When Hyderabad FC lifted the Indian Super League (ISL) title in 2021–22, few would have predicted that within three years, the club would cease to exist not through relegation, but through financial collapse and relocation.
In 2025, the franchise has been officially rebranded as Sporting Club Delhi (SCD), marking the ISL’s return to India’s capital after a six-year void since Delhi Dynamos FC departed for Bhubaneswar in 2019. The move, orchestrated through an acquisition by the BC Jindal Group, is more than a name change it represents the ISL’s strategic effort to stabilize a distressed asset while re-entering the lucrative Delhi-NCR market. Yet, the circumstances surrounding this transition expose deep contradictions in the way Indian football manages crisis, opportunity, and accountability.
A Reboot Built on Ruins
At the heart of the relocation lies a paradox. Hyderabad FC was not a struggling start-up it was a former champion, celebrated for nurturing Indian talent and offering tactical stability under Manolo Márquez. But beneath that success, financial chaos brewed quietly. By mid-2024, the club had accumulated severe debt and defaulted on player salaries for several months. FIFA and AIFF-imposed transfer bans crippled recruitment, leading to a season of decline. Hyderabad FC finished 12th in a 13-team table, winning just four of 24 matches.
Discontent grew internally. At least eight players terminated contracts citing “just cause” a provision that allows release due to unpaid wages. Head coach Thanboi Singto quit mid-season, leaving Shameel Chembakath to manage a demoralized squad. By May 2025, the AIFF Club Licensing Committee officially rejected HFC’s Premier 1 License application a failure across both Criteria A (sporting requirements) and Criteria B (financial and infrastructural obligations). Under the league’s rules, this should have meant disqualification from top-tier participation.
But instead of dissolution, Hyderabad FC found a lifeline.
Acquisition and Reinvention: The Jindal Takeover
In July 2025, the BC Jindal Group, under its newly created entity Jindal Football, executed a takeover of Hyderabad FC’s ISL license, completing due diligence on debts and legal liabilities. This acquisition allowed the club to be rebranded and relocated to Delhi under a new name: Sporting Club Delhi (SCD). By absorbing Hyderabad’s ISL slot, the Jindal Group avoided the multi-year climb through the I-League and immediate licensing rejections. The move effectively reset Hyderabad’s financial record, providing a clean slate under a new commercial and geographic identity.
SCD will make its debut at the Super Cup 2025, officially joining the ISL from the 2025–26 season. But this regulatory flexibility has raised eyebrows particularly given that Inter Kashi, the I-League champions, had to win a protracted legal battle at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) just to confirm their promotion on merit.
The Governance Paradox: Stability Over Merit
The contrasting treatment of Inter Kashi and Sporting Club Delhi underscores an uncomfortable reality about Indian football’s priorities. Inter Kashi’s promotion, achieved through sporting merit, was challenged by domestic committees before being reinstated only after two rulings from CAS in Lausanne. Despite this legal validation, their entry remains conditional upon fulfilling ISL’s financial and infrastructural demands.
Meanwhile, a financially failed ISL club Hyderabad FC was absorbed seamlessly into the league once a new investor emerged. This duality reveals what analysts have termed the “stability over merit” doctrine a governance model where capital preservation outweighs sporting accountability. The ISL’s closed-league structure prioritizes continuity of commercial markets (like Delhi) over strict enforcement of penalties on defaulting franchises. In effect, the league’s message is clear: a franchise can fail financially, but its market value cannot be allowed to vanish.
Sporting Club Delhi: The Blueprint for a Capital Comeback
The BC Jindal Group enters football with a long-term vision. Its official communication to AIFF emphasizes that SCD will be “a professionally run institution representing the new sporting energy of Delhi.” The move is strategically significant Delhi has been without a top-tier team since 2019. Despite its vast population and economic power, the NCR region has struggled to sustain football engagement beyond short-lived projects like Delhi Dynamos.
Building from the Ground Up
Unlike its predecessor, SCD plans to create a football-specific stadium rather than relying on the cavernous Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (JLN), whose 60,000-seat structure often resulted in poor atmosphere and unsustainable operating costs. The Jindal Group has already acquired land in New Delhi for a training base and grassroots center a move aimed at compliance with AIFF’s Vision 2047 framework, which stresses infrastructure and youth development as pillars of club licensing.
On the sporting side, SCD must rebuild almost from scratch. The exodus of Hyderabad players has left a thin roster. A new head coach is expected to be appointed by early 2026, with the Super Cup serving as a trial run for scouting and squad assembly. Rebuilding competitive integrity will be the first test for SCD’s management credibility one that Delhi fans, long disillusioned by failed franchises, will be watching closely.
