Defending champions East Bengal FC (EBFC) got their Indian Super League campaign off to a resounding start with a dominant 4-0 victory over Churchill Brothers in Fatroda on Sunday (October 18, 2026).

Also read | ISL: Bagan fights back for a win over SC Delhi

Goals from Dani Ramirez, Edmund Lalrindika and substitute Bipin Singh (2) sealed the points for Antonio Habas’ side.

EBFC took the lead in the second minute through a stunning free-kick from Ramirez. The midfielder struck with his left foot from outside the penalty area, curling the ball into the top-left corner.

Churchill Brothers responded with urgency, creating opportunities to get back into the contest. They came close to finding an equaliser and even struck the woodwork, but East Bengal remained defensively organised to preserve their advantage.

EBFC doubled their lead towards the end of the first half with a well-worked attacking move as David Hmar received the ball on the left, held it up before picking out Edmund, who made a timely run into the box to finish past Sayad Kadir.

Both teams created chances in the early exchanges of the second half. However, the hosts struggled to make their opportunities count in the final third, while East Bengal remained composed with a two-goal advantage.

Habas introduced Bipin Singh in the second half, and the move paid off in the 85th minute as the winger scored a superb curling effort into the top corner to make it 3-0.

Bipin struck again five minutes later to complete his brace.

The defending champions have made a strong statement at the start of their campaign. Churchill Brothers, who began their season with a 1-0 win over Mumbai City FC, will look to bounce back when they face Punjab FC in a week’s time.

Mohun Bagan Super Giant overcame a listless first-half display to beat Sporting Club Delhi 2-1 in the Indian Super League at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Friday. Lee Erwin and Miguel Figueira scored for Bagan in front of a thin crowd largely backing the visitors.

Delhi’s lone goal came via Lalrinliana Hnamte. It was set up by left-back Manoj Mohammad, who spotted Hnamte’s angled run and duly found the midfielder with a lob over the Bagan defence. Hnamte, who had earlier taken a shot from distance, controlled the aerial pass with his chest and cushioned his finish past Bagan goalkeeper Vishal Kaith.

The Kolkata giant pressed hard for a response once the second half began, with Anirudh Thapa coming close to an equaliser in the 50th minute. The midfielder should have at least forced a save from the Delhi custodian, but his left-footed shot was slightly off target.

Thapa was able to make amends six minutes later by turning provider. Having received a pass on the right side of the 18-yard box, he teed up Rahul Bheke for a shot close to goal. While Bheke only managed to get an outstretched leg on the ball, Erwin was in the right position to latch on.

In the 60th minute, Bagan went ahead. Apuia did the hard work with a twinkle-toed run through a cluster of Delhi players. His subsequent pass for Figueira allowed the Brazilian to open up his body and slot the ball into the net.

The result: Sporting Club Delhi 1 (Lalrinliana Hnamte 23) lost to Mohun Bagan Super Giant 2 (Lee Erwin 56, Miguel Figueira 60).

Chennaiyin FC enters the Indian Super League season with renewed optimism.

After crawling to the penultimate position in the previous edition — before which it had hastily put together a squad — CFC has learnt that the first part of the journey is as important as the last.

When Chennaiyin takes the field for its opener against FC Goa in Fatorda on Saturday, it will do so with nearly two months of preparation under its belt.

Proper pre-season

“When the club was in talks with me to continue, the first thing I asked was a proper pre-season,” head coach Clifford Miranda said here on Thursday.

“We have had a seven-week pre-season and we are now in the competition period, so it is eight weeks. The club has provided me with what I wanted — timeframe, resources, facilities, friendlies etc. I am pleased with the signings we made… I am even more pleased with how the players have trained and the attitude they have shown. Now it is time for us to put everything together in the games,” Miranda added.

Another area that needed urgent introspection was goal-scoring.

Huge challenge

While Chennaiyin has drafted promising Brazilian forward Ramon Tanque, it is thin on personnel in that department.

“We have a top striker. If he stays fit, he is going to trouble a lot of defences: he is very explosive. The way we have organised our attacking structure, it is not just about Ramon. There are players around him who can arrive in good moments and score.”

CFC will hope it has plenty left in the ‘Tanque’.

Sporting Club Delhi finished third from bottom in a truncated 2025-26 Indian Super League (ISL) season.

Contrary to its last-gasp preparation in the lead-up to the previous edition amid severe uncertainty surrounding the league, the club has had more time to plan for the 2026-27 season. The build-up has entailed participation in the 135th edition of the Durand Cup, where it reached the semifinals before losing to eventual champion East Bengal FC on penalties.

It makes SC Delhi coach Tomasz Tchorz hopeful about the new ISL campaign. The northern outfit will face Bengaluru FC at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru in the opener on Saturday.

