ISL impasse: Supreme Court offers ray of hope as it instructs AIFF, organisers to find a solution soon, says peport

A ray of hope has emerged for Indian football fans amid the Indian Super League (ISL) impasse as the Supreme Court on Friday asked the All India Football Federation and the league organisers, Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), to sit together and chalk out the future of the Master Rights Agreement (MRA).

The SC has asked both major stakeholders to find a solution by the next hearing, which has been pencilled in after just six days, at 1:15 PM on 28 August 2025, reported Khel Now and RevSportz.

AIFF, FSDL asked to find solutions to ISL impasse

The expiry of the 15-year MRA between AIFF and FSDL on 8 December 2025 has been the biggest impediment to getting the 2025-26 ISL season started. While FSDL wants to extend the contract and a guarantee from the AIFF, the national body has cited the impending SC judgement on its new constitution as the reason behind not signing an extension.

In the AIFF Constitution case, the SC bench of Justice Sri Narasimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that the judgement in the matter is read, but they want to review the new National Sports Governance Bill 2025 before delivering a final verdict.

All in all, the positive developments in the Supreme Court hint that if everything goes well, the issues related to ISL may get sorted soon, and the league could start in the next few months.

An absence of the top division league, even for one season, would be disastrous for Indian football. Besides hampering the progress of the national team, it would also impact several footballers, support staff, referees and the football clubs financially. Some may not even manage to recover from the financial blow.