11 Years On, Has the Indian Super League Failed Indian Football?

The launch of the Indian Super League in 2014 was meant to elevate the profile of the sport in the country. And for a fleeting period, the hype was real. Leading — albeit ageing — football stars from the 1990s and 2000s, and a mix of Indian cinema and cricket, helped establish an entertaining product. The three-month-long competition, which wasn’t recognised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) then, proved to be an instant hit.

But once the novelty factor wore off and the glitz was stripped away, the league struggled to reach the heights of its initial years. While the ISL brought about improved standards and professionalism, the popularity of the league has dwindled after 11 seasons.

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Ballooning costs

The first season of the ISL, which had eight new teams, saw an average attendance of 25,408. But in the recently concluded season, despite boasting the iconic Kolkata outfits of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, the numbers dropped to 11,084.

High operational costs, poor gate revenue, and diminishing broadcast numbers mean clubs have struggled to make it a profitable venture. In 2014, ISL’s TV viewership amounted to 429 million, but the cumulative numbers for TV and digital platforms fell to around 130 million for 2024-25.

“Though clubs in the UK or Germany function this way, it becomes much more challenging for Indian clubs to follow that blueprint because of the cost that comes in, and the return on investment is almost negligible,” a source told  Sportstar. An estimated expenditure of a mid-table ISL club last season was close to ₹60 crore, with nearly half the amount written off as a loss in the balance sheet. An ISL team receives around ₹13–16 crore annually from the central revenue pool of the league. In comparison, an Indian Premier League (IPL) team receives a whopping ₹425 crore.

Of the eight original franchises, only five remain standing. FC Pune City shut operations due to financial woes, Delhi Dynamos moved base to Odisha to lower expenses, and three-time champion ATK made way for the entry of Mohun Bagan into the ISL, when the league was granted top-tier status.

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“When Delhi Dynamos shifted to Odisha, the government offered the stadium for free. That’s a major chunk of operational cost gone. A lot of sponsors also came in through the government. That really helped the club manage their finances,” another source added. “Also, manpower was reasonably cheaper than in Delhi because the cost of living in Odisha is lower.”

Another founding club, Chennaiyin FC — a two-time champion — has consistently flirted with the idea of shifting base due to its bloated operational costs.

Hyderabad FC, which absorbed the operations of Pune City after a takeover, also inherited the financial muddle caused by the original franchise run by the Wadhawan Group.

The club had been in the red, and despite multiple efforts to bring in investors, it never managed to break even in six years of its existence — even after winning the title in 2022.

Issues lingering on from FC Pune City’s holding company carried forward indirectly to HFC, and with the pandemic adding to the woes, the club struggled to break out of those shackles, playing with a constantly increasing financial burden year-on-year.

By the time HFC’s owners managed to figure out a solution — which included transferring franchise rights to a novated company — it was already knee-deep in losses. Without immediate financial injection, the club struggled to hold things together.

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“There were players, coaches whose salaries got delayed for quite some time,” a source said. “And after a point, players and staff started leaving, and the club was suffering from ballooning losses. The league should have acted earlier, but it seemed like they waited till the last minute to force the sale.”

The franchise has now shifted base to Delhi under new owners Jindal Football, who bought the franchise rights in August 2024 under the ambit of the BC Jindal Group. Legacy club Mohammedan SC’s participation in next season’s competition is still up in the air — and so is the fate of the league.

Entry of FSDL

The Master Rights Agreement (MRA), signed in 2010 by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), will expire in December this year.

“When IMG Reliance entered into the partnership with AIFF, it wasn’t just a financial transaction. It was a long-term commitment to revitalise Indian football. The objective was to bring in strong investors in the form of clubs and start a new league which can expand football’s fanbase in India, while also providing AIFF financial stability to work on grassroots and accelerate development of footballers,” a source told  Sportstar.

“In 2010, Indian football’s viewership had gone down to 15 million.  Zee had terminated the contract with AIFF, and at that point, this Master Rights Agreement was done.”

Chain reaction: The instability of the top division has coincided with arguably the worst 18 months for the national team. 
| Photo Credit:
FSDL/Focus Sports

Sources claim that the AIFF, over the years, has received over ₹600 crore from FSDL and ISL directly. Other investments made into the league add up to around ₹5,000 crore.

Despite the alleged investment, many clubs in the ISL have struggled financially.

“When you’re making a loss and there is no support from investors, whether you fall from 300 feet or 40,000 feet, you’re going to die. Despite being in a good financial year, the investments didn’t come through, so the club had to shift to Hyderabad,” says Gaurav Modwel, former CEO of FC Pune City, which went defunct in 2019.

