Chennaiyin FC has announced a pause on their first-team operations, thus becoming the latest Indian Super League (ISL) club to publicly announce the effect of the ongoing limbo around the future of the league. Earlier, Bengaluru FC announced that they had suspended salaries of their first team personnel – both player and coaching staff, while Odisha FC’s owner Rohan Sharma indirectly confirmed on X that their first-team operations also stand suspended.
“In light of the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of the Indian Super League, Chennaiyin FC has taken the extremely difficult decision to temporarily pause club operations,” Chennaiyin said in a statement that they released on their social media handles.
“We hope that this pause will be short-lived and that we can return to doing what we love as soon as there is clarity for all clubs. Throughout this uncertainty, our commitment to the growth of Indian football, upon which this journey began remains as strong as ever.”
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is set to meet CEOs of ISL clubs on Thurday in New Delhi. Chennaiyin are among the clubs that are to be part of the meeting. Earlier, Bengaluru FC urged the AIFF and and the Football Sport Development Limited (FSDL), the joint venture that runs the ISL, to end the impasse on the 2025/26 season of the club while stating that they have “indefinitely” suspended “salaries of the players and staff belonging to the first team”.
Odisha FC owner Rohan Sharma, meanwhile, stated on X that the club hasn’t shut down. “Key staff members are retained, our women’s team will be operational. However, it becomes harder to justify to my stakeholders to sink Crs (crores) upon Crs with nothing to show for it, and no end in sight,” he said. “We didn’t go into this offseason planning to take this step. In fact we had made 5 signings until it became clear things are delayed.”
The FSDL said in a letter to all ISL clubs in early July that the 2025/26 season of the league has been put on hold amid uncertainty over the renewal of the Master Rights Agreement (MRA) between the Reliance subsidiary and the AIFF. The ISL usually runs from September to April and the current MRA ends on December 8, 2025, in the third month of the league.
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