“It’s very exciting to have an opportunity to start the second season with SC Delhi. In the first season, where the threat of relegation was there, the most important thing was to stay in the league. But our objective is always to be in the top six. Our players now understand how it is to compete at the highest level in India. A takeaway from last season was the experience that the young talents got. This will be a positive for us in the new season,” Tchorz said during a virtual media interaction on Thursday.

To assist the Polish tactician in his objective, SC Delhi has made a few signings. Among them is 23-year-old midfielder Lalrinliana Hnamte, who was with Chennaiyin FC for the past two seasons.

“I’m very happy with his arrival. It’s a little bit of fresh air in the dressing room. It is important for us to create a group that is very competitive and represents our values but also gives us a little bit more of the leadership. He has already shown the qualities of being a leader.”

UAE-based sports and sports tech-consortium Al Fursan has officially become the owner of ISL club Kerala Blasters.

It has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% shares of Blasters from the Magnum group and the acquisition will be completed in phases over the next eight months during the 2026-27 season without disrupting the operations of the club. Al Fursan is led by Sheikh Ahmed bin Faisal Al Qaismi, a member of the ruling royal family of UAE,

Kerala-based sports management firm Ofioh Sporty has been appointed as operational partner with its CEO Thameem Anwar and co-founder Sharath Kuniyil overseeing the day-to-day affairs operations of the club. “The club is in safe hands,” said Anwar.

“The incoming ownership shares our belief in what Kerala Blasters represent and will carry the club forward with the ambition, care and respect it deserves. We would like to thank them for their thoughtfulness and professionalism throughout the process and wish them the very best for the journey ahead,” said Blasters on an Instagram post.

Ashley Westwood will remain as the head coach for the upcoming season. The team’s training camp will begin in Chennai on Wednesday and the full squad announcement is expected to be made this week.

Blasters, who open their ISL campaign against Inter Kashi on October 11, will play their first home match against Mumbai FC on October 25 at the Jawaharlal Nehru International stadium.

The over dependence on foreign players in domestic leagues is hampering the growth of Indian football, according to Ian Andrew Gillan, the newly appointed head coach of Thiruvananthapuram Kombans FC during an interaction with the media here on Monday evening.

“In all domestic leagues in India including the ISL and IFL, the key players are foreign stars. This hinders the development of Indian players. The main objective of these leagues should be to nurture the Indian players,’’ said Gillan who guided Calicut FC to the title in the inaugural edition of Super League Kerala (SLK).

Gillan pointed out that SLK was different from other leagues in this regard as the onus was on player development.

“The SLK rule that mandates two native under-23 players in the playing XI helps in their development and creates players of international standards. I talk from my own experience.

“I remember an under-23 player who played for Calicut FC figuring in the ISL, the top tier league in the country, in the same season and it represents his growth as well as that of SLK. If I find an Indian player better than a foreign player for a certain position, I will definitely play him,’’ he said.

The 61-year-old Scottish-Australian coach. who has had coaching stints in Australia, England, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Nepal, said Kombans will not disappoint their fans and will be keen to improve their poor home record this season.

“From the little time I spent with the boys, I feel we have a squad that is strong enough to face any challenge. I assure the Kombans fans that they will give their 100 percent this season. As far as tactics goes, it will be flexible depending on the opponents and the situation we are in, ‘’ he said.

The Thiruvananthapuram Kombans, which fielded foreign players mostly from Brazil in the first two seasons, will have a multi-national roster this time and will open its campaign against Gillan’s former club Calicut FC in an away match in Kozhikode on September 26.

Jamshedpur FC, which won the Indian Super League Shield in 2022, will not participate in the ISL from the 2026-27 season onwards.

The club made the announcement after the expiry of the All India Football Federation’s extended July 31 deadline for payment of the first instalment of the participation fee (Rs. 55 lakh).

While JFC, which finished sixth in 2025-26, has decided to fold its operations, the club stated that Jamshedpur Football and Sporting Private Limited will continue to work within Indian football in other capacities.

“We will continue in our endeavour to promote and develop the game of football, including at the grassroots level. We will continue to identify and develop young football talent across India to create a strong pathway for players from grassroots to national and international football,” JFC said in a statement.

The Red Miners made their ISL debut in 2017-18 and finished fifth in two consecutive seasons. After a disappointing 2019-20 campaign, Owen Coyle was appointed manager, and under the Scotsman, it became only the third club — after FC Goa and Mumbai City FC — to win the League Winners’ Shield.

Owned and managed by Tata Steel, JFC was the only club in the Indian topflight to own its stadium and training facilities. Its withdrawal from ISL adds to the uncertainty surrounding Indian football, with the league already navigating administrative and governance challenges in recent months.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) announced on Wednesday that the commercial rights of the Indian Super League (ISL) have been handed over to the 14 participating clubs ahead of the 2026-27 season. The agreement between the AIFF and teams will see the ISL move to a club-run model for the next four years.

