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AIFF gets no bidder for ISL; Bagan stop training
The sale of ISL commercial rights has failed, leading Mohun Bagan to suspend operations. AIFF seeks clarity amid concerns over future league conditions.
Kolkata: The sale of commercial rights of the Indian Super League (ISL) has found no takers putting at stake the future of the men’s top tier football competition.
The immediate effect of this was that ISL double champions Mohun Bagan Super Giant have decided to suspend first team operations with immediate effect. “The players were supposed to assemble on Monday and start training from Tuesday. But with no clarity on ISL, that has been stopped for now,” said a team official on Friday. Salaries of players and staff will not be stopped, the official said.
“No bids were received within the stipulated timeframe,” the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said in a media release. The deadline for submission for the 15-year agreement was 5pm on Friday.
“The AIFF Bid Evaluation Committee will convene over the weekend to review the situation and deliberate on the future course of action,” the release said.
The bid evaluation committee comprises former Supreme Court justice L. Nageswara Rao, AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey and Mr. Kesvaran Murugasu of the Asian Football Confederation as an independent member. The bid process for ISL is supervised by the Supreme Court.
While this lack of interest, even after AIFF changed the deadline from November 5 to November 7, is the grim reality in India of the world’s most popular sport, it is also bound to raise questions on the conditions set by AIFF in the bid document structured with the help of one of the world’s biggest accounting firms. As it will on why would any organisation want to commercial rights of a competition it cannot own.
As per the AIFF constitution, the top tier league shall be owned by the federation. “The Seniormost Top Division League shall mean the league competition owned, operated, and recognised by AIFF, that implements the principles of promotion and relegation, and meets all requirements prescribed by AFC for being eligible to obtain a direct slot in the Asian Champions League,” says the constitution approved by the Supreme Court and adopted by the AIFF on October 12.
The AIFF’s Request For Proposal (RFP) sought a minimum guaranteed payment of ₹37.5 crore per year or 5% of the gross revenue, whichever was higher. The document also states that the bidder or consortium, comprising no more than three members, must have ₹250 crore minimum net worth at the end of the financial year 2024-25. Relegated teams were guaranteed parachute payment, which would be a percentage of the central revenue pool, as per time spent in ISL, as per the RFP.
The RFP also stated that the bidder must furnish a bank guarantee that is thrice the amount committed for the first year as performance security. Bids needed to be submitted with a security of ₹10 lakh, the RFP said.
Following the RFP, the AIFF answered 234 queries from interested parties of which there were four including Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), which ran ISL till last season. “Given that there was so much interest, we had not expected this,” said an AIFF official speaking on condition of anonymity. The official did not rule out revised conditions in the bid document.
The latest development comes at a time when things are at a low point for the men’s game. The senior team could not qualify for the Asian Cup finals for the first time since 2019, Mohun Bagan have pulled out of the Asian Champions League and AIFF are yet to announce when I-League 1 and 2 will start.
