Indian football restart: ISL set to resume from Feb 14, says Sports Minister; 4 clubs yet to commit

The club representatives were present offline and online via zoom call from all the 14 clubs: Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Mohammaden FC, Inter Kashi FC, Mumbai City FC, Chennaiyin FC, SC Delhi, Bengaluru FC, NorthEast United FC, Jamshedpur FC, Odisha FC, Kerala Blasters, Punjab FC, and FC Goa.

Two proposals were tabled for the clubs in the meeting with one being single home-and-away leg format and other one being a centralised venue for all the games. The clubs said yes to the former, as per the ministry.

Survival mode

The 2025-26 season of the Indian Super League is going to be about survival for both the clubs and the federation. While AIFF is yet to finalize a commercial partner for the league, the clubs are unsure about the revenue and broadcasting.

Out of 14 clubs, ten have said yes to the proposal while four others have asked for time till tonight to give an answer. At the time of print, the clubs yet to say yes were Odisha FC, Chennaiyin FC, Kerala Blasters FC and Mohun Bagan Super Giant.

“It was a take it or leave it proposal. It was clear that the federation wants to go ahead with the league no matter how many clubs are onboard because of the significant delay,” a source privy to the meeting told The Indian Express.

The operating cost of the league in this format is projected at ₹24.26 crore, where clubs would host a limited number of matches in their home cities. Under this proposal, AIFF claims it will bear 40 percent of the total cost, amounting to ₹9.70 crore.

“A Rs 25 crore central pool has been made for only the conduct of the ISL. 10 percent of this fund will come from the AIFF, 30 percent was to come from a commercial partner but since we don’t have them on right now the AIFF will pitch in with that contribution,” Chaubey said.

“In all, the AIFF will give Rs 14 crore for ISL and about 3.2 crore for I-League till we find a commercial partner,” he added.

Sources also confirmed that the league will have promotion and relegation as mandated by the Supreme court. There won’t be any change into it unless the apex court grants any exemption.

AIFF sources said that Rs 9.77 crore is earmarked for broadcasting of the league making it Rs 10.73 lakhs per match which is significantly lower than the previous amount. The broadcasting rights for both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons was valued at ₹550 crore in total and was awarded to JioStar (then Viacom18), according to the Economic Times.

“We have to make sure that the league is executed from the resources we have. The government has also promised that they will support production via Doordarshan, so we are expecting that to help us further,” an AIFF source said. The I-League will be a truncated event with 55 matches.

AIFF to seek exemption from AFC

With the league announced, AIFF will seek exemption from the Asian Football Confederation to make sure that the clubs are eligible to play in continental competitions. AFC mandates top flight football leagues of every nation to play a minimum of 24 matches. But as things stand, the league doesn’t have the time to conduct 24 matches as player contracts end on 31st May.

This uncertainty affects FC Goa, who won the 2024 Super Cup and could be disqualified from the ACL 2 playoff round if the 24-match threshold isn’t met. “We will write to the AFC seeking an exemption as there is a delayed start. AFC has been following the developments here and they are aware about the plans for a delayed league,” a source said.

ISL, which started in 2014 replacing I-League as India’s top flight league, was delayed because the commercial Master Rights Agreement (MRA) between AIFF and league operators Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) ended last month on December 8th. Subsequent attempts from AIFF to find a new commercial partner have failed.