How a disputed title, a legal marathon, and a broken commercial deal conspired to keep Churchill Brothers out of the ISL
On February 12, 2026, two days before the 2025-26 Indian Super League season was due to kick off, the All India Football Federation’s Executive Committee convened an online meeting and delivered its verdict: Churchill Brothers FC Goa would not be joining the ISL. The decision was near-unanimous. Only one of the 22 committee members voted in their favour.
For Churchill Brothers, one of Goa’s most decorated football clubs and a two-time I-League champion, it was the final act in a year-long saga involving an overturned title, international arbitration, a desperate lobbying campaign, and the near-collapse of Indian football’s top-flight league itself.
But this story is about far more than one club. It is about the governance of Indian football at a moment of profound instability, and the structural tensions between the sport’s legacy institutions and its corporate-era present.
The Season That Never Really Ended
To understand how Churchill Brothers ended up knocking on the ISL’s door in February 2026, you need to go back to January 13, 2025, and a seemingly unremarkable I-League fixture in Punjab.
On that date, Namdhari FC hosted Inter Kashi in a league match that ended 2-0 to Namdhari. After the game, Inter Kashi raised a formal protest, claiming Namdhari had fielded Cledson Carvalho da Silva, a player who should have been serving a suspension after accumulating four yellow cards. The AIFF Disciplinary Committee agreed, awarding Inter Kashi a 3-0 forfeit victory and docking Namdhari three points.
Namdhari appealed. In a decision that would later prove fateful, the AIFF Appeals Committee overturned the ruling on March 27, reinstating the original result. Their reasoning was that Namdhari had not been given sufficient opportunity to contest the referee’s decision, a violation of the principle of natural justice.
That reversal had enormous consequences for the title race. When the I-League season concluded on March 31, Churchill Brothers sat at the top of the table with 40 points. Inter Kashi were in second place. But nothing was settled, because the points from that disputed Namdhari match were still in dispute.
“Imagine fighting your whole life for one moment… and then when you’ve finally earned it, they take it away.” — Churchill Brothers FC, Instagram, April 13, 2025
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The confusion produced some bizarre scenes. After the final round of matches on April 6, both Churchill Brothers and Inter Kashi staged victory celebrations on the same day, neither side knowing for certain whether they had actually won. AIFF’s own match reports used careful language like ‘kept their title hopes alive’, betraying the federation’s own uncertainty about the outcome.
On April 19, the AIFF officially declared Churchill Brothers as champions and confirmed their promotion to the ISL. They were presented with the trophy in a ceremony in Goa. But Inter Kashi immediately announced their intention to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, calling the process ‘protracted’ and vowing to ‘keep no stone unturned to secure justice.’
Adding to the dysfunction, it later emerged that the AIFF had proceeded with the trophy presentation despite having received a CAS stay order on April 27, prohibiting any declaration of a winner until arbitration concluded. The federation claimed they were unaware of the order due to a public holiday at the AIFF Secretariat. The episode became a defining image of institutional incompetence.
The CAS Ruling: A Title Is Awarded, Then Taken Away
The Court of Arbitration for Sport heard Inter Kashi’s appeal on July 15, 2025. Three days later, it issued its ruling.
CAS sided with Inter Kashi on two separate counts. First, it overturned the AIFF’s earlier decision on the Namdhari case, reinstating the original 3-0 forfeit in Inter Kashi’s favour and awarding them those three points. Second, it ruled on a separate dispute over Inter Kashi’s registration of Spanish striker Mario Barco and his mid-season replacement, finding in the club’s favour there too.
The combined effect of those rulings transformed the final standings completely. Inter Kashi finished the season on 42 points. Churchill Brothers were second with 40. Real Kashmir ended on 37. It was Inter Kashi, the Varanasi-based club in just their second season of professional football, who were the legitimate I-League champions and the rightful occupants of the ISL promotion spot.
The CAS ruling also came with a financial penalty for the AIFF, who were ordered to bear 55 percent of the arbitration costs, approximately 3,000 Swiss francs (around Rs 3.22 lakh). Churchill Brothers, Real Kashmir and Namdhari were each required to pay 15 percent. It was a costly reminder of what poor disciplinary administration looks like on the international stage.
