The administrative mess in Indian football contributed to a new low in the continental stage as the country was awarded just one play-off slot for the 2027–28 season of the AFC Challenge League, the third and final tier in the Asian club structure.
A few years ago, Indian clubs even played in the group stages of the AFC Champions League (ACL), but in recent times have had to settle for ACL2 appearances, the second tier.
India has already been allocated two play-offs for the ACL 2 2026-27. East Bengal, who won the Indian Super League title on Thursday, and Super Cup champions FC Goa will participate in the ACL 2 play-offs round in July-August.
But for the 2027-2028 season, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Friday allocated only one play-off round to India in the third-tier AFC Challenge League, which is for clubs from countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh.
The AFC made the slot allocations for the 2027-2028 AFC Men’s Club Competitions after the end of the 2025-26 season in the member association countries.
The allocation of slots for Asian club competitions is based on the rankings of the member associations, which is different from the FIFA rankings, which are based on the performance of national teams.
This ranking is in turn based on criteria such as the technical standard of the national league, the club licensing system, the number of AFC-compliant stadiums, sporting integrity, governance and regulation, the competition format, and much more.
In terms of competition format, the AFC’s 2026 Rules clearly state that each club in the National Top Division must play a minimum of 24 matches per season, including the National Top Division and National Cup, if the member association aspires to play in the ACL Elite and ACL 2.
The AFC’s 2026 rules also say that if a country wants to have clubs in the ACL Elite and ACL 2, the domestic top division must have a minimum duration of eight months, as well as a home and away format.
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In the just-completed truncated ISL, each club had played 13 matches, and the format was also not home and away.
In fact, the 2025-2026 ISL season meets AFC’s criteria for the third tier of the AFC Challenge League, which reads: Each club in the domestic top division plays a minimum of 12 matches per season, a home and away league format or a single round-robin league format for the domestic top division.
With the performance of Indian clubs on the continental stage also not being up to par in recent years, the ranking of member associations for the country has fallen from 10th earlier to 15th this year in the West Asia region. That also contributed to the relegation during the slot allocation.
AFC divides the continent into two divisions for club competitions: West and East. India is clubbed in the Western region along with countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
Published on May 22, 2026
