Worried ISL clubs seek status check and direction from AIFF

Panaji: The uncertainty surrounding the start, or even the future, of the Indian Super League (ISL) has prompted eight clubs to collectively write to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) “with a sense of shared concern and responsibility towards the current status and direction of Indian football.

”This season’s edition of ISL was marked to kick off from Sept 14. However, FSDL, the federation’s marketing partners and owners of the league, has kept the country’s top-tier football league on hold due to lack of clarity over the 15-year Master Rights Agreement (MRA) that ends on Dec 8 later this year.“In the absence of proper interaction and a lack of taking clubs into confidence, either from the AIFF or its commercial rights holder, clubs now find themselves unable to plan with the level of visibility and certainty that professional football operations require,” the eight clubs wrote in a letter to AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey on Tuesday.“This has impacted not just short-term decisions but is now beginning to affect the structural backbone of our institutions,” they added.The clubs who have called for a "constructive dialogue" with the AIFF president and a meeting at the earliest include Bengaluru FC, Jamshedpur FC, FC Goa, Hyderabad FC, Kerala Blasters FC, NorthEast United FC, Odisha FC and Punjab FC. The three Kolkata giants – Mohun Bagan Super Giant, East Bengal, Mohammedan Sporting – have not signed the letter, while Mumbai City FC and Chennaiyin FC have also stayed away.

The eight clubs said activities such as youth development, player recruitment, staffing, budgeting, and grassroots programming, all of which require months of advance planning, have become increasingly difficult to sustain. “The longer this uncertainty continues, the greater the risk that years of hard-won progress may begin to unravel.“Worryingly, most clubs have also been forced to paralyse their youth operations due to the current climate; halting scouting, coaching, and academy-related activities.

This puts at risk the very developmental structures that have taken years to build and which were intended to serve as a long-term pipeline for Indian football talent.”The clubs have said a constructive dialogue between the AIFF and the participating clubs is critical.“Our intent is to understand—and to contribute wherever possible to—the process of resolution. As clubs, we remain deeply committed to the growth of the game in India and are prepared to work with the governing body to overcome the current challenges,” the clubs said.Last week, Chaubey assured franchises, players, coaches and other stakeholders that the ISL would take place this season, potentially with a slight delay due to ongoing litigation in the Supreme Court. In April this year, the apex court had verbally asked the AIFF not to take any decision on the renewal of the MRA until the final order.