in-isl-aiff-football-news\/","title":{"rendered":"OCI players, Indian striker not mandatory in ISL: AIFF | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132260934,imgsize-414061,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/aiff-satya.jpg\" alt=\"OCI players, Indian striker not mandatory in ISL: AIFF\" title=\"AIFF Deputy Secretary General M Satyanarayanan (R) in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"AIFF Deputy Secretary General M Satyanarayanan (R) in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)\">AIFF Deputy Secretary General M Satyanarayanan (R) in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"strong\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">New Delhi:<\/span> The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has clarified that signing of Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cardholders in the 2026-27 season of the <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/indian-super-league\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Indian Super League<\/a> (ISL) is optional. If a club decides to bring in an OCI player, they will be considered part of the foreigner quota.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"5\"\/>The next ISL season will allow clubs to bring in six foreigners in the squad with a maximum of four in the playing XI.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"7\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"9\"\/>&#8220;As of now, we are telling the clubs that we encourage you, if you want, please enlist OCIs to play in the league. Other than that, as of now, there is no change in the way they get their players,&#8221; said AIFF Deputy Secretary General M Satyanarayanan on Wednesday.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/>&#8220;They are six foreigners. They can get some OCIs to play. And AIFF does not interfere in telling the clubs what to do. <!-- -->We just set out the broad outlines. As and when any direction comes from the (Sports) Ministry, we will implement it,&#8221; he continued.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>The clarification comes after an AIFF media release on June 20, which followed an SGM, said, &#8220;It is further proposed and approved that, in the Indian Super League (ISL) and the Indian Football League (IFL), clubs may field a starting eleven comprising three foreign players and one OCI player.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>Another point that needed clarity related to Indian strikers. The same media note said, &#8220;&#8230; to ensure adequate match exposure and development opportunities for Indian forwards, one Indian striker must remain on the field for the entire 90 minutes of the match.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>However, this, too, is optional for the ISL clubs.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/>&#8220;The clubs are also aware that one of our biggest Achilles\u2019 heels has been the lack of a quality striker. Hopefully, they will help address that,&#8221; explained Satyanarayanan.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/>&#8220;However, this is not something we can enforce. We cannot tell clubs to play a No. 9 because, ultimately, team selection and tactics are the coach\u2019s decision.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"29\"\/>&#8220;Every match is different\u2014sometimes a coach wants to go for a win, while in other games they may be satisfied with a draw. So it is very difficult for us, or even for the clubs, to implement such a mandate.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"31\"\/>&#8220;We are not insisting on it, but the clubs understand that one of our key priorities is to develop and produce quality strikers, and we will continue working towards that,&#8221; he continued.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"33\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/football\/top-stories\/oci-players-indian-striker-not-mandatory-in-isl-aiff\/articleshow\/132260867.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AIFF Deputy Secretary General M Satyanarayanan (R) in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI) New Delhi: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has clarified that signing of Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cardholders in the 2026-27 season of the Indian Super League (ISL) is optional. If a club decides to bring in an OCI player, they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}