The Hero Indian Super League football tournament, the inaugural season of which ended yesterday with Athletico de Kolkata crowned as champions, will have September 15-December 15 window kept open for the second edition.

“We had the September 15-December 15 period as the window for this year’s Hero ISL but the tournament could start only in October. We will maintain the same window for the future edition,” said Hero Indian Super League football tournament’s secretary Kushal Das here on Sunday.

Das hailed the tournament, a unique product in the world, as “very good” and said ISL has raised the standard of play as well as helped in improving football infrastructure in the country, adding that it will have a cascading effect on the upcoming I-League too.

“ISL was very good. The standard of play was high and it helped the Indian players to do well too by playing with international players and learning from top coaches. It has improved football infrastructure. It was a success from all fronts. There would be positives for I-League too,” said Das.

Das said for next season there would not be any draft selection process to pick the players by the teams which have been given the liberty of choosing their own players.

“There won’t be a draft system. Yes, there could be brand new teams (players whose contract with the respective teams have ended). At the moment we are not sure about the salary cap,” he said.

About I-League, Das said there would be two matches per day whose start times would be 4.30 PM and 7 PM.

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