Churchill Brothers refused to accept the ruling as final. The club argued that the CAS had not yet issued its full ‘motivated award’ (the detailed written reasoning behind the decision), and that they were therefore still entitled to appeal to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court to set the ruling aside. Their lawyers wrote to AIFF in February 2026 maintaining that the matter remained legally ‘subjudice.’
That argument did not hold. Inter Kashi’s lawyers responded by pointing out that Churchill’s requests for a provisional stay and then an annulment of the CAS judgement had both been dismissed by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, on July 29 and November 11, 2025, respectively. The Delhi High Court also disposed of a separate writ petition filed by Churchill against the AIFF. The court was unambiguous: the CAS award was ‘fully enforceable’ and there was ‘no legal reason’ to provisionally include Churchill Brothers in the ISL.
The ISL Was Already in Crisis Before Churchill’s Plea
Even if the legal picture around Churchill Brothers had been cleaner, there is a second major reason why the 2025-26 ISL was in no position to accommodate a 15th team at short notice: the league was barely surviving as a 14-team competition.
The crisis had its roots in the expiry of the Master Rights Agreement (MRA) between the AIFF and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL). The MRA, signed in 2010, gave FSDL the commercial rights to manage the ISL for 15 years. When it expired in December 2025, Indian football’s top division effectively had no commercial backbone.
FSDL had informed ISL clubs as early as June 2025 that the season was being placed ‘on hold’ due to the unresolved contractual situation. The league, which had been scheduled to begin in September 2025, was delayed repeatedly. A tender floated by AIFF for new commercial partners in October 2025 attracted no bids. The Supreme Court of India eventually had to intervene, urging both parties to resolve their differences and start the season. Broadcasting rights were eventually secured by FanCode, but as late as the February 14 kickoff, no television broadcast partner had been confirmed.
The result is a truncated 2025-26 ISL season unlike any before it. The league runs from February 14 to May 2026, with all 14 teams playing each other only once (home or away) in a single round-robin format, comprising 91 matches in total. There are no playoffs. The Asian Football Confederation granted India a one-season exemption from its mandatory 24-match league requirement, acknowledging the extraordinary circumstances.
In this context, the 13 ISL clubs who wrote to AIFF opposing Churchill’s inclusion were not being unreasonable. Adding a 15th team would have required rewriting the fixture calendar just 48 hours before kickoff, potentially requiring every club to add at least one more match. The clubs cited seven specific objections, including scheduling disruption, financial prejudice to existing clubs, and the precedent it would set for mid-cycle admissions without sporting merit.
“Any mid-cycle or ad-hoc inclusion of a club outside of an established sporting pathway undermines competitive integrity.” — Joint letter from 13 ISL clubs to AIFF, February 9, 2026
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The ExCo Meeting and Its Verdict
The AIFF Executive Committee had already failed to reach a quorum at a first meeting on February 9. Only 10 of the 22 committee members had shown up, well below the 50-percent-plus threshold required. The failure to attend prompted strong words from those who did participate, with one observer describing it as ‘unprecedented, not even during the Covid period.’
A second meeting was convened on February 12. At least 17 members attended. After letters from Inter Kashi and 13 ISL clubs were read out, Churchill’s request was put to a vote. It received support from exactly one member.
The meeting also rejected a separate request from SC Bengaluru, who had asked to be reinstated into the I-League after relegation, citing differential treatment compared to how Churchill’s situation had been handled. The committee dismissed this request before it could even be formally tabled.
The one dissenting voice worth noting came not in support of Churchill, but in criticism of the entire process. Former India captain and current ExCo member Bhaichung Bhutia placed the blame squarely on the federation’s administration. ‘Why have this meeting when the league is starting in five days’ time? That in itself shows the fault in the administration,’ Bhutia said. He argued that both Inter Kashi and Churchill Brothers had ultimately been let down by a system that should have resolved these questions before a single ball was kicked in the I-League last April.
Churchill, for their part, had been lobbying intensely in the days leading up to the meeting, reaching out to politicians and ExCo members individually. The club had even threatened to close down entirely if excluded from the ISL. But with the legal avenues exhausted, the financial realities stark, and 13 of 14 ISL clubs unified in opposition, there was no path forward.
