AIFF releases RFP for awarding commercial rights of IWL and IWL 2

The next IWL season will be played in two phases.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has taken the first steps to make the next Indian Women’s League season a reality, which still seems a far-fetched proposition with no corporate house willing to come on board as a commercial partner.

AIFF released the Request for Proposal (RFP) for awarding the commercial rights of the Indian Women’s League and the Indian Women’s League 2 for the next five years. The federation has assured that the next Indian Women’s League season will start in December and will be played in two phases.

Last commercial rights deal of Indian football with FSDL was ₹50 crore per year covering everything.In 2025, AIFF valued ISL commercial rights at ₹37.5 crore and IWL & IWL 2 at ₹3 crore.Which means, in AIFF’s eyes, everything else, including both national teams, is worth…

— Ashish Negi (@7negiashish) November 14, 2025

Eligibility Criteria for Bidders

The Federation invites Request for Proposal for Awarding the Rights belonging to the AIFF for a limited term (IWL & IWL2)Details 👉 https://t.co/MVo2XfWjjz#IndianFootball pic.twitter.com/Xo2eKS4L7u

— Indian Football (@IndianFootball) November 14, 2025

AIFF has outlined eligibility criteria for all interested parties who want to bid for the commercial rights of IWL and IWL 2. The Bidder must be validly incorporated under the laws of India, and if a foreign entity is interested in bidding, then it should be validly incorporated in its jurisdiction. If the entity is bidding as part of a consortium, then the lead member of such consortium should be incorporated in India or establish a subsidiary in India before the execution of the contract with the federation.

The required net worth criteria led to a lot of discussion when the Request for Proposal for commercial rights of the Indian Super League was released. To bid for the IWL and IWL 2 commercial rights, the bidder must have a net worth of at least thirty crores. The figure (aggregate) is a hundred crores if a consortium is bidding.

Also Read: “I’m satisfied with boys…” Naushad Moosa opens up on India U23’s growth trajectory

Rights on offer

The winner of the bidding process will have the right to be designated as the title sponsor for each of the competitions. Not just that, but the rights holder will also have the right to distribute the Feed by licensing it for Broadcast in accordance with the terms of this RFP.

The rights holder can commercialise other elements of the broadcast as may be necessary to popularise the league and increase its bid value. Player access is another perk for the rights holder. However, the AIFF will scrutinise this, accepting all the reasonable demands from the rights holder.

A major to-do for the rights holder is the broadcast. The rights holder will have to ensure each of the matches is broadcast live. The I-League and IWL have suffered in the past due to inconsistent broadcasting.

Bid Evaluation

A 3-member Bid Evaluation Committee will evaluate all the bids. The Bid Evaluation Committee will be in charge of examining whether the interested party is fit to submit the bid. The financial integrity of the bidder is one of the leading criteria. The Bidder must not have been convicted by any court of a criminal offence involving moral turpitude, fraud, or financial misconduct.

The bidder must also not be involved in any litigation with the federation. The interested party should not have defaulted in the past or be blacklisted by any government authority. Only those Bidders obtaining a minimum score of fifty per cent (50%), i.e., twenty-five (25) or more points in the evaluation of their Technical Bid, would be eligible to be evaluated in the second part of the Selection Process, which is the commercial bid.

Prior experience in curating, selling, distributing and managing sponsorship, media and other commercial rights relating to multi-venue events in India will fetch a maximum of fifteen points. The aggregate amounts spent on marketing and promotional activities will also account for fifteen points.

The Viewership reach of the sports television channels or streaming platforms on which the competitions are proposed to be broadcast will be evaluated for ten points. The last parameter of evaluation is also of ten points, which is the Technical Presentation based on the content utilization plan and promotion & marketing plan for the matches.

Also Read: IWL to kick off in December, to be played in two phases

Important timelines

The bids submitted by the interested parties shall be valid for forty-five days from the date of submission of the bid. The last date to seek clarifications through mail is November 21, 2025. The pre-bid conference will be conducted virtually on November 22. The deadline to submit the bid is 18:00 IST on November 29, 2025.

The following day, AIFF will open the technical bid. The timeline for the technical presentation by the bidders and the opening of commercial bids will be intimated later by the federation.

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