The new season of ISL is going to start after a monthImage Credit source: PTI

The deadlock that has been going on for several months in Indian football has finally ended and there is a relief news for all the footballers and fans. The new season of India's top domestic footballer tournament, Indian Super League, has been announced. Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced this while talking to the media on Tuesday 6 January. Mandaviya told that the new season will start from February 14. In this way, the situation of uncertainty regarding the new season that was going on for the last 8-9 months has ended for the time being.

isl The previous season ended in April 2025 and since then the situation regarding the new season started worsening. This is because the agreement between the Indian Football Association (AIFF) and its co-organizer FSDL at the time of the league's inception had ended with the last season. Since then, no agreement could be reached between AIFF and FSDL regarding a new agreement and the football association was also not getting new sponsors for the league. Due to this, the league could not start on time.

How many matches and how much budget?

To end this chaos that had been going on for many months, AIFF took the help of the Sports Ministry and finally this good news came out after the meeting with Sports Minister Mandaviya on January 6. Mandaviya announced in front of the media that the tournament will start from February 14, in which all 14 clubs will participate. A total of 91 matches will be played in the tournament, which will be played in single leg home-away format. However, the clubs will decide together which team will play which match in the home or away leg.

The Indian Super League 2025-26 will begin on February 14, 2026.#ISL #IndianFootball pic.twitter.com/mhVNkT0YoF

— Indian Football (@IndianFootball) January 6, 2026

As far as the budget is concerned, you will be shocked to know the amount of money being spent for this season. A central pool of Rs 25 crore has been created to organize this league. Let us tell you that this amount is so low that stars like Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant are taking more salary than this in one season of IPL. While Pant is getting Rs 27 crore for a season of 2 months, Iyer is getting Rs 26.75 crore for the same period.

ISL tension is not completely over

However, this is not the final solution to the problem of ISL as at present the main sponsor has not been found for the league.