East Bengal remind India that football’s passion still burns, AIFF and the system must now respond

There is a thing about sports: when things seem to be at their lowest, it has this uncanny ability to swing us back upwards in the most unexpected way. To script revivals that always felt impossible. Sports, as they say, are a beacon of hope, and the strongest example of it played out at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan on Thursday as East Bengal FC ended a 22-year wait for a national league title by winning their first Indian Super League (ISL) title.

The Red and Gold brigade made history by winning a season that almost never happened. By winning a league that may not exist next season.

Chaos and glory on the final day

With the All India Football Federation (AIFF) not having a commercial partner last year, the league, which was supposed to begin in September, eventually kicked off only in February, with a reduced number of matches. With nobody willing to take responsibility, the clubs themselves came together to organise a tournament that will now go down in Indian football history for producing one of its most thrilling title races ever.

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Five teams entered the final day with a mathematical chance of winning the title, while three remained in contention almost until the final whistle. It eventually ended with East Bengal winning their first national league crown since 2004. Twenty-two years of agony, anxiety and heartbreak poured out on the pitch in Santoshpur, Kolkata, as one of Indian football’s most storied clubs returned to the summit of the domestic pyramid under Spanish coach Oscar Bruzon.

The scenes that unfolded after the final whistle will linger for a long time. Few sports possess football’s ability to bring together every corner of society in collective celebration. As the ‘refugees’ of Kolkata reveled in the moment, one question inevitably surfaced: how did Indian football end up here?

Indian football’s deeper crisis

If there is so much passion and such a deeply rooted fan culture, why does Indian football continue to struggle for relevance? The answer perhaps lies in poor administration and a deeply flawed ecosystem where self-interest is prioritised over the fans and even the sport itself.

It is that same uncertainty and dysfunction that led Oscar Bruzon to unexpectedly announce his departure from the Maidan club at the end of the season, just 18 days before he scripted history with East Bengal. The Spanish tactician pointed to the uncertainty surrounding the future of the ISL as a key reason behind his difficult decision.

“I started working on the ongoing season in February 2025 onwards. We are in May 2026. There is no long-term vision, no planning, and no continuity talks with key players. There is nothing at all about the future of East Bengal.

“So, as the head coach and responsible for what happened this season, I want to announce that it is my decision not to continue in East Bengal when we finish the season on May 31,” Oscar said.

On May 4, when Oscar dropped that bombshell, East Bengal were still three points behind league leaders Jamshedpur FC. Less than three weeks later, he is celebrating East Bengal’s return to the top of Indian football.

And a day later, as we try to soak in the magnitude of what has just happened, a defining new chapter of Indian football could possibly be written. The ISL clubs are expected to meet the AIFF in Kolkata on Friday to discuss the next steps for the league. The survival of most of the clubs is tied to the future of the league.

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AIFF is in the process of bringing in the UK's Genius Sports as the next commercial partner, but that's not something the clubs want. Rattled by the lack of guaranteed revenue, the teams are pushing for a 'club-led model' where they control the 90% stake and have freedom to execute commercial and operational decisions, while AIFF remains a partner with 10% stake.

It's surely something AIFF is not going to be happy with, especially in a time when it has seen its revenue generation severely constrained by the bitter exit of Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), which paid Rs 50 crore annually to the national body as ISL's commercial partner till 2025.

But what real options do they have? Presently, there's almost nothing. The Genius Sports' agreement only guarantees a little over Rs 10 crore to AIFF annually, a value that cannot survive the league, let alone 13 clubs.

If anything, it is time for the national federation and the clubs to take a cue from East Bengal’s fairytale triumph. The passion is there. The fight is there. What Indian football desperately needs now is a sustainable ecosystem, one built on compromise, trust and partnership.