The Indian football is at the turning point with unresolved legal and administrative gridlocks that keep stalling Indian Super League (ISL). The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has listed the matter in the Supreme Court of India on August 18 in order to discuss the paralyzed Master Rights Agreement (MRA) with Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL) and to get judicial direction to restart operations.
Unpaid players and ISL 2025
Another affidavit will also be filed to enlighten the Court on effects of the National Sports Governance Bill, which was recently passed by Parliament. In the interim, Amici Curiae Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Samar Bansal, raised urgent issues before the bench in the form of unpaid players and looming deadline of December 8, 2025 by which the MRA is to expire, which would make a complete ISL season financially impossible.
Next hearing scheduled on?
The SC bench that consisted of Justices P. S. Narasimha and Atul Chandurkar referred to the fact that there was the need to collect the opinions on the new sports law before the final drafting of the constitution of the AIFF. An important hearing on this case has also been scheduled on 22nd August, 2025 at 2:00 PM to which the bench has requested the stakeholders to present their responses. The verdict was to be announced before December 8 and that gave some hope as to how the next season had to be structured against the conventional September to April ISL window.
New constitution of AIFF?
The paralysis is propagated by a prior ruling of the Supreme Court that no such important moves are to be undertaken including renewal of the MRA until the new constitution of the AIFF is established. Talks between AIFF and FSDL are currently at a standstill, thus the 11 ISL clubs have written to the federation urgently seeking its intervention, threatening the federation that failure to solve the current impasse will result in financial collapse, loss of livelihoods and destruction of the ecosystem of Indian football.
A new dimension of complexity is brought on by the enactment of the National Sports Governance Act, 2025, introducing such judicial instruments as the National Sports Board and Sports Tribunal. Its contemplated notice can radically change the norms of governance, within which AIFF is functioning.
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