Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stepped in to address the crisis in Indian football by holding multi-stakeholder meetings here on Wednesday and promising a way out of the ongoing political paralysis and state of financial disaster, but not before asking pointed questions about what led to the current situation.
All India Football Federation President Kalyan Chaubey, representatives of the currently suspended Indian Super League and I League clubs, potential commercial partners, Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), which is a commercial partner of the AIFF till December 8, and some OTT platforms such as Fancode, spoke under fire at the meetings.
“The minister heard all the stakeholders and took their submissions. He made it clear that the deadlock will not continue for long now and the plan to end the deadlock will be announced in the coming days. Today’s meeting was about evaluating and listening to everyone’s versions,” a ministry source told PTI.
An official who attended the meeting said the minister began by asking how Indian football ended up in such chaos, a question that did not elicit any clear answers from those present.
“The minister asked ‘Why is Indian football facing a situation where no one is willing to become its commercial partner?’ Ranjit Bajaj, who heads I-League club Delhi FC, said one of the main reasons is that not enough has been done for development at the grassroots level,” the official said.
A ministry source later confirmed that Mandaviya had in fact complained to AIFF officials and club representatives as to why the situation might have “spinned out of control”.
Indian domestic football was thrown into chaos after the FSDL informed the AIFF in July that it was keeping the country’s top league, the ISL, suspended due to confusion over the renewal of the 15-year Main Rights Agreement (MRA), which expires on 8 December.
The Supreme Court appointed (retired) Justice Nageswara Rao to oversee the hunt for a new commercial partner.
But after a tender for the ISL’s commercial rights failed to attract any bidders, Justice Rao advised the Supreme Court to strike a balance between “preserving” the AIFF’s authority and keeping in mind the commercial interests of potential bidders, as the current set-up does not give them a say in running the league’s operations.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the minister again called on the parties involved to try to resolve their differences.
“It was a marathon meeting…all stakeholders including Kalyan Chaubey met Mandaviya who chaired the meeting. KPMG (hired by AIFF to prepare the bid document) was also there,” said a football official who attended the meeting.
“Potential bidders have indicated that it will not be commercially viable for them to bid for ISL’s commercial rights under the current tender conditions. The ministry will decide on the next course of action. The financial model and structural issues were discussed,” he added.
Bajaj raised the issue of the diminished status of the I League compared to the ISL.
“Big clubs and small clubs don’t grow together. For example, ideally, when big clubs buy promising players from smaller clubs, the money earned from the trade will help the smaller clubs develop and grow. That’s not really the case here,” he pointed out.
“We seem to be focusing more on hosting football matches in big cities instead of taking the game to small towns and hinterlands where the game attracts much more interest from people,” he said.
The representatives of the I-League clubs including Bajaj proposed to organize one unified league.
Under the supervision of the FSDL, he reiterated that “Indian football is not financially viable”.
“FSDL gives 2 million rupees every year to all ISL franchises…why are they still failing to supply enough players to the national team?” asked another official present at the meeting.
Chaubey, on his part, pointed to the high costs that the federation has to bear in organizing more than 20 tournaments a year, including age-group tournaments for both boys and girls.
It is learned that the AIFF has mooted the idea of reducing the annual minimum guaranteed payment to improve the prospect of finding a commercial partner to run the league if financial support is secured from the government. But the minister did not respond to that at the meeting.
– The end
Issued by:
Amar Panicker
Published on:
December 3, 2025
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