Indian football is facing one of the most serious crises in its modern history, with the 2025–26 season of the Indian Super League (ISL) hanging in limbo amid governance deadlock, commercial collapse, and growing player unrest. What began as a delay caused by contractual uncertainty has now evolved into a systemic breakdown that threatens the…
Defending champions East Bengal FC produced a ruthless display to register their biggest-ever victory in the Indian Women’s League, thrashing Sesa Football Academy 9–0 at the Kalyani Stadium on Tuesday. In a round packed with goals, fine margins and early-season statement performances, the Moshal Girls’ demolition job stood out as a clear marker of intent….
The Indian Women’s League (IWL) has undergone one of the most significant structural evolutions in Indian sport over the past decade. Launched in 2016 as a modest, centrally run pilot competition, the league has steadily transformed into a multi-tiered, performance-driven ecosystem that now forms the backbone of women’s club football in the country. As the…
Indian football enters 2026 facing one of the most serious institutional crises in its modern history. What began as a commercial deadlock has now escalated into a governance emergency that threatens not only the 2025–26 Indian Super League (ISL) season, but also India’s presence in Asian club competitions. At the heart of the turmoil lies…
If Indian football is in trouble today, the Indian Super League sits at the centre of that crisis. Once marketed as the solution to decades of neglect, the ISL has gradually revealed itself as a league built on fragile economics, distorted priorities, and a model that was never designed to serve Indian football in the…
The 2025 calendar year will go down as one of the most difficult periods in the modern history of the Indian men’s national football team. By December 22, 2025, India had slipped to 142nd in the FIFA World Rankings, their lowest position in nearly a decade, marking a sharp and worrying regression from the relative…
The year 2025 proved to be one of contrasts for Indian women football on the global ranking charts, particularly for the Indian Women’s National Team. While the Blue Tigresses achieved a historic competitive milestone by qualifying for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup on merit, their FIFA World Ranking slipped to 67th by the end of…
Defending champions East Bengal FC continued their steady start to the Indian Women’s League 2025–26 with a hard-earned 2–1 victory over newly-promoted Garhwal United FC at the Kalyani Stadium on Saturday. On a day that also saw Nita Football Academy surge to the top of the table with a dominant win and Gokulam Kerala FC…
At a time when Indian football is grappling with administrative uncertainty, inconsistent senior results, and shrinking professional opportunities, the AIFF Elite Youth League has quietly emerged as the most stable and meaningful pillar of the domestic ecosystem. Often described by coaches and academy heads as “the only thing working properly,” the 2025–26 edition of the…
The commissioning of the Spituk Open Stadium near Leh marks one of the most significant infrastructure milestones in Indian sport outside the traditional metropolitan centres. Built under the Khelo India programme at an altitude of around 11,000 feet above mean sea level, the facility is now India’s highest football stadium and one of the highest…
Borja Herrera’s departure from FC Goa on December 26, 2025, is not an isolated personnel change but a telling reflection of the institutional paralysis gripping Indian professional football. The Spanish midfielder, a key figure in FC Goa’s recent domestic success and the only player to win three consecutive Super Cups, terminated his contract citing an…
Indian football stands at a critical juncture where long-term sustainability, investor confidence, and competitive integrity must coexist. The All India Football Federation’s proposed financial and participation framework for its top-tier league presents a detailed attempt to address these challenges through a structured revenue-sharing model, defined operational budgets, and investment protection mechanisms. At its core, the…
The impending exit of City Football Group (CFG) from Mumbai City FC is not just another ownership change in Indian football. It is a systemic warning perhaps the strongest yet that the professional football ecosystem in the country has reached a point of structural breakdown. When one of the world’s most sophisticated multi-club ownership models…
The Indian Women’s League (IWL) has completed nearly a decade since its inception, and its journey from a short-term experimental tournament to a structured professional competition mirrors the broader evolution of women’s football in India. Introduced by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) in 2016, the IWL was conceived to fill a long-standing void the…
Indian football’s exclusion from Asia’s top two club competitions for the 2027–28 cycle is not a sudden collapse. It is the inevitable outcome of a decade of institutional drift, commercial complacency, and structural mismanagement. As of December 2025, India stands 14th in the AFC West Region and 25th overall, a position that strips Indian clubs…
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is shaping up to be the most commercially ambitious tournament in the history of global sport. Expanded to 48 teams and hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the event represents FIFA’s clearest attempt yet to fuse scale, geography, and revenue into a single mega-sporting product. At the centre…
FC Goa’s AFC Champions League 2 journey ended the way it had unfolded for most of the group stage with promise early on, resistance for phases, and familiar disappointment at the final whistle. The 2–1 home defeat to Tajik champions Istiklol at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Margao did more than just close the…
