In any other season, in any other league, this would have been a dream scenario. Four teams were in with a fair chance, five mathematically, for the title heading into the final matchday. Leading the race were two teams from Indian football’s nerve centre Kolkata, Mohun Bagan Super Giant and East Bengal, whose history and rivalry well pre-dates the Indian Super League.
Bagan, the defending champion, East Bengal, a club established by immigrants from present-day Bangladesh in 1920, the perennial challenger. The theatre of football came alive in the last 90 minutes of the season as Bagan, East Bengal, Mumbai City FC and Punjab FC rode their destiny. East Bengal were in pole position, level on points with Bagan but had a better goal difference. If either of the Kolkata clubs slipped up, the winner of Punjab vs Mumbai would take the title.
It took East Bengal 14 minutes to fall behind against Inter Kashi. Bagan came from behind for a 2-1 win against Sporting Club Delhi as well and Mumbai defeated Punjab 2-0. East Bengal scored two in the second half to capture a first division Indian football title after 22 years. In the end, one point separated the top 3, with East Bengal winning due to superior goal difference.
It was a script written in sporting heaven. Only this was the ISL; this was 2026. And no amount of sporting drama or hubris, could cut through the impending gloom.
“When the league does take place, we can see how exciting it is,” says Pritam Kotal, the India defender who played for Chennaiyin FC in 2025-26. “But we don’t know what happens next.”
Kotal informs that as of 1 June, 148 players, which includes 25% of the players from Indian national team, will be out of a contract. While he has another year on his contract with Chennaiyin, the 32-year-old from Kolkata does not believe he is much better off.
“I don’t know if ISL will happen next season. If it doesn’t, I don’t get a salary. Why will the club pay if we are not playing?” he says. “We need a proper solution, a long-term solution. At the moment, we are really upset about the way things are going on. This is our bread and butter. When the league stops, what do we do? The entire ecosystem is on the verge of collapse.”
Existential Crisis
The ISL, the country’s top division football league, has been plagued with an existential crisis for over a year now. The All India Football Federation (AIFF), led by BJP leader and former footballer Kalyan Chaubey, failed to secure a commercial partner after time ran out on Reliance-backed Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL)—who launched the league in 2014—contract after the 2024-25 season.
ISL 2025-26 took off belatedly, starting in February, when it should have ideally begun in September 2025. Gone was the home-and-away format, and the playoffs. The league was truncated to 13 games per team. Some of the players were forced to take salary cuts. The country lost its claim to continental competition slots as, according to Asian Football Confederation rules, member associations must ensure their clubs play at least 24 matches per season across league and cup to compete in the top 2 tiers. “This season has been about just trying to get this done and over with,” says FC Goa CEO Ravi Puskur.
“The games were played because the sports ministry requested us that the league happens so that there’s not too much of a standstill. It was more a case of trying to keep operational costs as low as possible, finish the season. This is a personal opinion; I don’t see a lot of sporting merit in the way that the league was done.”
Truncating the league turned a tactical race into a sprint. Moreover, with each team playing the other just once during the season, the share of home games was set askew. At one end were teams like Mohun Bagan, Kerala Blasters and Jamshedpur FC who played nine home games, at the other were Mohammedan Sporting and Odisha FC who played only thrice at home.
“Last year, we spent six-seven months just sitting at home,” says Kotal. “When the league was scheduled, it was only 13 matches, but it was something. But during the season, be it in training or while playing, we kept thinking about whether the league will happen next year or not?”
It paints a sorry picture for a league that began with much promise and pomp 12 years ago. While ISL relied on marquee names and Bollywood glamour in the first few seasons, it emerged as the official top division league in 2019-20. Moreover, it gave Indian football a lift as matches were held at the best grounds in the country, and on prime-time television. Even at its peak the ISL did not make money for clubs. After FSDL pulled the plug, the house of cards has come crashing down.
“It hits the ecosystem for sure,” adds Puskur. “If you look at the football pyramid, the grassroots is the biggest base. And as you go up the professional ladder, the pyramid gets narrower. But the way the investment structure works is that the money normally flows from the top.” Lack of clarity at the top means investors shy away and there is no money trickling down the football chain.
The clubs, who are the ones investing heavily in the league, want to take the commercial control and run a more transparent, sustainable league model. “You can’t continue to get owners to bleed ₹20-30 crore a year and expect them to be okay with it,” Puskur says. “You need to show them that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Over the next few weeks, the AIFF and ISL clubs are hoping to untangle the mess and forge a way ahead. While the financial and logistical details are to be thrashed out, the AIFF wants the clubs to pay ₹1 crore as participation fee, which they did this season as well, and confirm their participation by 15 June.
The clubs, unhappy with AIFF’s strong-arm policies, issued a joint statement on 22 May saying: “With deep concern and disappointment, the clubs of the Indian Super League wish to state that, given the continued uncertainty surrounding professional football in India, we are now compelled to review the extent of our commitment to the league beyond the current season.”
The statement came less than 24 hours after East Bengal were crowned champions. Heady scenes unfolded on 21 May as the Kolkata club finally rose to the top again. Fans donning red and gold, crying for joy, brandishing the team’s scarves stormed the field at Kishore Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata. Years of hurt and frustration melted away into the glorious night as East Bengal won the tightest of title races. It was clear that Indian football has the capacity to enthral, but can it find a way to sustain?
Deepti Patwardhan is a sportswriter based in Mumbai.