Mandaviya promises end to Indian football ‘stalemate’

Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stepped in to resolve the crisis in Indian football by holding meetings with its many stakeholders in New Delhi on Wednesday (December 3, 2025), promising a way out of the ongoing policy paralysis and state of financial disaster but not before asking pointed questions on what led to the current situation.

The meetings featured All India Football Federation’s under-fire president Kalyan Chaubey, representatives of the currently on-hold Indian Super League clubs and I League clubs, prospective commercial partners, Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), which is AIFF’s commercial partner till December 8, and some OTT platforms like Fancode.

“The Minister heard all the stakeholders and took down their inputs. He has made it clear that the stalemate will not continue for long now and a plan to end the deadlock will be out in the next few days. Today’s meeting was about taking stock and listening to everyone’s versions,” a Ministry source told PTI.

An official, who attended the meeting, said the Minister started by asking how Indian football ended up in such a mess, a question which did not fetch any clear answers from those present.

“Minister asked ‘Why is indian football facing a situation where nobody is willing to become its commercial partner?’ Ranjit Bajaj, who runs I-League club Delhi FC, said one of the big reasons is that not enough has been done for grassroots development,” said an official.

A Ministry source later confirmed that Mr. Mandaviya did in fact grill the AIFF officials and club representatives on why the situation was allowed to “spiral out of control.”

Indian domestic football plunged into chaos after FSDL informed the AIFF in July that it was keeping the country’s top-tier league, the ISL, on hold due to a lack of clarity over the renewal of the 15-year Master Rights Agreement (MRA) that ends on December 8.

Supreme Court appointed (Retd) Justice Nageswara Rao to oversee the hunt for a new commercial partner.

But after the tender for ISL’s commercial rights got no takers, Justice Rao recommended to the Supreme Court to strike a balance between “preserving” the AIFF’s authority and keeping in mind prospective bidders’ commercial interests as the current set-up does not give them a say in the running of league operations.

In Wednesday’s (December 3) meeting, the Minister once again urged the stakeholders to try and tide over their differences.

“It was a marathon meeting…all the representatives of stakeholders including Kalyan Chaubey met with Mr. Mandaviya chairing the meeting. KPMG (hired by AIFF to draft the bid document) was also there,” said a football official who attended the meeting.

“The prospective bidders said that it won’t be commercially viable for them to bid for ISL commercial rights under the current terms of tender. The Ministry will decide the way forward. The financial model and structural issues were discussed,” he added.

Bajaj raised the issue of I League’s diminished stature compared to ISL.

“The big clubs and the small clubs are not growing together. For example, ideally, when big clubs buy promising players from the smaller clubs, the money earned from the deal helps the smaller clubs to develop and grow. That is not really the case here,” he pointed out.

“Focus seems to be more on holding football matches in big cities instead of taking the game to the small towns and hinterland where the game attracts a lot more interest among people,” he said.

There was a suggestion by I-League clubs representatives, including Bajaj, to host one unified league.

The under-scrutiny FSDL reiterated that “Indian football is not financially viable.”

“FSDL has given ₹2 crore each to all ISL franchises annually…why are they still failing to supply enough players to the national team?” asked another official present in the meeting.

Mr. Chaubey, on his part, pointed out the high cost that the federation has to endure while hosting more than 20 tournaments in a year including age group tournaments for both boys and girls.

It is learnt that the AIFF raised the idea of a reduction in the annual minimum guaranteed payment to it to improve the prospect of finding a commercial partner to run the league if financial support from the government is assured. But the Minister did not react to it in the meeting.