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
2014 ISL Inaugural Domestic Draft
The 2014 ISL Inaugural Domestic Draft was the first ever draft from the Indian Super League, the new franchise domestic football league in India. The draft featured eighty-four Indian domestic players. They were drafted by six out of the eight franchises featured in the Indian Super League to form the domestic core of the teams. NorthEast United FC and Goa were the two non-participating teams as they selected their Indian players from both I-League teams, Dempo and Shillong Lajong respectively. Forty of the eighty-four players up for selection have either played for the India national team or have attended a camp for the national team.