Delhi Delhi: �Giving great relief to the team owners in the Hockey India League, the Governing Council (GC) has decided to reduce the team's number from 24 to 20 for the next season. In the last meeting held in Bhubaneswar with Hockey India officials, the team owners expressed concern over the lack of sponsorship and broadcasting quality. It is believed that the new rules are the result of the meeting in which franchise owners who recorded crores of losses criticized the way the league operating. According to the rules, all teams should have 13 Indians and seven foreign players. In the detailed correspondence shared with all the owners, GC has also given rules to maintain and leave the players. Now each franchise will be allowed to leave eight players from the men's team, while in the women's team it can only keep 10 players. All released players will be available for purchases during the mini auction to be held in September this year. Any player who was out of the league last year and a three -year ban could return to the same franchise for the new session under the owner's discretion.

In addition, franchisees can trade the players among themselves, but Hockey India has fixed an upper limit, according to which the price of a business player can cost only 50 percent of his previous franchise fees. The document shared with the team owners stated, “Khiladi A was sold for Rs 5,00,000 in auction and can be traded for a maximum of Rs 7,50,000.” However, HIL's GC has not made any changes in the salary limit of teams as it is Rs 4 crore and Rs 2 crore in male and female sections respectively. However, this limit will now include the players made by the players and team owners to strengthen their team.