AIFF Agrees to Club-Led ISL Model for Two Years, 2026-27 Season to Start on September 4

Indian football has been going through one of the most difficult administrative periods in its recent history, and the meeting that took place in New Delhi on Tuesday finally gave the sport something it badly needed as a clear signal that the 2026-27 ISL season is happening, and a rough idea of how it is going to be run.

AIFF President Mr Kalyan Chaubey said, “This is a new dawn, and the AIFF management is looking to take the leagues in the country to the next level. At times when we sit across the table, we tend to think only of what can benefit us, but we need to put all such differences aside and think of solutions that will benefit all parties involved here. “I am sure all of you are looking for good players, quality administrators, quality media engagement, and so on. I am glad to tell all of you that this time we aim to do better for the Hero I-League and the Hero IWL,” he said.

The All India Football Federation confirmed through its Deputy Secretary General M Satyanarayan that the AIFF has agreed in principle to the club-led model that the 14 ISL clubs had been pushing for, and that a formal agreement with all the legal details sorted out will be signed and publicly announced on June 15, with the Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya having already given his approval to the direction the two sides are heading.

The model being discussed gives the clubs control over the commercial side of the league for two seasons 2026-27 and 2027-28 as a pilot arrangement before any longer-term deal is worked out, and the clubs have offered to pay the AIFF a collective fee of 15 crore rupees annually to cover the federation's regulatory functions including refereeing, legal costs and anti-doping work, which is actually higher than the 12.4 crore management fee that London-based Genius Sports had proposed.

The AIFF was clear that it will still own and operate the league regardless of the commercial arrangement, so the clubs are not taking over the ISL in the full sense they are getting commercial control under the federation's supervision, which is the compromise both sides needed to get the season moving.

The 2026-27 campaign is planned as a full seven-month season running from September 4 to April, with home and away matches across all 14 clubs after last season's shortened emergency format where teams played just 13 games each, and the Durand Cup is scheduled to run from June 25 to July 25 as the warm-up to the main season.

Sportscape feels that the Indian football spent most of the last year watching its top league collapse into administrative chaos while clubs, the federation and broadcasters argued over money and governance, and the agreement reached this week is less a triumph and more a practical necessity the sport simply cannot afford another lost season, and the club-led model being tested for two years at least gives everyone involved a framework to work within while the longer-term commercial picture gets figured out properly.