The All India Football Federation never fails to disappoint with surprises, and the same has happened this time too. ISL 2025-26 has been dropped from the massively surprising football calendar.
Since its start in 2014, ISL has been one of the most-watched sports in India. The sudden disappearance of the league from the football calendar raises questions. Let’s find out.
What’s Happened With ISL?
Fans were shell shocked when news of ISL 2025–26 being dropped suddenly arrived at their doorstep. As the calendar for the sport came, there was no place for the Indian Super League.
The major reason for the uncertainty over ISL is the Master Rights Agreement. An MRA is a legal contract that outlines the ownership and usage rights of a product in use.
In this scenario, it’s the uncertainty surrounding the ISL—not the MRA itself—that has kept the tournament in jeopardy until now. The MRA for ISL ends in December, and there has been no renewal of it, which makes it even tougher.
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Why Did ISL Get Dropped?
Readers might be thinking that ISL is getting dropped because of no MRA renewal. Well, it may be one of the reasons, but there are other reasons too.
With the fan following and the viewership of ISL, the tournament has grown rapidly. This has gone on to overshadow the likes of the Super Cup, too.
Super Cup is one of the premier football tournaments in India, and as it collides with ISL, the teams have been sending reserve players to play in the tournament.
This has impacted the footfall in the stadiums and a cold response to the second-tier competition. This did influence AIFF to make some strict moves related to ISL.
As ISL has not been included in the 2025-2026 calendar, the fans, along with the team owners, aren’t happy at all. In order to show their disagreement, they have decided not to send teams even in the Durand Cup. Only time will tell how this all will pan out.
AIFF Competitions Calendar 2025-2026
The AIFF football competition calendar all around the year has been jam-packed with plenty of football matches. There is hardly room for a single month when we talk about placing ISL.
So, ISL 2025-26 has been dropped at the moment. This also shows the fact that AIFF takes its other tournament pretty seriously.
Looking at the game calendar, it has the following events:
| Event | Start Date | End Date |
| Junior Boys Tier 1 and Tier 2 | 10-07-2025 | 31-07-2025 |
| Junior Girls Tier 1 and Tier 2 | 10-07-2025 | 31-07-2025 |
| Durand Cup | 15-07-2025 | 23-08-2025 |
| Super Cup/Federation Cup | 01-09-2025 | 20-09-2025 |
| Sub-Junior Girls Tier 1 and Tier 2 | 10-08-2025 | 31-08-2025 |
| Senior Women’s Group Stage | 01-09-2025 | 20-09-2025 |
| AIFF Elite Youth League (U14/U16/U18) | 01-09-2025 | 31-05-2026 |
| Senior Women’s Final Round | 01-10-2025 | 15-10-2025 |
| I-League 3 | 01-10-2025 | 30-11-2025 |
| I-League | 19-10-2025 | 30-04-2026 |
| Indian Women’s League | 25-10-2025 | 30-04-2026 |
| Santosh Trophy Group Stage | 05-12-2025 | 20-12-2025 |
| Santosh Trophy Final Round | 01-01-2026 | 20-01-2026 |
| Indian Women’s League 2 | 25-01-2026 | 30-04-2026 |
| Beach Soccer Championship | 01-02-2026 | 15-02-2026 |
| Futsal Club Championship | 01-05-2026 | 20-05-2026 |
| Swami Vivekananda U-20 Championship | 01-04-2026 | 31-05-2026 |
Amit Mishra’s Take
It came as a massive surprise to me as well that ISL, for the time being, has been dropped from the Indian football calendar.
With the viewership, the financial gains, and also the quality of players emerging from ISL were massive. Not adding this tournament to the football calendar would be a loss for the country.
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