AIFF proposes the Board of Directors and Management Committee for ISL in a new charter

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Tuesday finalized the draft charter of the Indian Super League (ISL) for the competition for the 2026-2027 season, giving clubs and potential commercial partners an important seat at the table.

According to the charter, the league will be governed and managed by two committees, the Governing Council and the Management Committee, with the potential rights partner having three seats on each of the bodies.

The term of office of each nominated member of the Board of Directors (excluding Club representatives, unless there is a change in control of the Club) and the Management Committee is three ISL seasons, commencing from the season prior to their appointment.

The proposal, planned for a 20-season cycle, follows requests from clubs to create a Premier League-style hierarchy, in which a separate governing body runs the competition, along with representation from the English Football Association.

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The AIFF’s proposed plan underlines a pyramid of similar nature, keeping in mind the Constitution, whereby the ISL will be governed solely by it.

ISL Board Pyramid:

AIFF → ISL Board of Directors (22 members) → ISL Management Committee (11 members)

ISL Governing Council

The ISL Governing Council will consist of 22 members, 14 of whom will be from the clubs – one from each team – and three members from the rights partner. The remaining five members will be:

• President/Secretary General of the AIFF

• Vice Chairman of the AIFF

• Treasurer of the AIFF

• Two independent members without commercial association with AIFF, one of which will be nominated by the AIFF and the other by the clubs

The president or vice president of the Federation will serve as chairman of the committee. All decisions of the Council shall be taken by a simple majority vote of the members, with at least two (2) affirmative votes of AIFF members.

ISL Management Committee

The Management Committee will work for the competition as a local organizing committee – under the supervision of the Board of Directors – and carry out all day-to-day activities. These are the broad areas around which the committee will function:

• Operational Management

• Regulatory compliance

• Compliance monitoring

• Stakeholder management

• Sponsor management

• Financial Management

• Delegation through subcommittees

The Secretary General or Deputy Secretary General (1) of the AIFF will chair this committee and will have two (2) additional members of the Federation: Head of Competitions and Head of Strategy.

The federation may appoint any other AIFF employee of equivalent or comparable position and seniority as a substitute for the two offices. The remaining eight places in the committee are for the clubs (5) and the commercial partner (3).

Of the five club representatives, three will be chosen among themselves by majority vote (by all clubs), and two will come from the teams finishing in the top two (will change annually depending on the rankings).

If the members from the two directions coincide, a member from the next best club will be chosen to complete the five-member roster.

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In the case of the three members, no club may have a representative on the Management Committee for two (2) terms unless they have served a cooling-off period of three seasons between those terms.

A club representative’s term of office ends automatically if his club is relegated.

In addition, the following thresholds apply to voting by the Management Committee:

Majority:

Match day operations (e.g. stadium logistics, security protocols and ticketing), selection of suppliers under public procurement procedures under the Regulations, expenditure within approved budgets and implementation of marketing and promotional strategies will be resolved by a simple majority of the members present and voting at a duly convened meeting;

Majority + one AIFF member vote:

Any agreement entered into at the ISL level, the aggregate amount of which exceeds Indian Rupees One Crore (INR 1,00,00,000/-) or has a term of more than three years, or relates to a new broadcast partnership or commercial rights partner, or expenditure involving a deviation of more than 10 percent from the approved budget, shall be passed by a simple majority, but shall require at least one affirmative vote of an AIFF member.

Supermajority (75%) + 2 votes from one AIFF member:

Redistribution of revenues (for example, central revenue pools or allocation of prize money), decisions requiring a recommendation of a material change to the approved budget to the Board of Directors are adopted by a supermajority, with at least seventy-five percent of members present voting in favor of a decision, with at least two positive votes from AIFF members

The proposal was sent to all ISL clubs on Tuesday and the Federation expects a response and feedback in the coming days.

Published on January 13, 2026