The All India Football Federation (AIFF), the governing body for soccer in the country, has launched a new tender for the media rights to its Indian Super League (ISL) competition, which it is aiming to restart in February.
This request for proposal (RFP) has a deadline of February 1, with prospective bidders needing to submit their applications directly to the AIFF.
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The body is operating this media rights tender directly, after failing to secure a master rights holder to run the league for the 2025-26 campaign, hence the delayed start and the fact that no football has been played yet.
On October 16, the AIFF launched a tender to find a new operator for the ISL with a 15-year mandate, covering media rights, sponsorship, merchandising, digital, and more, but that tender failed to attract a single bidder.
Since then, the body has been guided by the country’s supreme court on the next steps, and has now taken it upon itself to run the RFP for the first time in league history.
The ISL has been suspended since July, when Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), the operator and commercial partner of the competition, stepped back from its role.
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By GlobalDataUnder that agreement, FSDL paid 50 crore Rupees (US$5.8 million) per year for the total commercial and operations rights for the competition, as well as the Indian national team.
As many as four commercial groups attended a pre-bid meeting surrounding the tender, including FSDL, broadcaster FanCode, and an overseas investment firm, but issues surrounding the competition’s long-term viability have seemingly warded off any concrete interest.
FanCode, which has invested heavily in international soccer rights, is a likely bidder for this latest RFP, if a price can be reached.
In reality, the rights fee will be meager, a reflection of interest in the domestic competition in the country, when compared to more attractive international competitions.
The fact that the AIFF was unable to find a single bidder for the master rights agreement for $5.8 million per year, in a country where rights for the Indian Premier League cricket competition can command in excess of $600 million per year, is reflective of where soccer sits in the national consciousness, outside of certain strongholds like the Bengal region.
This is already having a concerted negative effect on the sport’s Indian landscape beyond just the lack of soccer being played.
Investors have divested from the league in recent months as the lack of financial stability has grown ever more concerning.
City Football Group, the multi-club ownership organization that controls English giants Manchester City, among others, divested from its investment in the Mumbai City FC club back in December, citing “ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of the ISL”.
While the ISL’s 14 constituent clubs have approved the plans for the shortened season, and those plans have been approved by the continent’s Asian Football Confederation governing body, that same body has said that direct entry into the continental AFC Champions League 2 tournament will no longer be possible.
Indeed, the plans, which include 13 ISL games and three Indian Super Cup games per team, making it 16 in all, mean that teams will not have completed a mandatory minimum for direct qualification of 24 games, and instead will have to navigate qualifying rounds, which will likely prove difficult for teams now lacking a year of football.
