The All India Football Federation (AIFF), the governing body for football in India, has launched a new tender for the media rights to its Indian Super League (ISL) competition. The move comes as part of an effort to restart the league in February 2025, following a suspension since July.
The AIFF is operating this media rights tender directly after failing to secure a master rights holder for the 2025-26 campaign. This failure led to a delayed start and no football being played yet. The request for proposal (RFP) has been set with a deadline of February 1, requiring prospective bidders to submit their applications directly to the AIFF.
Previously on October 16, AIFF had launched another tender seeking an operator with a 15-year mandate covering areas such as media rights, sponsorship, merchandising and digital among others. However, this attempt failed as it did not attract any bidder.
Supreme Court guidance and first-time RFP operation
Following these setbacks, guidance from India's supreme court led the federation towards running its own RFP process - marking it as an unprecedented move in league history. This decision came after Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), which was previously responsible for operating and commercializing ISL stepped back from its role. Under FSDL's agreement they paid INR 50 crore ($5.8 million) per year covering total commercial and operations rights including those of Indian national team.
Despite challenges surrounding long-term viability that have deterred interest so far; FanCode - known for investing heavily in international football rights - is considered likely contender if price negotiations are successful.
However, given that domestic competitions are less attractive compared with international ones within India; it is expected that bidding prices will be relatively low. This is evident from the fact that AIFF failed to find a bidder for the master rights agreement at $5.8 million per year, while cricket's Indian Premier League can command over $600 million annually.
Impact on football landscape in India
The lack of interest and financial stability has led to investors divesting from the league, impacting football's landscape in India negatively. City Football Group, which owns English giants Manchester City among others, withdrew its investment from Mumbai City FC club citing "ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of ISL".
Moreover, plans for a shortened season have been approved by ISL’s 14 constituent clubs and Asian Football Confederation governing body. However, direct entry into AFC Champions League 2 tournament will no longer be possible due to teams not meeting mandatory minimum qualification of 24 games.
While AIFF's self-run media rights tender marks a new chapter for ISL; it also highlights challenges faced by football in India - both financially and in terms of popularity compared with other sports like cricket.
