Parth Jindal recalls a quip from his father, the industrialist Sajjan Jindal. “He asks why I spend Rs 30 crore here when I can invest it in the Inspire Institute of Sport and create another Neeraj Chopra,” the owner of domestic giants Bengaluru FC says with a chuckle. “But if we walk away, I don’t know what happens next.”
Then again, few in Indian football know what will happen next. On Tuesday, after months of haggling, it was decided that the Indian Super League, which was supposed to begin in September, would finally start on February 14. But that’s a truncated season, hurriedly planned to ensure the league at least takes place. What happens after the season ends, nobody knows.
In an interview with The Indian Express, Jindal, whose JSW Sports owns teams in the Indian Premier League, Pro Kabaddi League and Hockey India League besides the ISL, proposes a Major League Soccer (MLS) model for India and insists that the free market policy for signing players, which adds to the franchise’s costs, must be replaced by a player draft or auction.
Excerpts:
an owner of a football team for 13 years, how frustrating or rewarding can it be to be invested in Indian football compared to the other sports you are in?
I feel very proud when I see the number of Bengaluru FC players that have gone on to represent India. So, for me, that feels very good. When I entered Indian football, India was ranked 173rd in the world. We went all the way up to the 90s; beat Thailand, drew away from home against China, did what we did against Qatar (a goalless draw), and Bengaluru FC went into the AFC Cup final. Unbelievable progress was made for some time. And then last 3-4 years, things have gone from bad to worse. I don’t know why that has happened. I think the AIFF… I think the players started getting too much money, and they lack motivation. I don’t know. I can’t put a finger on it.
But it can’t be just the players making too much money…
Globally, football is evolving rapidly. Unfortunately, we are not. That’s a much bigger conversation—too few quality academies, not enough youth-level matches, and structural gaps. In my 13 years, Indian football largely moved upward. There were hopeful stories: Gurpreet playing in Norway, Changte going to Liverpool, Aditi Chauhan to West Ham, Bala Devi to Rangers. It felt like something big was coming. But the last two years have been our lowest point since I began. Yes, Bengaluru reached the ISL finals—great. But India lost to Bangladesh. That’s just pathetic. We can’t be losing to Bangladesh, Singapore, or Hong Kong. It hurt deeply.
What do you hope will be a long-term solution for the league?
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We hope somebody picks it up (broadcast and commercial rights). However, the key for it to work is that it must move to a draft or an auction. The league cannot continue in this free-market way.
Why do you say an auction or draft could work?
In a league with a centrally allocated budget, you can’t play around. Every successful Indian league—the IPL, WPL, kabaddi, hockey, badminton, table tennis, wrestling, volleyball—runs on an auction. None is a free market except the ISL, and even it began with a draft. That should be the model: an auction or draft for Indian players. Clubs could pre-sign five U-23 domestic players from their academies, with full retentions reducing their draft purse or position, as in the IPL or Pro Kabaddi. Foreign players could be signed outside the auction but within a salary cap, with one or two marquee signings allowed beyond it. In year one, clubs could also retain three senior Indian players at a pre-determined cost deducted from their purse.
For all this to work, there can be no relegation. However, teams winning the lower leagues can come into the ISL by paying a participation fee. I am proposing a Major League Soccer (MLS) model for India. The MLS is a closed league with franchise-based membership, similar to the IPL or NBA. Teams do not move up or down based on performance; clubs buy into the league by paying an expansion fee, which has risen from $10 million in early years to more than $500 million recently. What happens if a team finishes last? No relegation, poor-performing teams are rewarded with higher draft picks, more allocation money. The idea is to promote competitive balance, not punishment.
Can there be fiscal discipline from the owners instead?
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If a club isn’t chasing the title and is clear about developing young players, it budgets accordingly, and even a playoff finish becomes a success. In my case, I was losing Rs 25 crore a season. The one year I cut the budget, we finished ninth and still lost Rs 20 crore, while other teams paid more to take my best players. So I thought, if I’m losing Rs 20 crore anyway, I might as well lose Rs 30 and win. The animal spirits kick in. In the IPL, though, teams can’t do that because of the rules. There, a poor auction strategy costs you. Strong scouting and player development give you an edge. That’s how it should work.
So you favour an auction or a draft mainly because it sorts out the economics of the league or the club in a more efficient manner?
Absolutely. And it makes it completely fair. The players’ income is controlled by the league’s revenue. If you look at IPL, it has taken the players’ salary cap from Rs 22 crores when it started to Rs 120 crores. As the league has grown and more revenue has come in, they have given the players more money. Now, the league isn’t generating income, then how can we keep paying players more and more? Even the Pro Kabaddi League had a player purse of Rs 50 lakh when it started in 2014. Today, it’s 4 crore because the income of the league has increased. Only the teams – American or Indian – that are governed by either a draft or an auction actually make money for the franchise owners. Any team, any club, any sport or any club that is governed by an open market never makes money.
Do you see light at the end of this tunnel?
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The talent is definitely there, but without a competitive league, it will fade away. The ISL has done a lot of good by creating excellent football infrastructure across the country. Most of the building blocks are now in place. However, without a stable, competitive league, the product suffers and talent withers. Owners also face a serious issue: the financial losses are too high, and this needs to be addressed collectively or individually, based on what each can sustain. Still, there must be a league—ideally with 20 teams playing weekly—and the best performers must feed directly into Team India. That’s the only path forward.