“We are giving the clubs the commercial rights for this league. The AIFF shall hold on to the administrative aspects of organising the league,” M. Satyanarayan, AIFF’s deputy secretary general, said in his opening remarks at a press conference. “Over the next 24 hours, we will send a letter to all the clubs giving them two weeks to confirm their participation for next season,” he later added.

The development follows long-standing uncertainty surrounding the top tier of Indian football. The 2025-26 season was in limbo for many months amid the expiry of the Master Rights Agreement (MRA) between the AIFF and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) and a protracted legal battle. It was eventually held in a truncated format from February to May.

The 2026-27 edition will return to a full-fledged, home-and-away arrangement. The organisers are aiming to start the new campaign on September 4.

Mandar Tamhane, CEO of NorthEast United FC, said that the club-led model is followed by established leagues around the world. “It is uncharted territory for all of us. Hopefully, it will be beneficial for everybody involved,” Tamhane said.

According to Ravi Puskur, CEO of FC Goa, financial sustainability of the league has to be the key focus going forward. “The entire process has to be driven by that. It has to be run based on how much money the clubs can recover,” Puskur felt. “It is our intention to put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to get a broadcaster on board as soon as possible. That is our next priority.”

While the agreement is for four years, the clubs have been granted the option of exiting this framework at the end of two years. “The way the clubs have come forward and shown confidence, I don’t see that happening,” Satyanarayan said optimistically.

Kerala Blasters was staring at relegation midway through the 2026 ISL season with just one point from six matches.

Kerala Blasters had its worst start in history and coach David Catala was under fire. A 1-1 draw against East Bengal in the away match gave faint hope of a revival.

However, Kerala Blasters lost 1-3 at home to Punjab FC and Catala was forced to leave his position via mutual agreement with the club. 

Englishman Ashley Westwood was appointed as interim coach and tasked with salvaging the disappointing season. However, Blasters’ first match under Westwood ended in a 0-2 defeat against Delhi SC.

The turnaround came in the next away match against Bengaluru FC.

Blasters, after conceding an own goal, came back to stun Bengaluru FC 2-1 through goals from Victor Bertomeu and Francisco Feuillasser.

The win against Bengaluru was followed by a 1-1 draw against NorthEast United at home. Then came the sequence of four consecutive wins which lifted Blasters from the relegation zone and into the eighth position in the points table.

Under Catala, Blasters struggled to score in open play. The Spanish coach didn’t have quality players to implement his possession based playing style. Mispasses, often by Indian players, surrendered the advantage and lack of creativity in midfield saw Blasters fail to take a single shot at the rival goals in most of the matches.

However, after Westwood took over, Blasters managed to increase its open play efficiency. The passing errors came down drastically and the team played more direct football showing mobility and penetration with improvised play in the flanks.

Kevin Yoke was the heart of the Blasters attack with his penetrative runs on the right flank. The arrival of Karim Benrife, Francisco Feuillasser and Fallou Ndiaye during Westwood’s tenure increased the quality.

Westwood was tactically flexible and changed formations as per the requirement. The Blasters’ defence consistently kept its shape, limiting the attacking options of its rivals. And the switch from defence to attack was quick and often caught the rival defence napping.

Westwood placed the Indian players in the right positions and managed to bring the best out of them. Freddy Lallawmawma, Vipin Mohanan and R.V. Hormipam prospered under Westwood.

Moreover, the team displayed a rare fighting spirit and fought till the end. With things falling in place, Westwood turned a sinking ship into a cruiser though it came too late.

East Bengal FC roared back from a goal down to defeat Inter Kashi FC 2-1 and emerged the new Indian Super League champion. The triumph ended the Red and Gold Brigade’s 22-year wait for the country’s premier title.

A remarkable counterattack saw Inter Kashi take the lead in the 15th minute. Alfred Planas latched on to a deep cross from David Munoz and produced a spectacular volley to silence the East Bengal fans who had thronged the Kishore Bharati Stadium in large numbers to cheer the team.

The hosts responded strongly after the break, showing more urgency as they looked for the equaliser. The efforts were rewarded in the 50th minute when Youssef Ezzejjari swooped in on a through ball from Anwar Ali and calmly slotted the ball home. East Bengal nudged ahead in the 73rd minute when Mohammed Rashid timed his run to perfection, reaching a cross from Bipin Singh and guiding the ball home with an outstretched leg.

East Bengal held on to the lead, sparking celebrations in the dugout and the stands.

Bagan second

In the other match held simultaneously at the Salt Lake Stadium, defending champion Mohun Bagan Super Giant registered a comeback 2-1 victory over Sporting Club Delhi.

East Bengal and Bagan finished with 26 points in 13 matches. As their Kolkata derby had ended in a 1-1 stalemate, goal difference proved to be the tie-breaker (19 to 14).

The results

Inter Kashi FC 1 (Planas 15) lost to East Bengal 2 (Ezzejjari 50, Rashid 73); Mohun Bagan SG 2 (Manvir 90, Maclaren 90+9) bt Sporting Club Delhi 1 (Fernandes 63).