Indian Football Suffers Fresh Setback: Only One Play-off Slot In Third-Tier AFC Challenge League For 2027-28

The administrative mess in Indian football contributed to a new low in the continental stage as the country was handed just one play-off slot for the 2027-28 season of the AFC Challenge League, the third and last tier in Asia's club structure.

For a few years in the past, Indian clubs had even played in the group stage of the top-tier AFC Champions League (ACL), but have had to be content with ACL2 -- the second tier -- appearances in recent times.

India has been already allotted two play-offs slots for the 2026-27 ACL 2. East Bengal, which won the Indian Super League title on Thursday, and Super Cup champions FC Goa will feature in the ACL 2 play-offs round in July-August.

But for the 2027-28 season, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Friday allocated just one play-off round slot for India in the third tier AFC Challenge League, which is meant for clubs from countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh.

The AFC made the slot allocations for 2027-28 AFC Men's Club Competitions after the conclusion of the 2025-26 season in the member association countries.

"It is shocking, we were playing in ACL top division and then ACL 2. Now we are going to play in the third tier with clubs from countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan -- basically SAFF countries," a former football official told PTI.

"It's not even a direct group stage slot for the third tier AFC Challenge League, it's a play-offs slot. That is really hard to believe, but then our football system has been deteriorating and on the downhill for some time." He said the lure of foreign players to play for ISL clubs may reduce in the upcoming season as India will compete with lesser-known clubs of mostly South Asian countries.

Basically, the slot allocation for Asian club competitions is based on member association ranking -- which is different from FIFA rankings which are based on national team performance.

This ranking is, in turn, based on criteria such as technical standard of domestic league, club licensing system, number of AFC compliant stadia, sporting integrity, governance and regulations, competition format, among others.

Regarding the competition format, the 2026 regulations of the AFC clearly states that each club in the domestic top division shall play a minimum of 24 matches per season, including the domestic top division league and domestic cup, if the member association aspires to play in the ACL Elite and ACL 2.

The AFC's 2026 regulations also say that for a country to have clubs in the ACL Elite and ACL 2, the domestic top division should have a minimum duration of eight months, as well as a home and away format.

In the just completed truncated ISL, each club had played 13 matches, and the format was also not home and away.

In fact, the 2025-26 ISL season fulfils AFC's criteria for third tier AFC Challenge League, which reads: Each club in the domestic top division shall play a minimum of 12 matches per season, a home and away league format or a single round-robin league format for the domestic top-division league.

With the performance of the Indian clubs in the continental stage also not up to the mark in the last few years, the member association ranking for the country has gone down from 10th earlier to 15th this year in the West Asia region. That also contributed to the demotion during slot allocation.

AFC divides the continent into two divisions for club competitions -- West and East. India is clubbed in the West region along with the likes of Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan.