ISL owners contest AIFF tender
ISL club owners have pushed back against the AIFF's tender process and are seeking a formal role in decision-making over the league's commercial future. The owners argue that choices affecting investment and long-term sustainability should not be treated as routine operational matters, creating a governance dispute between clubs and the federation. (khelnow.com)
Indian Super League club owners have challenged the All India Football Federation’s handling of the league’s commercial-rights tender and asked for a formal seat at the table. (khelnow.com) In a letter sent Friday to AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey, 13 of the league’s 14 owners said they were “not fully satisfied” with the recent process and proposed a club working committee to negotiate in a “structured and transparent” way. Inter Kashi was the only club not listed among the signatories. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) The owners named Bhavesh Jindal or Dhruv Sood of SC Delhi, Nikhil Nimmagadda of Kerala Blasters and Rohan Sharma of Odisha FC for that committee, alongside executives from FC Goa, Chennaiyin FC, Bengaluru FC and Mohun Bagan Super Giant. The letter landed two days after AIFF formed an Indian Super League Governing Council and asked the remaining six clubs to send nominees by Friday. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com; khelnow.com) The fight is over who gets to shape the league’s next long-term business deal after the old Football Sports Development Limited arrangement began unwinding. AIFF’s 2010 Master Rights Agreement with Football Sports Development Limited was due to expire on December 8, 2025, after a 15-year term. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com; sportstar.thehindu.com) That expiry threw the 2025-26 season into chaos. Football Sports Development Limited put the season on hold on July 11, 2025 amid uncertainty over renewal terms, and AIFF later reset the campaign to start on February 14, 2026 in a single-leg format with 14 teams. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com; the-aiff.com) AIFF has been running parallel tenders while trying to rebuild the league’s commercial structure. It issued an Indian Super League media-rights tender for the 2025-26 season in January, then invited bids on March 2 for commercial rights packages beginning in 2026-27 with a minimum term of 15 years and an option to extend to 20. (the-aiff.com; hindustantimes.com) The earlier 15-year roadmap released by AIFF in October said bids would be reviewed by a committee that included Justice L. Nageswara Rao, Chaubey and independent member Kesvaran Murugasu. That document also said the new rights holder would monetize the league’s commercial rights while the federation, under the new constitution, would run the competition. (sportstar.thehindu.com) Club owners are now pushing back against being treated as bystanders in that process. In their letter, they said long-term financial and strategic decisions should be aligned with club ownership because the clubs are the “primary investors and long-term stakeholders” in the league. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com; khelnow.com) AIFF has not publicly accepted the owners’ demand for a formal veto or co-decision role, but Chaubey had said earlier this month that clubs are “important stakeholders” and that the federation welcomed a meeting proposal from them. The federation has also been building a new governance structure in which clubs get representation on the Governing Council. (hindustantimes.com; sportstar.thehindu.com) For now, the standoff is less about one tender than about who controls Indian football’s top league after the old FSDL era. The next test is whether AIFF folds the owners into the commercial talks before it locks in the league’s next long-term rights deal. (khelnow.com; hindustantimes.com)
