Broke Clubs, Dead System: The Real Reason Indian Football is Collapsing

What if you invested millions in a new ISL club, only to start bleeding cash before Day 1?

The World Cup will finally be over on July 19th. Having watched matches by sacrificing my own sleep, calculating which teams will survive the group stage, discussing games with friends and relatives, and hoping for Cristiano Ronaldo to lift the trophy—only to be let down over and over again—it seems like once the tournament ends, I will ask myself: "What are we going to watch now?"

But I won't have to worry too much about that. After a few more weeks, we will see all the top European leagues start their 2026–27 season in full swing. And right there, the real football festival starts—a grind that lasts for the whole year, unlike a short international tournament that only lasts a month.

But if you turn your attention to a real Indian football fan, what will he do? He will watch the ISL, the IFL, and the I-League. But he still won't be too hopeful or too happy. Because somewhere deep in his heart, he knows you never truly know if the league will even exist next year, or if our clubs will survive long enough to do well in AFC tournaments.

This is exactly what goes on in my head too.

The FIFA bans, the Supreme Court interventions, the AIFF constitution drama, the struggles of the Indian national team... it all starts creeping back into my mind, and it completely kills any optimism I have for the top-tier leagues in India.

It doesn't matter if you have great grassroots participation or good quality youth coaches. If you do not have a functional, stable domestic senior league, how are you going to sell dreams to the kids of this country? The kids who want to become the next Sunil Chhetri, Lionel Messi, or Cristiano Ronaldo? The ones who want India to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and who are actively dreaming of a professional career in Indian football?

And the entities who ultimately face the absolute wrath of these dead systems, inefficient administration, and the severe lack of sponsors and broadcasters are the clubs. 

Clubs are the one and only entity in a football ecosystem that actively do the heavy lifting: working on grassroots, coach education, residential academies, partnerships with local schools, scouting networks, and sports science.

In reality, it's not the AIFF that runs the sport or ensures that the absolute pinnacle of this pyramid keeps developing. It's the clubs.

But the systems in India are so outdated and inefficient that when a new club enters the space, it already starts losing money before it can even breathe. There are fundamental issues in Indian football that never seem to get solved.

Because we do not have massive viewership, and because the general impression of Indian football is so poor, broadcasters and sponsors just turn their heads away and focus on other sports. Due to this, even if we get a league in place and it gets executed, the clubs are trapped in a desperate race just to win. To win, they pump in crazy amounts of money, paying highly inflated salaries to buy expensive, older players instead of focusing on the next generation—the 18-to-20-year-olds who actually have great potential.

Because they spend so much and see zero upside in return—mostly because the market valuations of Indian leagues are hilariously low—they can't even dream of making 1 crore in profit. So, what do the clubs do? They are forced to cut funding from their academies and grassroots projects just to fund the senior team's expensive signatures. It becomes a toxic, endless chain reaction.

And it's not just the salaries. Because these clubs don't have access to club-owned, FIFA-standard stadiums, they have to play in government-owned facilities for which they must pay massive daily rental fees. This makes them lose even more cash.

Many of these clubs end up with such a high debt-to-equity ratio that a time comes when they simply cannot pay their players or staff anymore. Ultimately, they are forced to padlock their gates, close their doors, and exit Indian football forever.

And we cannot blame the clubs.

They want to invest in grassroots. They want to build world-class residential academies like Ajax, La Masia, or La Fabrica. They want to invest in everything that makes them sustainable while growing the sport in India. But if the system itself is built in a way that forces clubs to lose money, how can you ever expect to grow?

A few clubs backed by billionaires and top industrialists can afford to survive the bleeding, but the rest? I cannot assure you about them.

Right now, clubs in India lose massive amounts of money across three main operational costs:

• Player Salaries

• Stadium & Training Facility Rents

• Franchise Fees / League Participation Fees 

  

These are the single biggest expenses a club faces in India. That is why it is so incredibly difficult for any team to sustain itself in this environment. And in return, you can't even expect a decent payout from a broadcast deal. Even clubs that earn promotion to the top tier are forced to pay hefty franchise fees despite having much shallower pockets.

But let's assume we magically solve all these operational league issues. Will Indian football suddenly flourish?

Naah!!

How many clubs do you think we actually have in India? Asking this question is critical, because at the end of the day, clubs are the ones conducting trials, scouting, and running the academies. Practically speaking, there is no other way to climb the football ladder in India. We do not have a robust school or university football ecosystem like Japan does.

Imagine a 6-year-old kid named Shivam who lives in Bihar. He plays football with his friends and dreams of playing professionally. But he soon realizes there is no local club in Bihar. Forget a local club—they don't even have a team playing in the top tiers of Indian football. If he wants to go professional, he has to travel to an entirely different state or city where clubs actually exist just to give a trial.

In all this chaos, he easily turns 12 years old because no parents are going to send a 6-year-old kid to a different state alone. By the time he finally gets his shot, the competition he faces from kids who grew up in that club's city will be immense—effectively killing his entire footballing career before it even starts.

The Blueprint for a Turnaround:

We desperately need to incentivize investors who want to create new clubs. If their initial spend is lower, they will actually have hope of seeing an upside in this industry. Once they see that potential, they will absolutely start new clubs in their own localities.

The AIFF needs to step up and request the Sports Ministry to help lower stadium rental fees or subsidize them completely for professional clubs. This would instantly erase a massive chunk of debt from the clubs' accounts.

Instead of a franchise-fee model where everyone loses money, the league should switch to a partnership model. Let the clubs lead the operations, and let them earn the majority share of the central revenue.

The AIFF must also enforce a strict salary cap and ensure there are no shady side deals happening under the table. If a club breaks the rules, the AIFF should ban the entire club—not just for one year, but for two full seasons. This will bring immediate equality to the market. Clubs with massive financial backing will be restricted to spending the same as everyone else, making the league much more competitive. When games are fiercely competitive, fans enjoy them more, viewership grows, and the ecosystem thrives.

If clubs can slash the majority of the unnecessary expenses they are carrying right now, they can take a massive step toward a sustainable future. This will naturally elevate the leagues and grow Indian football from the ground up.

Fortunately, something like this was recently discussed. The AIFF and ISL clubs have been working toward a deal where clubs take over the operations of the league, deciding on sponsors, broadcasters, and the overall future direction. Most importantly, the clubs would retain the majority of the league's profits. This is exactly what Indian football needs to survive.

Now, it's just a matter of certain clubs sorting out their immediate sponsorship fiascos so they don't miss out on this massive window of opportunity. 

Clubs like Inter Kashi and Kerala Blasters are already in deep discussions with major investors. Nothing is concrete yet, but it feels like we are finally moving on the correct path.

Question for the readers...

What do you think the ISL will look like in the next 4–5 years? 

Will these structural shifts save our clubs, or is the financial damage already too deep to repair? 

Write down your answers in the comments—I would love to hear them!