The I-League Gets a New Name and a New Structure
In the midst of the Churchill Brothers drama, the ExCo meeting also approved a significant structural reform to the second division. The I-League, which has existed under that name since 2007 (previously called the National Football League since 1996), will be rebranded as the Indian Football League, or IFL.
More importantly, the new governance structure gives the participating clubs a 60-percent majority stake in the competition for the first time in the league’s history. AIFF and commercial partners will hold the remaining 40 percent. The move is a direct response to the years of administrative instability that have plagued both the I-League and the ISL, and it mirrors the ownership model that has been under discussion for the top flight as well.
The 2025-26 IFL season will begin on February 21, a week after the ISL kickoff. Ten clubs have confirmed participation, including Real Kashmir, Gokulam Kerala, Namdhari FC, Shillong Lajong, Aizawl FC and Sreenidi Deccan. Churchill Brothers’ own participation in the IFL remains uncertain, given the club’s stated intention to continue legal proceedings.
A Legacy Club at a Crossroads
Churchill Brothers are not just any club. Founded in Goa and owned by Julio Alemao, they are one of the pillars of Indian football’s pre-franchise era. They have won the I-League twice (2008-09 and 2011-12), the Federation Cup, and eight Goa Pro League titles. They represent a tradition of community-based club football that predates the ISL by decades.
Their exclusion from the ISL therefore carries a weight that goes beyond one season’s competitive outcome. It reflects a widening tension in Indian football between heritage institutions with deep local roots and newer, corporate-backed franchise clubs that have been designed around investment structures rather than footballing history. Churchill Brothers were not denied entry because of a lack of quality or fan support. They were denied entry because a disciplinary process at the AIFF malfunctioned, because a Swiss arbitration court overturned that process, and because the league they sought to enter was already running on emergency power.
Owner Julio Alemao has characterised the outcome as administrative injustice, and from an emotional standpoint it is hard to argue otherwise. From a regulatory standpoint, however, the AIFF’s hands were tied once the CAS delivered its final directive. The federation had no credible legal basis to override an international arbitration ruling.
“When the league champion is decided by the court, it is unfair on both Inter Kashi and Churchill. Both the clubs were hard done by the federation.” — Bhaichung Bhutia, AIFF ExCo Member
The deeper problem is the one Bhutia identified: all of this was preventable. Had the AIFF’s disciplinary processes been clearer and more robustly applied from the beginning, the Namdhari match would have been resolved before it became a title-deciding issue. Had the federation respected the CAS stay order in April, Churchill would not have been handed a trophy they ultimately could not keep. And had the MRA situation been resolved earlier, the ISL would have had enough structural stability to at least consider a 15th team in more reasonable circumstances.
What Comes Next
The 2025-26 ISL begins on February 14, 2026, with Inter Kashi making their top-flight debut away at FC Goa at 7:30 PM IST. It is a fixture loaded with symbolism: Goa’s corporate-backed ISL franchise hosting the newcomers who, however controversially, earned their place through the league pyramid.
For Churchill Brothers, the only meaningful pathway back to the ISL now runs through the renamed Indian Football League. Should they choose to compete and win promotion next season, they would be returning on sporting merit rather than legal argument. That would be the cleanest resolution to a saga that has been defined by its absence of clean resolutions.
Indian football, for its part, enters this season at a delicate juncture. The FSDL era is over. A new commercial framework is being constructed from scratch. The I-League is being restructured with club ownership at its core. And the governance failures that produced the Churchill-Inter Kashi dispute remain only partially addressed.
The red card shown to the Red Machines is not simply a punitive act. It is, within the constraints the federation was operating under, a necessary one. But it is also a symptom. The root cause remains: Indian football’s promotion, relegation and disciplinary systems are not yet robust enough to consistently produce outcomes that courts do not have to correct. Until they are, disputes like this one will keep surfacing, and legacy clubs will keep paying the price for failures that were never entirely their fault.
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KEY FACTS AT A GLANCE
- 42 I-League points: Inter Kashi (final tally, after CAS ruling)
- 40 I-League points: Churchill Brothers (final tally)
- 13 of 14 ISL clubs that opposed Churchill’s inclusion
- 14 Feb 2026 ISL 2025-26 season start date
- 15 years Length of FSDL-AIFF Master Rights Agreement (now expired)
