End of rights deal adds to AIFF crisis

calcutta: The accord betwixt All bharat football game Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner ended at midnight on Monday. The absence of a new deal has made the 2025-26 Indian Super League (ISL) season uncertain and is a huge blow to AIFF’s finances, which in turn will affect how it conducts competitions. A timeline on the crisis.

How did it begin?

On December 9, 2010, AIFF signed IMG Reliance as its commercial partner for 15 years in a deal approximately worth ₹700 crore. “It’s time football generated this kind of money,” Kushal Das, then AIFF general secretary, had told HT. The deal included all AIFF properties. The agreement, IMG had said in its website, promised to “radically restructure, overhaul, improve, popularize and promote the game of football throughout India…” Included in the deal was the right to start a league.

Was AIFF paid the entire amount at one go?

No. For the first two years, AIFF got approximately ₹31 crore per year. From 2012 to 2015, the amount was increased to nearly ₹38 crore. From 2016 to 2025, it was ₹50 crore annually. In 2010, IMG Reliance also paid ₹70 crore to buy out AIFF’s agreement with its previous commercial partner.

Why was the end of the agreement not timed with the end of the football season?

It is a question that has returned to haunt AIFF. The office-bearers have changed but it needs to be highlighted that at no point since the start of the National Football League in 1996-97 has the season ended by December 8. Had the agreement been till the end of 2025-26, ISL would not have been paused like it is now.

How did the two-month tournament become India’s main league?

That happened in 2019-20. In 2017-18, ISL, which began with eight teams in 2014, expanded to 10 teams with Bengaluru FC and Jamshedpur FC and became a six-month long event. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) was not okay with two leagues in one country. In 2019, AFC met stakeholders in the game in India and on October 26, AIFF announced that AFC had at its executive committee meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam approved ISL as India’s top league. In 2020, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan became part of ISL.

In 2023-24, ISL allowed I-League winners Punjab FC to join. Next season, it was Mohammedan Sporting who qualified by winning the I-League, making ISL a 13-team affair. Inter Kashi, winners of I-League in 2024-25, have qualified to the top tier for 2025-26.

So, why has the 2025-26 season not started?

One of the contentions in the AIFF constitution case, which began in 2017 in the Supreme Court, was that the country’s top league should be owned and operated by the national federation. AIFF had argued that it had to honour the contract with its commercial partners and so ISL continued unhindered even as the matter was being heard in the apex court. With a new AIFF constitution and the need for a new deal, that changed ahead of the new season.

Couldn’t AIFF and its commercial partners renew the agreement?

Less than a year after Kalyan Chaubey took over as president, AIFF and FSDL officials had met in 2023 to discuss the future. On September 19, 2024, nearly 15 months before the MRA’s expiration, AIFF wrote to FSDL seeking a discussion. The Master Rights Agreement (MRA) gave commercial partners, now known as Football Sports Development Limited and promoted by Reliance Group, the first right of refusal. (Last August, following a meeting with AIFF, FSDL told the apex court it would give up that right).

What happened then?

Nothing. So, AIFF sent a follow-up letter on November 21, 2024. And one on January 24, 2025 saying that its officials were willing to go to Mumbai to meet with FSDL representatives. The first meeting took place on February 5 and there were two more in March.

FSDL sent a “draft document for discussion” titled “ISL Way Forward” to AIFF in March. It proposed a joint-venture company to run ISL with AIFF having 14% stake, the clubs 60% and FSDL 26%. AIFF would get no minimum guarantee amount and there would be no promotion or relegation for 10 years. (This went against what AIFF had agreed with AFC at the 2019 meeting of all stakeholders). As per the document, the new deal was to be announced by April 30, 2025.

So, what was the problem?

Well, AIFF didn’t agree to a proposal without a minimum guarantee. Before 2024-25 ISL ended, it formed a task force to take the negotiations forward. As this was happening, on April 26 Supreme Court observed that no major decision be taken till its verdict on the AIFF constitution case. Negotiations between FSDL and AIFF paused. On July 11, FSDL wrote to clubs saying the league will be on hold since “potential renewal of the MRA remain inconclusive at this time”.

The SC verdict on the AIFF statute is out. So, why hasn’t ISL started?

Because no one was willing to be the commercial partner. The terms of agreement in the Request for Proposal (RFP), aligned with the SC-approved constitution which AIFF fully adopted on November 25, were not deemed viable by prospective bidders, including FSDL. The feedback from the bidders was conveyed to the apex court on November 20. The next day, the court asked the Union government to find a way.

The Union sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya met representatives of ISL and I-League clubs and also prospective bidders on December 3 and said a solution would be found soon. On December 5, 12 ISL clubs wrote to Chaubey asking for a re-tender of ISL’s commercial rights, failing which AIFF could consider letting ISL clubs form a consortium and run the league.

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