New Delhi: The All India Football Federation is pacing itself anxiously towards Friday, when bids for the Indian Super League’s commercial rights would be opened, potentially deciding course of the game’s future in the country.

With clarifications to 234 queries from four companies that attended a pre-bid meeting issued on October 29, AIFF gave entities barely a week to place bids before its November 5 deadline, which was later extended by two days following requests from interested entities.

Reliance-subsidiary Football Sports Development Limited, Sporta Technologies Private Limited (Fancode), RAAK Group and a Germany-based company attended the pre-bid meeting on October 25 while JSW Sports, which owns ISL side Bengaluru FC, were not permitted owing to ‘conflict of interest’.

FSDL raised majority of the 234 queries, which the AIFF took four days to reply.

The entire process should have been completed by October 14, but formulating an exhaustive document along with disagreements over terms and conditions meant it extended well beyond the Supreme Court-mandated date.

Response to the tender within such a short of span time has kept AIFF on tenterhooks, as it has demanded an annual asking price of Rs 37.5 crore or five percent of “gross revenues” (whichever is higher) for the next 15 years apart from a host of other payments related to production and marketing of the event, central rights distribution, overall prize money, central revenue pool, VAR, grassroots development etc.

At least 14 teams are guaranteed to participate in 189 matches each season, with promotion and relegation of one team each to be implemented from the end of 2025-2026 season.

Relegated teams are guaranteed “parachute payments” as per time spent in the competition (1 year – 0%, 2 years – 20% of central revenue pool, 3 years – 30% of CRP, over 3 years – 40% of CRP).

Costs pertaining to the federation include parachute........

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