AIFF’s Draft Constitution Governance Reform Moves Parallel To ISL Crisis

The football world in India is facing an outbreak of crisis situation as Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) has decided to freeze the 2025-26 season of the Indian Super League (ISL) over the contract renewal between the Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) citing the Master Rights Agreement (MRA) which comes to an end in December, 2022. Prompted by the stoppage on 11 July, the stoppage has produced direct upheavals, with clubs cutting operations and stalling wages.

ISL Clubs to AIFF

On livelihood concerns, eleven ISL clubs, including Bengaluru FC, Hyderabad FC, Kerala Blasters, FC Goa, Chennaiyin FC, Jamshedpur FC, Odisha FC, Mumbai City FC, NorthEast United FC, Punjab FC, and Mohammedan Sporting, wrote to AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey, threatening an existential crisis and a possibility of getting shut down due to the delay. The clubs highlighted the way this standstill poses risk to youth development, the income and how India can be ready to host continental games.

Supreme Court and AIFF

In reaction to this crisis, the Supreme Court has moved the hearing to 22 August and a bench led by Justices PS Narasimha and AS Chandurkar will hear the dispute between AIFF and FSDL. Senior advocate and amicus curiae Gopal Sankaranarayanan asked the court to impose the obligations under the contract, informing that FSDL has to make the ISL go on as long as MRA is in office and in the event the former does not, AIFF must terminate the contract and negotiate a new tender to avoid any action by FIFA.

As a matter of urgency, there are reports that the Supreme Court bench stated that it is almost close to approving the judgment and this could be with decisiveness as to whether ISL season will go on or football operations in the country will continue to be in a paralyzed condition.
This court battle coincides with the implementation of wider governance change in Indian football. In April, the Court already reserved judgment on the draft constitution prepared by AIFF, which has provisions on term limits, a mandatory retirement age, age and gender balanced representation, a mechanism of no confidence removal among other features of the constitution that is meant to bring it to the standards of FIFA. 

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