The opening round of the Indian Women’s League IWL 2025–26 delivered exactly what the competition has promised over the years tight title-defining margins, emphatic statements from contenders, and early clues about who looks prepared for the long haul. Across two venues in West Bengal, defending champions East Bengal FC edged past a stubborn Sethu FC,…
The confirmed exit of City Football Group (CFG) from Mumbai City FC is not merely a change in ownership it is a damning verdict on the institutional collapse of Indian professional football. When one of the world’s most sophisticated multi-club ownership models walks away after six years, the message is unambiguous: the ecosystem is structurally…
Indian football stands at one of the most critical junctions in its professional history. With the Indian Super League (ISL) caught in a web of legal uncertainty following the expiry of the Master Rights Agreement (MRA) and ongoing judicial scrutiny, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been forced to reimagine how the country’s top-tier…
The withdrawal of City Football Group (CFG) from Mumbai City FC is not just the end of a high-profile partnership; it is the clearest indictment yet of the systemic failures that have engulfed Indian professional football. When one of the world’s most sophisticated multi-club ownership models decides that an ecosystem is no longer viable, the…
The professional breakthrough of Aashir Salim Vazhappilli at Al-Sailiya SC is more than a personal milestone for a 19-year-old midfielder. It is a case study in how Indian-origin footballers are finding stability, development and elite exposure outside a faltering domestic system, and how Gulf football particularly Qatar has emerged as a viable professional pathway rather…
As 2025 draws to a close, Indian football finds itself in one of the bleakest phases of its modern history. The convergence of competitive failure on the pitch, administrative paralysis off it, and an unresolved legal battle has pushed the sport into what can only be described as a structural crisis. The December 22, 2025…
The 79th Senior Men’s National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy marks one of the most consequential chapters in the competition’s long history. Established in 1941 as the bedrock of state-level football in India, the Santosh Trophy has often mirrored the health of the domestic ecosystem. The 2025–26 edition, however, goes a step further reflecting…
Indian football’s current crisis is not about the absence of money it is about where belief, trust, and perceived value truly lie. The contrast could not be starker. In late 2025, promoters and sponsors were willing to mobilize ₹150–200 crore to bring Lionel Messi to India for a short, high-profile promotional tour. At the same…
Kabir Nath’s journey from Assam to Andorra may appear unconventional on the surface, but in the evolving ecosystem of Indian football, it represents a calculated and increasingly relevant career pathway. His move to Club Esportiu Carroi in the Andorran Primera Divisió is not an anomaly it is a case study in how Indian footballers are…
Mohammad Farzan Sana’s rise within Japanese professional football is quietly becoming one of the most consequential developments in India’s ongoing search for midfield creativity. At just 21, the Chiba-born attacking midfielder, Faruzansana Mohamado has moved from academy promise to senior productivity, scoring three goals in eight appearances for Thespa Gunma in the J3 League during…
The Santosh Trophy 2025–26 group stage continued to gather momentum with a series of emphatic results on December 21, underlining the depth and disparity that often characterize India’s premier domestic football competition. Gujarat, Railways and Tamil Nadu were the standout performers of the day, registering commanding victories that strengthened their respective positions as the race…
The Asian Football Confederation’s announcement on December 21, 2025, confirming the launch of the AFC Nations League marks one of the most significant structural reforms in the continent’s football history. Far from being just another tournament added to an already crowded calendar, the Nations League represents a strategic rethink of how international football in Asia…
As 2025 draws to a close, Indian football finds itself in one of the darkest phases of its modern history. What was once marketed as a “sleeping giant” now resembles a system paralyzed by administrative indecision, commercial mismanagement and an entrenched resistance to reform. The expiry of the Master Rights Agreement (MRA), the suspension of…
East Bengal FC etched their name into South Asian football history by clinching the inaugural SAFF Women’s Club Championship title with a commanding 3–0 victory over Nepal’s APF FC at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu on Saturday. The triumph marked the Kolkata giants’ first-ever international trophy and capped a flawless campaign in which they went…
Nineteen-year-old Kajol Hubert D’Souza became the first Indian footballer to score a hat-trick for a Saudi Arabian club, achieving the feat for Al-Amal SC in a Saudi Women’s First Division League fixture against Al-Angaa. Indian women’s football has long searched for a breakthrough moment that goes beyond symbolic progress and reflects genuine integration into the…
Meghalaya’s sporting ambitions are set to take a transformative leap with the construction of the Mawkhanu Football Stadium Complex at New Shillong Township. Conceived as a 40,000-seater, FIFA-compliant, purpose-built football arena, the project represents one of the most significant sports infrastructure investments in Indian football history and the largest of its kind in the North…
