Bengaluru FC owner urges 'sacrifice' from players to support ISL resumption: 'We are in this for the love of football'

The Indian Super League is set to return to action next month, with Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya revealing 14 February as the start date for the 12th season that will be organised by the All India Football Federation. All 14 clubs will be in action in the 2025-26 season that will feature 91 matches played on a home-and-away basis, with a shortened I-League season featuring 55 games set to take place around the same time.

While the development is good news for the Indian football fraternity, Bengaluru FC owner Parth Jindal cautions that players will need to “make sacrifices” in order to bear the “financial burden” that clubs will have to shoulder in order to get the Indian top-flight competition up and running next month.

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And though Jindal did not specify what kind of sacrifice he was expecting from players for the upcoming season, it was implied that players – including iconic forward Sunil Chhetri and star goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu – would have to take a pay cut, otherwise the club would have to “shut shop for good”.

“Tremendous sacrifice from all clubs is being asked for to play the ISL in its current format. Repercussions if we don’t have a league are very worrying,” Jindal wrote on ‘X’.

“Truly hope the players understand the additional financial burden on the clubs and agree to also sacrifice as we are all in this together. We are in this for the love of football and to see our country play the beautiful game and be good at it.”

“@bengalurufc football has been a loss making proposition for all since I can remember - this year’s numbers without the players helping out will force many to shut shop for good,” he added in the tweet that was reposted by FC Goa CEO Ravi Puskur.

Also Read | How AIFF continues to face a labyrinth of unsolved puzzles despite announcing restart of ISL

The ISL had to be put on hold last year after the AIFF and Football Sports Development Limited – the company that had organised the league from its inception until last year – failed to arrive at an agreement over the 15-year Master Rights Agreement that had expired on 8 December. The AIFF would later remain empty-handed in its search for a new commercial partner, worsening the crisis in Indian football.

Why ISL clubs face tremendous financial pressure ahead of league’s resumption

During Sports Minister Mandaviya’s announcement of ISL’s resumption on Monday, AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey had specificed that a Rs 25 crore pool was being set aside for organising the 2025-26 season, 60 per cent of which will come from “legacy clubs”.

The Delhi-based governing body for the sport will pitch in with 10 per cent and while the remaining 30 per cent was supposed to come from a commercial sponsor, the AIFF has agreed to pitch in with that amount for now.

Also Read | ISL 2026 Explained: How AIFF is planning to host it, venue, budget, possible dates & more

The Chaubey-led body thus will be providing Rs 14 crore for the ISL and Rs 3.2 crore for the I-League. It is also expected to float another tender for a commercial partner soon, with the 20226-27 season heavily dependent on the AIFF successfully closing this deal.

The announcement for the resumption of the ISL comes days after leading Indian footballers, including BFC stars Chhetri and Sandhu, had posted a video on social media titled in which they made a heartfelt appeal to FIFA to save the sport in the country and prevent it from entering a state of “permanent paralysis”.