The All India Football Federation's (AIFF) I-League Bid Evaluation Committee, set to meet next week, will only have to two bids to evaluate after it emerged that a Rajasthan-based group failed to table their bid.
This leaves just Kerala-based Gokulam FC and Bengaluru's Ozone FC as the only two parties to have submitted a bid for a direct spot in the I-League for the coming season.
Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) are the independent auditors who go through the bid documents of each interested party and place their thoughts in front of the Bid Evaluation Committee, which was set to meet on 15th but have pushed the meeting back after PwC needed more time to go through the bid documents.
It is to be noted that the AIFF had rejected the initial bids from Gokulam FC, Ozone FC and another Rajasthan-based group early last month because of incomplete and unsatisfactory bids.
The governing body went on to invite bids again and Gokulam FC and Ozone FC have re-submitted their bids while the rumoured third bid from another Rajasthan-based group never materialised, leaving the aforementioned two teams competing for the spot(s).
The I-League already has nine teams, with the inclusion of the Arrows, and it is likely that the AIFF will select only one of the two bids. But it is also possible that they may choose not to select either.
It will be interesting to see whether the AIFF decides to add any team into the I-League for the 2017-18 season.
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