Joint proposal, season to start with Super Cup in September, ISL in December, new global tender coming
Sanchita Chatterjee,BS News Agency, Desk: As expected, the Football Federation of India and FSDL appeared before the Supreme Court on Thursday with a joint proposal to break the deadlock surrounding Indian football. The gist of which is that, as previously thought, in the interest of Indian football, to get the ball rolling on the field, keeping everyone in mind, the AIFF will start the 2025-26 season with the Super Cup in September. The plan is to have the ISL in December. The Supreme Court has set September 1 as the final date for their verdict on the amended constitution of the Football Federation of India.
The Supreme Court is seriously listening to the joint proposal of the AIFF and FSDL on the future and status of the Master Rights Agreement. At the moment, just as FSDL is not going into any new controversy over the Master Rights Agreement, it is also not walking the path of renewing the old agreement. Rather, FSDL is giving up its rights to the first negotiation of December 8, 2010. And it is giving no objection to the Football Federation of India to call a transparent, open, competitive global tender. Accordingly, the Football Federation of India will issue a new global tender for the domestic league. The process of which will be completed by October 15. Anyone, even FSDL, can participate in this open tender. The federation said that it will be done in accordance with the 2011 National Sports Development Code, 2025 National Sports Governance Act, AIFF Constitution, FIFA and AFC rules. At the same time, sources close to FSDL said that in the interest of Indian football, without considering their commercial losses, they are giving up all their old rights and giving NOC to AIFF to call a new global tender. As per the terms of the old MRA, they have already paid the quarterly fee of Rs 12.5 crore for July to September to the Football Federation of India on August 18. Now, even in the new situation, they have agreed to pay the federation Rs 12.5 crore as an advance for the last installment of the contract for the October to December period.
FIFA has threatened to expel them over the delay in drafting the revised constitution of the Football Federation of India. Even the AFC has said that India will lose their membership if the problem is not resolved quickly. Keeping this in mind, the Supreme Court has said that they have heard everything. They are considering the matter seriously. They will give their verdict on the matter at the right time. It is hoped that the Supreme Court hearing early next week, probably on Monday, will give an indication of a solution to this impasse. However, the Supreme Court has reserved the matter for September 1.