FanCode, a sports-focused platform owned by Dream Sports, has emerged victorious in the bid for exclusive domestic rights to the delayed Indian Super League (ISL) 2025-26 season. The season is set to commence later this month.
The service outbid six other contenders, including former rightsholder JioStar, securing both linear and digital rights for the upcoming season. In addition to this, Kaleidoscope Production Services (KPS Studios) has been awarded production rights for the competition’s world feed.
FanCode's winning bid was reportedly 8.62 crore rupees ($939,000), a significant decrease from Jiostar's previous payment of 275 crore rupees ($29.98 million) per season over the last two seasons. This reduction is attributed to ongoing operational issues faced by the All-India Football Federation (AIFF).
FanCode co-founder, Yannick Colaco, said:
“With the league’s strong and loyal fan following, we see a big opportunity to elevate how fans experience ISL through reliable, high-quality broadcast and a product designed around modern football audiences. This is in line with Dream Sports group’s overall vision of making sports better.”
AIFF's struggles and new tender launch
The AIFF had no choice but to launch a new tender last month after failing to secure a master rights holder for running the league during the 2025-26 campaign. This resulted in delaying its start until February 14th.
Last October saw AIFF launching its first tender with an aim of finding an operator with a 15-year mandate covering media rights, sponsorship, merchandising and more aspects of ISL management. However, this attempt failed as it did not attract any bidders.
Following these setbacks, AIFF sought guidance from India’s supreme court on next steps and decided to run Request For Proposal (RFP) process itself - marking it as first such instance in league history.
Suspension of ISL & investor concerns
ISL operations have been suspended since July when Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), stepped back from its role as the operator and commercial partner of the competition. Under their agreement, FSDL paid 50 crore rupees ($5.8 million) per year for total commercial and operations rights for the competition, as well as the Indian national team.
This suspension has led to growing investor concerns about financial stability. City Football Group, a multi-club ownership organization controlling English giants Manchester City among others, divested from its investment in Mumbai City FC club in December citing "ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of ISL." Despite these challenges, ISL's 14 constituent clubs have approved plans for a shortened season which has also been sanctioned by Asian Football Confederation governing body. However, this body stated that direct entry into AFC Champions League 2 tournament will no longer be possible.
The new plan includes 13 ISL games and three Indian Super Cup games per team - totaling to 16 games. This falls short of mandatory minimum requirement of 24 games for direct qualification into AFC Champions League necessitating teams to navigate through qualifying rounds - a task likely proving difficult due to lack of football action over past year.
