After ISL Woes, Indian Football Faces Further Turmoil as I-League Club SC Bengaluru Drag AIFF to CAS

A little over a month after the Court of Arbitration for Sport, or CAS for short, announced Inter Kashi as the I-League winners and left the All India Football Federation or AIFF looking foolish, another club has dragged the Indian football federation to the Swiss-based court as SC Bengaluru has registered a case over their relegation from the second-division league. 

Bengaluru and Delhi FC were the two teams relegated but there was a stay on that taking place from the appeals committee. 

The next hearing is set for September 23, meaning the I-League finds itself in a similar limbo that the Indian Super League or ISL is currently mired in. 

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What is SC Bengaluru's Case Against AIFF and I-League?

Bengaluru believe they have a case because they were up against a Namdhari FC side that fielded an ineligible player - which has echoes of Inter Kashi's first grievance. 

What's more, Delhi FC have pointed to the fact that relegation in the league has often been served up on an arbitrary basis and has often been waived off in the past. 

A similar case could apply to Bengaluru too, as other teams have successfully appealed against relegation from the league in the past as well. 

What this means for the broader Indian football landscape, however, is that the top and second division leagues are both mired in total uncertainty as of this writing. 

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Why ISL is In Limbo

As for the ISL, there appears to be no movement on the issues that divide them and the AIFF - a new Master Rights Agreement (MRA) is nowhere close, and an extension of the current deal hasn't been done. 

This has led to many clubs suspending operations and even stopping salaries for players as well as other employees. To make things worse, the clubs have not been working on player signings either. 

That could lead to a scenario where clubs don't make too many big signings, as the international transfer window closes on September 1 - and any resolution to this impasse seems unlikely to be sorted by then.