Panaji: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its marketing partners are nowhere close to resolving the impasse over the 15-year Master Rights Agreement (MRA) that ends on Dec 8.In the last couple of months, the parties have presented proposals of their own with little in common. While the marketing partners suggested formation of a new holding company that governs, operates, commercialises and funds ISL, with clubs, AIFF and FSDL as the shareholders, the federation is in favour of an all-cash deal that provides them a minimum guarantee of Rs 50 crore, now with a five percent increment every year.The AIFF has told FSDL, a joint venture between Reliance and Star which runs the top league, they are ready to issue a 10-year sanction to run ISL and provide “full commercial freedom”. The federation’s proposal, which reduces the rights only to the top-tier league, at a higher price, and does not address the fundamental structure issues, has met with an expected response from the marketing partners: the present offer is not acceptable.“A comprehensive approach to the league structure is critical, along with aligning with the league governance framework to global best practices, which is essential to long term stability,” FSDL wrote in an email to AIFF. “This will help safeguard the investments made by the clubs over time.”According to FSDL, the ISL and its associated clubs face significant challenges under the current structure, “having already made an investment of over Rs 5000 crores into the ecosystem without any financial returns.”The marketing partners have had detailed discussions with AIFF on the challenges during meetings on Feb 4 (Delhi) and March 5 (Mumbai), where the need for a sustainable ecosystem for football in India was emphasised.“The commercial challenges make AIFF’s proposal untenable,” said one official who has been tracking the developments. “In the proposal, the federation retains all non-ISL rights which includes the national team and national team competitions. Earlier, FSDL held rights to all properties (since 2010); now they have only ISL and will have to pay a higher fee.”The AIFF has also sought five percent of any appreciation arising from sales of teams leading to expansion.The uncertainty over the start of the ISL saw Sunil Chhetri voice everyone’s concerns. The India captain said the current state of “uncertainty” in Indian football is very concerning and the sport’s ecosystem is “worried, hurt, and scared” with the top-tier ISL now put on hold indefinitely.
