Jamshedpur FC’s (JFC) withdrawal from the upcoming Indian Super League (ISL) season was a long-planned strategic decision to return to grassroots football development and had ‘nothing to do’ with the earlier uncertainty surrounding the tournament’s commercial future or the new club-led model of the ISL, Tata Steel Vice President (Corporate Services) DB Sundara Ramam said on Tuesday.

“The decision [to withdraw from the ISL] has nothing to do with whatever changes have happened in the last one year. Even if the earlier long-term agreement continued, our decision would have been the same. We thought our bandwidth should be focused on our strength, which is grassroots football development,” Sundara Ramam told PTI.