Since the introduction of the ISL, Pune City was the fourth team to shut operations in the city in the space of five years. Three I-League clubs — DSK Shivajians, Bharat FC and Pune FC — have also been dissolved.

“It was difficult to get people to invest at the ISL level. We had advanced discussions with a couple of large partners, but eventually, it came down to the fact that Pune wasn’t a footballing city. There were no home-grown names in football at that time,” says Modwel.

While Modwel defends the good practices that ISL enforced in Indian football, he feels the poor checks and regulations on the salary cap rule have deteriorated the health of the franchises.

Bloated fees

“One of the main expenses that has shot up is the Indian player fee. The [squad salary cap rule] should have been firmly implemented. Many clubs spoke about how we could control some clubs flaunting this — referred to as the ‘ghost salaries’. Clubs would employ family members of players and pay them separately. The stated policy was to control this, but it wasn’t. The fear was that these are big business houses that want to win, and there was also fan pressure to win. Eventually, every team will succumb to the pressure of spending more to get players in and perform better,” says Modwel.

Close to 60 per cent of a club’s operational costs each season go into paying the fees of players and coaches. Since 2020, the Indian football transfer record has been broken six times — the last four involving the acquisition of Indian players. Bagan’s next reported big-summer signing will likely be a 20-year-old full-back, who has made 34 appearances in the top flight, for ₹2 crore — making it the fourth-most expensive signing.

The biggest beneficiaries of the ISL have been players and coaches, according to a top club official. The inflated player market has also led to bloated wages. “Indian player salaries have skyrocketed. It’s 8–10 times what they would draw outside of India,” says Modwel.

FC Goa’s CEO Ravi Puskur admitted that clubs need to take responsibility for the state of the current transfer market. “Clubs — mine included — have inflated player salaries irresponsibly. We are outbidding each other for perception, knowing fully well it’s unsustainable. Then we act shocked when these players fall flat on the international stage. We built that illusion,” he posted on  X, after the men’s national team’s loss to Hong Kong in the Asian Cup qualifier in June.

State of limbo

As it stands, clubs are in a state of limbo over the future of the ISL. With less than three months to go before the supposed start of the ISL, there is no agreement yet over the new MRA among ISL clubs, FSDL and the AIFF. A club official noted that ISL clubs are wary of the proposed five per cent share of the broadcast rights revenue in the new deal. The new MRA has also cast doubt over the promotion of a new team from the I-League for the next five years, while also advocating for no relegation for another 10 years.

Mohammedan’s struggles to cope with the financial model that comes with promotion to the ISL have been cited as an example to maintain a closed league. “If you compare India’s football pyramid to the UK, it’s almost inverted. In India, the ISL had 13 teams last year. The I-League had 12–13 teams last year. I-League 2 and I-League 3 are just 2–3 months long,” a source said. “FSDL is confident that until the pyramid is fixed, good clubs will not come through promotion into the ISL. It will take time and when it feels confident, it will integrate ISL with the tiers below.”

While the ISL’s play-off system keeps the league competitive, there is no added motivation for bottom-rung teams to avoid the financial disparity that comes with relegation.

On a sticky pitch: As it stands, clubs are in a state of limbo over the future of the ISL. With less than three months to go before the supposed start of the ISL, there is no agreement yet over the new MRA among ISL clubs, FSDL and the AIFF.
| Photo Credit:
FSDL/Focus Sports

Lack of games

The first season of the ISL, which followed the league and play-off format of the IPL, was held over three months with just 61 matches. In contrast, the I-League was contested in a league format with 156 games across seven months. For the ISL to gain recognition as the top-flight league, it had to transition to a longer season and introduce promotion and relegation, as recommended by the AFC’s roadmap. The latest ISL season was a 13-team affair with 163 matches, including the play-offs. In comparison, the top-ranked AFC team Japan’s J-League has 380 matches; second-ranked Iran’s Persian Gulf Pro League plays 161 matches; South Korea’s top flight has 228; and Australia’s league has 176.

Faltering national team

The instability of the top division has coincided with arguably the worst 18 months for the national team. The professional standards and overseas expertise that ISL introduced were meant to usher in improved performances, but the last decade has been a mixed bag. Two consecutive Asian Cup appearances in 2019 and 2023 notwithstanding, the Blue Tigers have failed to make a mark internationally.

With no competitive win since November 2023, India risks missing out on Asian Cup qualification.

Eleven years ago, the ISL was Indian football’s grandest carnival. What remains now is a league gasping for air.

As the clock ticks towards the expiry of its very foundation — the MRA — the question that hangs heavy in the air is: Did the league fail Indian football, or was Indian football never ready for the ISL?