Super Cup from Oct 25, AIFF moves towards monetising commercial rights

Panaji: The season-ending Super Cup will now be held at the start and will involve teams from the top two tiers of Indian football, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) confirmed on Sunday.

Last week, the AIFF contacted ISL clubs and sought to know their willingness to play in the Super Cup once the FIFA international window ends on October 14. Many clubs were reluctant, unless they knew when the Indian Super League (ISL) would kick off, a concern the federation addressed on Sunday by issuing a Request For Quotation (RFQ), inviting bids from firms to manage the process of awarding the rights to monetise commercial rights, including “the organisation of a professional football league.”

The AIFF plans to organise the Super Cup “in a phased manner” from Oct 25 to Nov 22. Source said, depending on the number of teams, the tournament will take a break for the FIFA international window from Nov 10-18.

"Depending on the response from clubs, we will decide on the format for the Super Cup, and it will most probably be a league-cum-knockout event,” AIFF deputy secretary general M Satyanarayan told TOI on Sunday. “It’s an important tournament for Indian football. We will ensure our clubs play the required number of games to qualify for AFC club competitions.”

Should India’s member association (MA) ranking and slot allocation for AFC competitions remain unchanged for 2026-27 season, the Super Cup winners will qualify for the AFC Champions League Two playoff. FC Goa won the tournament last season and then defeated Al Seeb (Oman) to make it to the group stage of Asian football’s second-tier club competition.

An invitation to bid will be sent to all state associations, seeking hosts for the Super Cup.

The AIFF had an emergent meeting on Sunday night to discuss the way ahead, following last week's Supreme Court directive. The apex court had asked the federation to “issue necessary tenders inviting bids for open, competitive and transparent process for selection of its commercial partner to conduct Indian Super League.”

The RFQ for selection of an agency for managing the process related to awarding the rights to monetise commercial rights of AIFF has already been issued. The technical and financial bids will be opened on Sept 15.

"To oversee the selection process, the executive committee (of the AIFF) resolved to form a three-member Bid Evaluation Committee. The BEC will be chaired by Hon'ble Justice L Nageswara Rao, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India," the AIFF said in a statement on Sunday. Kesavaran Murugasu, member, Audit & Compliance Committee, Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and Kalyan Chaubey, AIFF president, are the other members of the committee.