Delhi’s Football Market: Promise and Pitfalls
Delhi’s football history is both rich and tragic. In the 1950s and 60s, the Ambedkar Stadium was a national hub, hosting packed domestic tournaments. But the modern era has seen repeated failures to convert that legacy into a sustainable professional model. The Delhi Dynamos story is a case study in misplaced ambition. Despite high-profile signings Alessandro Del Piero, Roberto Carlos, Florent Malouda the club’s average attendance dwindled from 19,000 in 2014 to under 6,000 by 2019.
Poor performance, weak local identity, and massive operational costs drove the owners to relocate to Odisha, where the franchise re-emerged as Odisha FC.
SCD’s challenge, therefore, isn’t just to build a team it’s to rebuild trust.
The National Capital Region, home to nearly 40 million residents, represents a market too large to ignore. But it’s also a fragmented one, dominated by cricket and entertainment. Competing with the Delhi Capitals (IPL) and Delhi Bulls (Pro Kabaddi) requires innovative fan engagement, community outreach, and grassroots inclusion. To succeed where Dynamos failed, SCD must localize connect football to Delhi’s youth and working-class neighborhoods, not just the corporate elite. The club’s plan to establish a training academy and youth pipeline could serve as both a developmental and marketing strategy creating the next generation of local stars to inspire a fan base.
The Larger Picture: ISL’s Crisis of Structure
The timing of SCD’s entry coincides with one of the most turbulent governance periods in ISL history. The 15-year Master Rights Agreement (MRA) between the AIFF and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) the league’s commercial operator expires in December 2025. FSDL, backed by Reliance and Star India, has reportedly put the 2025–26 season “on hold” over revenue-sharing disputes, warning of an “existential threat” if no agreement is reached. The Supreme Court has intervened, instructing both parties to resolve the impasse, but the uncertainty looms large.
For new entrants like Sporting Club Delhi and Inter Kashi, this creates a volatile financial environment. Without clarity on central revenue distribution, clubs must depend heavily on private capital to sustain operations.
Promotion, Relegation, and the Closed-League Debate
The contrast between SCD’s entry (via acquisition) and Inter Kashi’s (via merit) reignites the debate over the ISL’s closed-league nature. While the AFC roadmap and AIFF’s Vision 2047 call for full promotion-relegation integration by 2026–27, FSDL has lobbied for a 10-year moratorium on relegation, citing the need to protect investors.
This creates an uneven system:
- Clubs entering through purchase or relocation retain protection and brand value, even after collapse.
- Clubs entering through promotion face financial gatekeeping and conditional acceptance.
It is, as critics note, “meritocracy with a price tag.”
For Indian football’s credibility on the Asian stage, resolving this contradiction is essential. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rulings in Inter Kashi’s favor overturning two AIFF decisions in a single season highlight growing judicial oversight from international bodies, an indictment of domestic inconsistency.
Strategic Recommendations: Avoiding the Dynamos Trap
For Sporting Club Delhi, survival and sustainability depend on a disciplined roadmap that avoids the missteps of its predecessors.
1. Operational Stability: A strong management and technical leadership team must be established immediately, prioritizing long-term planning over short-term visibility. The club must enforce salary discipline, financial transparency, and a robust youth recruitment program.
2. Infrastructure and Fan Identity: A dedicated football-specific stadium in Delhi or Gurugram is essential to create a sense of belonging and matchday atmosphere. The stadium should aim for 10,000–15,000 capacity, focusing on accessibility and fan experience rather than grandeur.
3. Local Talent Development: Partnering with Delhi’s schools, universities, and community centers can help cultivate regional identity a key failure point for the old Dynamos. Integrating academy graduates into the first team would foster loyalty and reduce dependency on expensive imports.
4. Financial Diversification: Given ISL’s uncertain central revenue structure, SCD must build independent income streams through merchandise, local sponsorship, and academy fees. The club’s new ownership offers the stability to pursue this long-term.
The rebirth of Delhi’s football franchise through Sporting Club Delhi is both symbolic and cautionary.
Symbolic because it marks the return of India’s capital to the ISL, reinforcing the league’s national footprint.
Cautionary because it exposes a pattern where financial collapse is rehabilitated through geography rather than governance. If SCD succeeds with stable finances, local engagement, and sporting credibility it could become the model for urban football reinvention in India.
If it fails, it risks confirming what critics fear most: that the ISL’s structure rewards markets, not merit, and treats cities as interchangeable commercial assets. For now, Delhi football is getting a second chance and Indian football, another test of its maturity.