There has been considerable confusion around the Asian Football Confederation’s sanctions on Mohun Bagan Super Giant, with the prevailing assumption being that the club has been handed a blanket multi-year ban from continental competition. That reading, while understandable, is inaccurate. What the AFC has imposed is more calculated and in many ways more severe in…
The question has been asked repeatedly since Lionel Messi’s visit to India: how can ₹150 crore be mobilised to bring a global icon for a few days, while Indian football continues to struggle for funding, structure and belief? It sounds like an obvious indictment of priorities. But it is also an incomplete question. The harder,…
It was undeniably special to see Lionel Messi in India. For a generation that has grown up watching him redefine football, the chance to be in the same space as a global icon carried emotional weight. Icons do that they generate instant excitement, collective pride, and memories that linger long after the cameras are switched…
India did not merely host Lionel Messi tour for a three-day exhibition. It staged a ₹500-crore economic spectacle one that laid bare both the commercial potential of global football celebrity and the structural fragility of the domestic game. The headline figure often quoted is ₹300 crore, but a closer examination shows that the overall economic…
Football, which is often called the “world’s game,” has billions of fans around the world. The FIFA World Cup brings countries together every four years to celebrate sports, passion, and competition around the world. India has never made it to the FIFA World Cup , even though it has more than 1.4 billion people living…
Lionel Messi’s visit to India was never just about football. It was about symbolism, aspiration, commercial appeal, and the familiar Indian tendency to gravitate towards icons rather than systems. The spectacle drew massive attention, packed venues, sponsors, politicians, and headlines but once the noise fades, the more important question remains: what, if anything, will actually…
Lionel Messi’s visit to India should have been a celebration of football. Instead, it became a mirror reflecting uncomfortable truths about how India engages with sport. The frenzy surrounding the GOAT India Tour, especially the chaotic scenes in Kolkata, revealed a country that passionately worships sporting icons but struggles to truly love sport itself. Messi…
East Bengal Women continued their imperious run at the SAFF Women’s Club Championship 2025, producing a dominant all-round performance to thrash Bangladesh’s Nasrin Sports Academy 7–0 at the Dashrath Rangasala Stadium in Kathmandu on Sunday. With this emphatic victory, the Moshal Girls maintained their perfect record in the group stage, registering three wins from three…
Mumbai witnessed a rare convergence of global football stardom and long-term grassroots planning when Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis formally launched Project Mahadeva during Lionel Messi’s G.O.A.T Tour event at the Wankhede Stadium. While Messi’s presence brought glamour and international attention, the real significance of the evening lay in the announcement of an ambitious, system-driven football…
Lionel Messi, the Greatest of All Time, is coming to India for a three-day tour of multiple cities in December 2025. This will be one of the most famous sports events in India’s history. This isn’t just a football game; it’s a cultural celebration, an emotional moment for millions, and a big deal for Indian…
Indian football finds itself at a critical crossroads as all Indian Super League (ISL) clubs except East Bengal have formally responded to the All India Football Federation (AIFF), asserting that any discussion on jointly hosting the league is futile unless the federation first removes key constitutional barriers. Their firm stance, communicated in a letter sent…
East Bengal continued their commanding run at the SAFF Women’s Club Championship 2025, climbing to the top of the standings with a composed and convincing 2–0 victory over Pakistan’s Karachi City FC at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu. With two wins in two matches, the Red and Gold brigade now stand just one victory away…
Manprit Sarkaria’s career arc is a study in rise, reinvention, and sudden uncertainty. Born in Vienna on 26 August 1996, the Austrian international is one of the most recognisable Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) in European football, with roots tracing back to Amritsar, Punjab. Over the past decade, Sarkaria carved out a reputation as a…
Every few years, Indian football rediscovers the same question. Can the global Indian diaspora help bridge the gap between promise and performance? And just as predictably, the discussion runs into the same immovable obstacle. The case of Gabriel Cleur brings this reality into sharp focus. Cleur, a professional footballer with confirmed Indian ancestry, ticks almost…
Indian football stands at a critical crossroad. With the Indian Super League (ISL) facing uncertainty following the expiry of its Master Rights Agreement (MRA) and the ongoing delay in starting the league, clubs and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) are now exploring a fundamental restructuring of how India’s top-flight competition is governed. At the…
Indian football in 2025 unfolded like a season-long audition for the future uneven, emotional, occasionally frustrating, but undeniably alive. It was a year where silverware did not always define progress, yet milestones were achieved that may prove far more significant in the long run. While the senior men endured a bruising campaign filled with hard…
The Sesa Football Academy (SFA) senior women’s team qualifying for the Indian Women’s League (IWL) for the first time is more than a sporting milestone. It marks the end of a three-year absence of Goan representation at the highest level of Indian women’s football and signals what many within the state are calling a genuine…
