Diamond Harbour have until 2pm to pay, and the ISL has moved to 10 October
The Indian Super League will now start on 10 October, five weeks later than the date that had been in circulation. Diamond Harbour FC, who won promotion last season, have until Wednesday afternoon to pay 55 lakh rupees or watch it start without them.
Aug 19, 2026
The Indian Super League will now start on 10 October, five weeks later than the date the league itself had been advertising, and one of the fourteen clubs that should be in it has until 2pm on Wednesday to pay 55 lakh rupees or stop being one of them.
The club is Diamond Harbour FC, which won promotion by finishing top of the Indian Football League last season.
The deadline was five days ago
Every ISL club owes a participation fee of 1.1 crore rupees this season, split into two instalments of 55 lakh. The second was due on 14 August. Thirteen clubs paid it. Diamond Harbour asked for more time, and the All India Football Federation has given them until 2pm on Wednesday 19 August.
If the money does not arrive, the federation’s position is that the season goes ahead with thirteen teams and nobody is added in Diamond Harbour’s place. There is no relegation clause being invoked here and no disciplinary process. The club simply would not be in the league it earned its way into.
Their first instalment was not paid in cash either. It was adjusted against prize money the federation already owed them, which tells you something about how tight the finances are at a club that was playing in the fourth tier three seasons ago.
Tata Steel sold a nine-year ISL club for a hundred rupees
Diamond Harbour are not the only reason the number keeps moving. Jamshedpur FC, in the league since 2017-18, have withdrawn. They missed the 20 July deadline to confirm participation and pay their first instalment, and Jamshedpur Football and Sporting Private Limited, the Tata Steel company that owns them, said it needed shareholder approval before signing up to the league’s new club-run structure.
Nine seasons produced one League Shield, in 2021-22, and one other playoff appearance, in 2024-25. Tata Steel has since agreed to sell its entire holding in JFSPL to Churchill Brothers Sports Club Private Limited for 100 rupees. Churchill have paid the full 1.1 crore fee, and they are expected to take on twelve player contracts and two coaches from September. The transaction is due to complete by 31 August if the AIFF approves it.
Jamshedpur, meanwhile, are still playing. They beat Defenders FC 5-0 in their opening Durand Cup match and went out to Mohun Bagan on penalties in the quarter-finals on Monday, which is a strange way to spend the summer after leaving the top division.
Seven months, and a calendar that has changed twice
The 10 October date restores a full seven-month season running to April or May, after the shortened campaign that got the last one finished. The 4 September date was still the one in circulation as recently as last week. It is worth keeping the second tier separate here: the Indian Football League starts on 16 October with eleven clubs, and that date has been fixed since July.
All of this sits on top of the four-year agreement signed on 8 July that hands the clubs the ISL’s commercial rights through a company they control, with the federation keeping the regulatory side. The clubs wanted ownership of the league. They now own a league whose start date has moved twice and whose fourteenth member is a promoted side counting down to a Wednesday afternoon.