‘The Free Market Doesn’t Work’: Bengaluru FC Owner Parth Jindal’s Vision for Transforming Indian Football

With the Indian Super League facing an existential crisis, Bengaluru FC owner Parth Jindal has issued a stark warning: without sweeping structural reforms, Indian Football risks permanent stagnation despite possessing talent and infrastructure. The JSW Sports founder, whose portfolio spans multiple successful franchises including Delhi Capitals in the IPL, is calling for radical changes that mirror cricket’s auction system and Major League Soccer’s closed league model.

“The free market doesn’t work,” Jindal declared bluntly, advocating for an IPL-style auction or player draft system combined with an MLS-inspired closed league structure. His proposals come at a critical juncture—after months of uncertainty, the ISL finally announced a February 14 start date for a truncated 2025-26 season, but the sport’s long-term viability remains in serious doubt.

The Current Crisis: Financial Unsustainability

The Indian Super League’s delayed start exposes deep structural problems that Parth Jindal argues have plagued Indian Football for years. Originally scheduled to begin in September 2025, the season faced repeated postponements after the Master Rights Agreement between the All India Football Federation and Reliance-owned FSDL expired in December with no commercial partner secured.

Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s intervention proved necessary to break the impasse, with all 14 clubs eventually agreeing to participate despite shouldering enormous financial burdens. The clubs must contribute 60 percent of operational costs—approximately Rs 1 crore per club from a total Rs 25 crore budget—to ensure the season proceeds.

“Tremendous sacrifice from all clubs is being asked for to play the ISL in its current format,” Jindal wrote on social media. “Repercussions if we don’t have a league are very worrying.”

The Financial Reality for ISL Clubs

Jindal emphasized that these losses persist “irrespective of performance”—winning or losing makes little difference to the financial hemorrhaging that clubs experience annually. His father, industrialist Sajjan Jindal, reportedly questions the investment in football when similar funds could develop elite athletes in other sports.

“But if we walk away, I don’t know what happens next,” Parth Jindal remarked, underlining Indian Football’s precarious state. He’s warned that without player cooperation in accepting reduced wages for the truncated season, “this year’s numbers without the players helping out will force many to shut shop for good.”

The IPL-Style Auction Proposal

Parth Jindal’s primary reform proposal centers on adopting an auction or draft system for Indian players, explicitly modeled after successful domestic leagues like the Indian Premier League, Pro Kabaddi League, and other franchise-based competitions.

Proposed Auction System Structure

Under this system, clubs could retain a limited number of players—particularly those developed through their youth academies—while the majority of Indian players would enter an auction or draft pool. Foreign players would be signed within a defined salary cap framework, ensuring competitive balance and financial sustainability.

“In a free market, clubs keep losing money,” Jindal explained. “Only leagues governed by auctions or drafts actually become sustainable.”

The model addresses a fundamental problem in Indian Football: wealthy clubs can simply outspend competitors in the transfer market, creating competitive imbalance while simultaneously driving up costs for everyone. An auction system would distribute talent more equitably while controlling wage inflation.

The MLS Closed League Model

Perhaps most controversially, Parth Jindal advocates for eliminating relegation entirely, adopting Major League Soccer’s closed league structure where teams buy into the competition through participation fees rather than earning their place through sporting merit.

“For this to work, there can be no relegation,” Jindal stated firmly.

This represents a radical departure from traditional football’s promotion-relegation pyramid, which the AIFF has actually been moving toward implementing. The 2025-26 season was supposed to introduce promotion and relegation in accordance with Asian Football Confederation roadmaps, with relegated clubs receiving parachute payments based on time spent in the competition.

MLS Model vs. Traditional Football Structure

Jindal argues that poor-performing teams should receive support through higher draft picks in subsequent seasons—the American sports model where struggling franchises get first selection of incoming talent—rather than facing the financial catastrophe of relegation.

This ensures long-term stability and encourages investment, since owners don’t risk losing their entire enterprise through poor on-field performance. In traditional promotion-relegation systems, the threat of dropping down creates massive financial uncertainty that discourages sustainable investment.

The Historical Context: Progress and Decline

Parth Jindal hasn’t always been pessimistic about Indian Football. Having been involved for over 13 years, he witnessed remarkable progress at various stages, with India’s FIFA ranking improving significantly and Indian clubs and players making international marks.

However, he laments that recent years have seen sharp decline, citing poor results and structural issues that have reversed earlier gains. This deterioration occurred despite the ISL successfully building quality football infrastructure across India—a foundation that structural reforms could leverage.

“There must be a strong, stable league feeding directly into the national team,” Jindal asserted. “That’s the only path forward for Indian Football.”

