Highlights of the I-League seminar held at the AIFF Headquarters

The seminar for the Local General Coordinators (LGO) and the Media Officers (CMO) of the 11 I-League Clubs was held at the AIFF Headquarters in Football House, New Delhi, on January 14, 2015.

The main objective of the seminar was to highlight the roles and responsibilities of the LGCs and the CMOs, as well as to give an idea of the various match day activities and operations to be conducted by the clubs during the I-League matches.

Sunando Dhar, I-League CEO, stated that the time for setting standards in the I-League was more than necessary now, and it was time to start implementing the guidelines. Dhar also spoke about the introduction of an exciting award from this season for the Clubs.

He said, “It is time to set and implement standards in the Hero I-League. We just concluded our AFC seminar on the same topic, and we would want to ensure that these measures are also taken by the I-League clubs.

“We are happy to announce that from this year onwards we’ll be having a special award for the Best Organiser of the Hero I-League. The Club would be receiving a bounty of 5 lakh.

“The Match Commissioner would be deciding the same, taking into account the several aspects of the club, and the team with the maximum points would be given the amount.”

Janice Lynrah, Media Manager, Shillong Lajong FC, attended the seminar and expressed that she was pleased to appear in the seminar.

“The seminar has been very beneficial and exciting for all the Clubs as a whole,” she said.

“It is a good way to educate each and every member of the clubs about the various aspects of conducting, and a smooth functioning of the I-League.

“I personally am very thankful to AIFF for this initiative.”

The day began with a seminar on setting Integrity guidelines in the game, which was conducted by Javed Siraj, the Integrity Officer of the AIFF.

“We have to ensure that the games are played with honesty, and it is necessary to brief the players and the referees about the various activities,” Siraj told the gathering.

Akshay Rohatgi, Manager, I-League, followed the next session explaining the Hero I-League regulations as well as various aspects of the game the Clubs must conform to. He explained the various kit equipment regulations of the AIFF, the Medical Services to be provided, the Disciplinary Regulations, and so on.

“LGC's are the future Match Commissioners,” that's how Sanjay Kumar, Manager, Competitions, started his speech as he conducted the next session on the role of LGCs and the match day operations in the game.

Sanjay Kumar, newly inducted as a Match Commissioner by the AFC, explained the clubs at length about the match day activities, which are bound to begin at least three days before the match and end at least a day after the match ends.

Col. Goutam Kar (Retd), Director of the Referees Dept in AIFF, next spoke on the Refereeing and Other Technical Matters and Laws of the game.

The Marketing matters of the I-League were dwelt upon by Hoshedar Gundevia of the FSDL, who explained the role of Hero in the upcoming league.

The role of the Local Media Officers and the Media Operations were vastly explained by Debayan Mukherjee and the social media aspects of the I-League were dealt upon by Sayantan, Media Coordinator, I-League.

The official social media hashtags of the 11 teams were also decided and confirmed:

• Bengaluru FC - #BFC
• Pune FC - #PFC
• Kalyani Bharat FC - #KBFC
• Dempo SC - #DEM
• Salgaocar FC - #SFC
• Sporting Clube de Goa - #SCG
• Mumbai FC - #MFC
• Kingfisher East Bengal - #KEB
• McDowell Mohun Bagan - #MMB
• Shillong Lajong FC - #SLFC
• Royal Wahingdoh FC - #RWFC

The official social media hashtag for the tournament will be #HeroILeague.