AIFF invites bids from consultancy firms to manage the process of granting commercial rights

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has invited bids from consultancy firms to manage the process of granting its commercial rights, and one of the most important requirements are a minimal annual turnover of RS 100 Crore in the past five years and earlier experience with performing at least five such deals.

In this context, the AIFF has issued a request for quotation (RFQ) and the last date of submission of bids is 14 September.

The Federation said that the purpose of this RFQ is «to provide the bidder (s) information that can help them formulate their proposals».

The bidder must «exist and have been in operation for at least five years and have previous experience with managing processes» for the granting of commercial rights, the AIFF said in the RFQ.

“The bidder must have an average annual turnover/reception of a minimum of RS 100 Crores (Indian rupees only a hundred crores) for the last five financial years.

«The bidder must have experience with performing at least five comparable assignments of at least three different customers in the past five years, with customers who can be governments, sports federations and/or competitions in India,» said it in the RFQ document under the subhead ‘suitability criteria’.

The AIFF has also made it clear that it will not entertain bids from entities that are on the black list/are excluded by the central or national governments, or by international or national sports federations.

«The selected bidder will study the best practices of granting rights such as the commercial rights in football around the world and in consultation with AIFF, determining the optimum basket of rights that will form the commercial rights, and the strategy to grant such rights to third parties, in a way that is most useful for Aiff, from an operational and financial perspective.»

The work of the consultancy firms will perform tasks such as «identifying and involving important stakeholders, drawing up the required documentation with detailed general terms and conditions and conducting background research and analysis for the preparation of the relevant documents, as and when necessary.»

During a hearing for the Supreme Court last month, the AIFF and its current commercial partner, FSDL (Football Sports Development Limited), who also organizes the Indian Super League, served a consensual resolution to carry out an open, competitive and transparent tender (or equivalent process) with a commercial part.

The AIFF and the FSDL agreed that the process will be closed on October 15, 2025, which determines clubs, broadcasters, sponsors and other stakeholders.

Subject to the permission of the AFC, the ISL season can start in December, they had told the court.

Een crisis dook op in het Indiase voetbal nadat FSDL op 11 juli het ISL-seizoen van 2025-26 «in de wacht» had geplaatst vanwege de onzekerheid over de vernieuwing van de Master Rights Agreement (MRA) met de National Federation, wat ten minste drie clubs ertoe aanzette om eerste teamactiviteiten te pauzeren of spelers en personeelskalers te schorten.

Published on September 8, 2025