The troubled 2025-26 season of the Indian Super League (ISL) could begin in December this year, according to a joint proposal submitted by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and their current marketing partner the Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) before the Supreme Court on Thursday. Additionally, the proposal has also said that the overall football season will begin with the Super Cup.
While senior advocate Neeraj Kaul, representing the Football Sports Development League (FSDL), said that the Super Cup could be conducted in September, there is no mention of the month in which the tournament could be held in the proposal itself.
The proposal also states that the AIFF will conduct a tender for the selection of a commercial partner to conduct the ISL and that the process will be concluded on October 15. “Such process will be conducted in conformity with the National Sports Development Code 2011, the National Sports Governance Act 2025, the AIFF Constitution, and applicable FIFA/Asian Football Confederation (AFC) regulations. “The process may be managed by an independent professional firm of repute, such as one of the ‘Big Four’ or an entity of equivalent standing.”
The Court on its part asked all parties involved to “reflect” on the proposal. It added that the final judgement in the matter, involving the AIFF constitution, will be delivered on Monday.
Crucially, the FSDL — a joint venture between Reliance Industries and Star India — has said that it is ready to waive its “contractual Right of First Negotiation and Right to Match under the MRA dated 08 December 2010” and that it will “Issue a No Objection Certificate to AIFF for the conduct of an open, competitive and transparent tender (or equivalent process)”.
This opens the door for other potential sponsors to take up the role of being the AIFF’s chief commercial partner for running the league, something that FSDL has been doing in one form or another since its inception. The FSDL, however, can still stay in the role if they outbid any other player during the tender process. The FSDL also said that it will “not object to the exercise of rights in relation to the ISL by any new rights holder (if any) during the subsistence of the MRA.”
FSDL’s waiver a potential ‘game-changer’
An AIFF official told The Indian Express that the FSDL effectively clearing the path for potential bidders is a ‘game-changer’ and that there is optimism over interest from new parties despite the crippling issues that have dogged Indian football in the past few years.
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“Earlier, the FSDL would have had the right to match the bid from any other bidder. Now, it’s a totally new thing. But first, let the court accept this proposal. I am not saying there is no interest (in ISL)… 100 per cent there will be because this is the next biggest league after the IPL,” the official said.
The submission of the joint proposal by the AIFF and FSDL comes just days after FIFA, the sport’s global governing body, threatened to suspend India over the delayed implementation of the federation’s, which is at the core of the case in the Supreme Court. FIFA said in a letter to the AIFF that a ‘continued failure to finalise and implement the revised Constitution of the All India Football Federation’ has led to an ‘untenable vacuum and legal uncertainties’ in Indian football.
The Court had reserved its order on the matter in April and verbally advised AIFF not to undertake any major decisions before it was announced. This stalled negotiations between the federation and the FSDL over a new MRA, with the current one ending in December which would have been about a month and a half into the 2025/26 season of the ISL. This led to the league itself being indefinitely postponed, in turn leading to some clubs suspending salaries of first-team players and coaching staff.
The situation resulted in alarm bells ringing beyond Indian football. FIFPro, the global representative organisation for football players, first expressed its concerns in a letter to the AIFF and then in a public statement. FIFA said in its strongly worded letter addressed to federation president Kalyan Chaubey that it had received feedback from FIFPRO.
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“The resulting lack of financial stability has had a profoundly negative impact on India’s football ecosystem, particularly affecting footballers employed by clubs participating in the Indian Super League (ISL), which is organised under the auspices of the AIFF. We have received concerning reports from FIFPRO of the unilateral termination of players’ employment contracts by various clubs, as a direct consequence of the current impasse, affecting the players’ livelihoods and careers,” it said.
