AIFF adopts National Sports Governance Act, defers decision on ISL commercial partner

Kolkata: All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Saturday approved the adoption of the National Sports Governance Act but deferred a decision on the contentious matter of picking a new commercial partner for the Indian Super League during its Special General Body Meeting here.

The meeting, which was chaired by AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey, was attended by 19 Executive Committee members, 32 representatives from Member State Associations, along with representatives from FIFA and the AFC. The AIFF EC members do not have voting rights and cannot represent any member association.

"The AIFF conducted its Special General Body Meeting to deliberate upon the adoption of the National Sports Governance Act of 2025 (NSGA). During the meeting, the General Body unanimously approved the adoption of the NSGA by the AIFF," the federation said in a statement.

Subrata Dutta, chairman of Indian Football Association, the West Bengal state unit, said the AIFF constitution will now be aligned with the National Sports Governance Act 2025.

“The AIFF constitution will now be aligned with the National Sports Governance Act (NSGA) because the Supreme Court has said that the constitution submitted earlier will cease to apply once the NSGA is implemented," Dutta, who attended the SGBM, told PTI.

"The new framework under the NSG Act will then become applicable. Accordingly, the entire constitution will be redrafted in line with the new law. We expect the revised constitution to be finalised by June 30.” Regarding the new commercial partner for the ISL, London-based Genius Sports had emerged as the highest bidder in March, promising Rs 2129 crore annually for the next 15+5 years, starting 2026-27 season.

But the ISL clubs have proposed a different model. They want to keep 90% of the “economic interest in the league structure” and AIFF the rest. The clubs also want the highest bidders (Genius Sports) to stay only as the league’s data and technology partner.

"The Federation further discussed the Master Rights Agreement (MRA), for which, it has received bids from two entities. To that extent, the General Body unanimously approved that the Executive Committee be given the power to discuss and deliberate upon the MRA negotiations," the AIFF statement said.

According to Dutta, a final decision on the commercial partner will have to be taken by the General Body again.

“The Genius Sports matter has been referred to the Executive Committee along with the letters submitted by the clubs. The Executive Committee will deliberate on the issue and then place it before the General Body. If it is endorsed there, the matter will be implemented at the earliest,” said Dutta, who has earlier served as senior vice president of the AIFF.

Former AIFF President Praful Patel, who attended the meeting as a representative of Western India Football Association, proposed reducing the tenure of the agreement with the prospective commercial partner for ISL to five years from 20 years.

Dutta was also of the view that Articles 25.3 (c) and (d) of the AIFF Constitution, which prohibit persons from holding simultaneous dual posts in the AIFF and state associations will be not applicable now.

“As per clauses 25.3(c) and (d) of the earlier constitution, a person holding a position in a state association could not simultaneously hold office in AIFF, and vice versa. But since the Supreme Court-mandated constitution is no longer applicable, those provisions will also be set aside,” he said.

The SGM also discussed that the draft constitution for the Member Associations and they were allowed 15 days to respond with their final suggestions.