Football in India
The Indian Super League, a tournament just recently recognized by AFC or FIFA, was founded in 2013 in an effort to make football a top sport in India and to make Indian football a major player worldwide. The league operates along the lines of the Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League, and Major League Soccer of the United States. Unlike the vast majority of football leagues around the world, the ISL does not use the promotion and relegation system. Instead, it uses an American style franchise system in which ten teams were specifically created to participate in the league. Each team in the ISL is composed of players from I league or state league, apart from the foreigners who may or may not be a part of the I league. Recently it was recognised as the second national league in India, which means ISL champions from 2017–2018 leagues will be eligible for an AFC Cup qualifying slot
I-League
In 1996 the first domestic league was started in India known as the National Football League. The league was started in an effort to introduce professionalism to Indian football. Despite that ambition, that has never been achieved. During the National Football League days the league suffered from poor infrastructure and unprofessionalism from its clubs. One of the clubs in the league, FC Kochin went defunct in 2002 after it was revealed that the club had not paid salaries since 2000 after running up 2.5 crores in losses a season.