His point echoes observations from successful footballing nations: domestic league strength directly correlates with national team performance. England’s Premier League dominance supports their national team. Spain’s La Liga excellence fed their World Cup and European Championship victories. Indian Football cannot compete internationally without a robust, financially sustainable domestic ecosystem.

“Globally, football is evolving rapidly, we are not,” sources close to Jindal’s thinking report him saying, emphasizing how Indian Football risks being left behind as international football advances tactically, commercially, and structurally.

Lessons from the IPL Success

Parth Jindal’s advocacy for cricket-style reforms isn’t theoretical—he’s witnessed the IPL model’s success firsthand as co-owner of Delhi Capitals. The IPL transformed Indian cricket from a financially struggling sport into a commercial juggernaut worth billions, with franchise values skyrocketing and player salaries reaching astronomical levels.

The IPL’s auction system creates genuine competitive balance. Even the most successful franchises must rebuild periodically as they cannot retain all their stars. This prevents dynasties while maintaining fan engagement across all teams. Smaller market franchises can compete with established giants through smart drafting and strategic auction planning.

Most crucially, the IPL has proven financially sustainable. Clubs generate profits through centralized commercial deals, while the auction system controls costs and prevents unsustainable wage spirals. Every franchise understands their financial parameters before each season begins.

Jindal believes these principles can translate to Indian Football. The Pro Kabaddi League—another JSW Sports property where similar auction systems operate—has demonstrated the model’s viability beyond cricket.

Resistance and Challenges

Implementing Parth Jindal’s vision faces significant obstacles. Football’s traditional culture reveres the promotion-relegation system as fundamental to sporting integrity. European football’s success built on this meritocratic foundation, where even the smallest clubs dream of ascending through the pyramid to the top flight.

The AIFF has committed to implementing promotion-relegation in accordance with AFC guidelines. Reversing this commitment would face fierce resistance from I-League clubs who view the ISL as already enjoying unfair privileged status.

Key Stakeholder Positions

Additionally, eliminating relegation removes the existential fear that often drives competitive intensity. Critics argue that without relegation’s threat, teams have less incentive to invest in winning, potentially reducing match quality and fan engagement.

The financial sustainability argument itself faces scrutiny. MLS operates in a unique American sports market with different commercial dynamics and fan expectations. Whether a closed league would attract sufficient commercial interest in India—where football competes with cricket for sponsorship dollars—remains uncertain.

The Broader Vision for Indian Football

Beyond specific proposals, Parth Jindal articulates a broader vision for Indian Football’s future. He emphasizes that the sport has talent and infrastructure—what’s missing is structural stability that allows these assets to flourish.

His proposals aim to create:

Financial Sustainability: Predictable costs and revenues through auction systems and closed league structures, allowing clubs to plan long-term investments rather than gambling on unpredictable transfer markets.

Competitive Balance: Ensuring all clubs can compete regardless of ownership wealth, maintaining fan engagement across the league rather than concentrating interest in a few dominant teams.

Talent Development: Auction systems incentivizing youth academy investment, as clubs can retain academy graduates while other players enter the draft pool.

Commercial Viability: Creating an attractive product for sponsors and broadcasters through competitive balance and financial stability, similar to the IPL’s commercial success.

National Team Success: Building a strong domestic league that feeds talent to the national team, reversing India’s declining international performance.

The Path Forward

As the 2025-26 ISL season prepares to begin on February 14 in truncated format, Indian Football faces a crossroads. The current crisis has exposed fundamental weaknesses that Parth Jindal argues cannot be addressed through incremental reforms.

Whether the AIFF, clubs, and other stakeholders embrace his radical vision remains to be seen. The proposals challenge deeply held beliefs about football’s proper structure, setting up a philosophical battle between traditional sporting values and American-style franchise systems.

What’s undeniable is the urgency. With clubs losing Rs 20-30 crore annually, the current model is unsustainable. Bengaluru FC—one of Indian Football’s most successful clubs—operates at a loss despite strong performance. If even the best-run clubs cannot achieve profitability, the system itself is broken.

“We are in this for the love of football and to see our country play the beautiful game and be good at it,” Jindal emphasized, capturing the passion that drives his investments despite financial losses.

The question Indian Football must answer: Can that passion sustain the sport indefinitely, or must structural reforms provide a viable business model that allows love of the game to coexist with financial reality?

Parth Jindal believes he has the answer. Whether Indian Football is ready to embrace such dramatic change will define the sport’s future in the country for decades to come.

Read More: 6 ISL Clubs Awaiting Ministry Decision as Conditional Confirmations Create Uncertainty

FAQs