ISL new proposal: No relegation for 10 years, strict criteria for promotion

Panaji: The marketing partners of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has proposed a new ownership structure for the Indian Super League (ISL) from next season and at least a 10-year moratorium on relegation from the top tier to the lower leagues for its success.
Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), a joint venture between Reliance and Star which runs the league, are commercial partners of AIFF, with whom they signed a 15-year Master Rights Agreement (MRA) in 2010. According to the agreement, which ends in December this year, FSDL guarantees an annual payment of Rs 50 crore.
Several meetings have been held between FSDL and AIFF over renewal of the agreement. Rather than an all-cash deal that gave the marketing partners rights to all federation properties, they have now suggested formation of a new holding company that governs, operates, commercialises and funds ISL, with clubs (60%, equal across all clubs), FSDL (26%) and AIFF (14%) as the shareholders.
According to sources, a key condition in the proposal, officially submitted to AIFF, is to exclude relegation from ISL to the lower tiers. Promotion to the top-tier ISL will be only for clubs who strictly meet the financial/licensing criteria and has been in existence for at least five years under the same ownership.
Since its launch in 2014, ISL has remained a closed league with no club getting relegated. According to the roadmap agreed in 2019 to facilitate growth of domestic club football, promotion was started from the 2022-23 season with the I-League winners -- Punjab FC first and Mohammedan Sporting Club later – qualifying for the top tier on sporting merit.
“The roadmap was agreed in front of senior AFC (Asian Football Confederation) officials at its headquarters in Malaysia. In its recommendation for 2024-25, it was agreed to fully implement promotion and relegation into the top league. It will be difficult now to go back to the AFC and seek special approval for more years without relegation or conditional promotion,” a senior official told TOI.
In April, the AIFF had formed an eight-member task force to look into the MRA negotiations with its commercial partner, a move that did not find favour with some members. Former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia even told the executive committee to wait till the Supreme Court finalises the new constitution, the draft of which stated that the “seniormost league should be owned, operated and directly managed by AIFF.”
Senior East Bengal official Debabrata Sarkar said every league should be operating on a promotion-and-relegation principle.
“This is what makes the competition fair, challenging and unpredictable,” said Sarkar. “This is vital for any league to survive and flourish. Yes, the ISL should ideally have adopted this system from the first year, but such situation was not viable when the tournament came into being (in 2014).”
This season’s ISL was expected to kick off on Sept 14, as per the calendar approved by the AIFF League Committee last month. However, there is now growing suspense over the future of the league after several club owners were told by FSDL that the league will not kick off, unless there’s clarity on the MRA.
"The recent air of uncertainty over the ISL is unfortunate, but I firmly believe that it will be cleared soon and the league will continue to get the strongest possible support from its investor,” said Sarkar.
FSDL has told AIFF that they will discontinue with the current MRA structure which includes commercial rights for all competitions to FSDL for a fixed minimum guarantee. The new proposal includes rights, through a joint venture, for only the ISL and national team competitions, while the federation retains 100% of the revenue from non-ISL competitions and non-national team competitions.