All the 14 Indian Super League (ISL) clubs have confirmed the participation in the delayed 2025-26 season after writing to All India Football Federation (AIFF). The confirmation from the clubs would clear the uncertainty around the start of a truncated top-flight season starting on February 14.
Earlier last week on January 6, Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had announced that the ISL, which has been on hold due to the absence of a commercial partner, would start on February 14, with all the 14 clubs taking part in it.
However, as reported by The Indian Express, only 10 clubs had confirmed by then and it was a verbal confirmation. But now all the clubs have formally confirmed their participation as per a PTI report.
The top-tier ISL will feature 91 matches on a home-and-away basis. AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey had earlier said that a Governing Council Board would be formed to manage the league and it would be “empowered to take all commercial decisions.”
On Saturday, the AIFF had asked the clubs to send the details of the venues where they plan to play their home matches by Monday noon to start working on the fixture and finalise broadcast and commercial rights partners.
“AIFF (will) share the draft of the framework for the governance of ISL, the draft RFPs to appoint broadcast and commercial rights partners for the 2025-26 season, seek exemption from the AFC (regarding ACL 2 slots), start work on fixtures and other allied matters, and start preparation of participation agreements to be entered with the clubs,” the AIFF had said in a letter to the clubs.
The proposed budget of the truncated season is Rs 24.26 crore with AIFF contributing Rs 9.77 crore and each club paying Rs 1 crore.
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The ISL 2025-26 has been in a limbo since the AIFF’s commercial partner FSDL, owned by the Reliance Group, put it on hold last July due to uncertainty over the Master Rights Agreement (MRA) between the two parties. The MRA ended on December 8, 2025 as negotiations fell through.
Later, a tender was floated for the selection of a commercial rights partner under the supervision of a Supreme Court-appointed committee, but to the AIFF’s embarrassment, there were no takers for it
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
