It has now been 215 days since a ball was last kicked in an Indian Super League (ISL) match. This long gap equals 59% of the year. In this time, three IPL seasons or even multiple international events could have taken place.
Yet India’s top football league remains suspended. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has not been able to perform its most important job, running the league. The situation is the result of years of confusion, delays, and poor decision-making.
Many clubs, players, and fans are left frustrated. To understand the crisis, it is important to look back at how everything unfolded.
How Indian football reached this point?
The story begins in 2010. That year, Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) became the AIFF’s commercial partner through a 15-year Master Rights Agreement (MRA). FSDL handled the ISL smoothly from 2014 onwards.
The agreement was supposed to end on December 8, 2025. Ideally, renewal talks should have started early. The AIFF says discussions began in November last year. But the first meeting with FSDL happened only in February 2025.
A new AIFF committee to handle the MRA talks was formed in April, two months after the first meeting. Just as talks restarted, the Supreme Court ruled that the AIFF could not enter into long-term agreements until further orders.
Because of this uncertainty, FSDL put the 2025-26 ISL season on hold. This pause continues today.
The issue goes deeper. It connects to a case filed in 2010 by Rahul Mehra. He argued that the AIFF’s elections violated the National Sports Code. The case moved through the Delhi High Court and then the Supreme Court over several years.
In 2022, the SC even replaced the AIFF’s Executive Committee with a Committee of Administrators. This resulted in a FIFA ban, which ended only after elections were held and the CoA was removed. In September this year, the SC gave new instructions.
It asked the AIFF to adopt a new constitution and to find a new commercial partner through an open tender. However, the tender failed. No company submitted a bid because the terms were not commercially workable.
Potential partners found the financial risk too high. The AIFF is now seeking further directions from the SC. The president, Kalyan Chaubey, has told club officials that the situation may improve by December. He hopes the ISL can start in January 2026.
But the delays have caused major damage. Players, clubs, academies, and grassroots coaches are suffering. Even India’s women’s and youth teams may face problems due to the lack of regular football. For now, Indian football waits without clarity, without matches, and without a clear future.
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