Premier League, LaLiga inspire AIFF's charter that will run ISL for next 21 years: Report

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has tabled a charter to run the Indian Super League for the next 21 years with all the 14 clubs that are expected to participate in the new season of the competition scheduled to start February 14. The charter details the policies for the the governing and managing councils that will be formed to run the league from this season onwards.

Indian Super League, the top-tier football league in the country, has not started its 2025-26 season yet due to the absence of a commercial partner. However, with the government getting involved, clubs and AIFF joined hands to restart the league even as they continue to look for a sponsor.

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Charter inspired by Premier League, LaLiga

According to a report in The Telegraph, the charter is inspired by leagues from two different confederations including the biggest football league on the planet, the Premier League.

The policies in the charter have been reportedly been framed after studying similar documents from five leagues from two confederations. The Telegraph reports that the charters of Premier League, Bundesliga and La Liga (UEFA) and A-League (Australia), and J1 League (Japan) of the Asian Football Confederation were studied before finalising the details for the Indian Super League.

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The report states that the governing committee will be of 22 members with the AIFF president/vice-president being the chairperson. The secretary/deputy general secretary of the federation will be leading the 11-member managing committee.

The managing committee will run the league and take decisions on the day-to-day operations of the competition. It will meet once a month while the governing committee will sit yearly.

The report quotes the charter and states that there will be “five (5) Nominated Members from the Clubs and three (3) Nominated Members from the Rights Partner nominated by the Rights Partner," and three from the parent body.

Of the five members, “three (3) such Nominated Members from the Clubs shall be elected by simple majority vote among the Clubs. The remaining two (2) Nominated Members… shall be allocated to one (1) Nominated Member each decided by the top two (2) Clubs from the last completed ISL regular season standings."

Once the clubs nominate members through voting, the managing committee will be completed and the list of fixtures will be soon revealed.