Indian Football calendar for April 2026: AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup, FIFA Women’s Series and ISL in spotlight

Young Tigresses will play in the U20 AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026

The Indian football scene is set to heat up from April 2026 as we move into the business end of the 2025-26 campaign. The conclusion of the March (2026) international break will mean that the Indian Super League (ISL) and other divisions will be able to continue in full flow for fans to witness.

Moreover, there is also going to be exciting matches on display when it comes to the international level involving both the Indian men’s and women’s team. The Indian women’s football team will return to action after their disappointing AFC Women’s Asian Cup campaign, while the India women’s U-20 team are also poised to have some exciting matches ahead.

For the Indian football fans, a lot of entertaining matches are in store across multiple levels in April 2026. Here, we look at the schedule of Indian football, as part of the announced matches, in April 2026.

India women’s national team

The Indian women’s national team had a tough time in the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup, losing all three of their matches in rather disappointing fashion. However, they are now ready to prove their quality in some challenging friendly matches that will be part of their participation in the 2026 FIFA Women’s Series tournament.

These matches will be a stern test for the Blue Tigresses, who realize that if they’re able to win these matches – then they’d also be in line to move upwards in the FIFA World Ranking system.

India U-20 women’s national team

The India U-20 women’s national team are poised to participate in their biggest tournament under Joakim Alexandersson so far, in the form of the U-20 AFC Women’s Asian Cup. This will mark the first time in two decades that the Young Tigresses will be playing in this competition, as they look to make their country proud by producing some sturdy performances.

India has been playing in a challenging group in the AFC U-20 Women’s Asian Cup, meaning they’ll need to produce their absolute best performances to have any chance of making it to the knockout stages.

India U-20 men’s national team

The India U-20 side has had a pretty decent start under the coaching of Mahesh Gawli as their head coach, impressing in the 2026 SAFF U-20 Championship. They picked up a compelling 3-0 thrashing of Pakistan U-20 in the game, and there are still the knockout rounds of the tournament to get through at the beginning of April.

The Blue Colts will definitely need to produce their best performances in the knockouts and finale to win the championship and make themselves proud.

• 1 April: India vs Bhutan
• 3: April: Potential final

Indian Super League

At the domestic level, the Indian Super League will resume once again from April 4 (2026) when the two title rivals, Jamshedpur FC and Mohun Bagan, clash in the first match after the international break. With the first-positioned Mumbai City separated by just three points from fifth-position Bengaluru FC after six matchdays, the ISL title race has absolutely heated up in this shortened season.

Fans can expect to watch more entertaining matches in the ISL all through April, especially as there are no more international breaks to disrupt the campaign. Only the most consistent teams will survive in the title race as the unpredictable factor looms in this campaign.

April 4-April 28

Indian Football League

The 2025-26 Indian Football League matches continued well through the March (2026) international break, even if the ISL was suspended due to India’s match. The IFL campaign is heating up because every team is realising that winning the competition would help them earn promotion into the ISL at the end of the campaign.

The likes of Shillong Lajong, Sreenidi Deccan and Diamond Harbour FC have had strong starts to the campaign, asserting themselves as title favourites. At the end of the league stages, the top-six teams will get promoted to the promotion round – after which the leader of the Promotion Round will go through to the ISL. There will also be a relegation round for the bottom-4 teams of the league phase, and the team finishing bottom of the relegation round will be demoted to the Indian Football League 2 in the 2026/27 season.

April 2-April 19

Indian Football League 2

The Indian Football League 2 is the third division of the men’s football pyramid in Indian football, and its 2026 campaign recently began on 27 March 2026. There have only been a few matches so far, and the league will heat up from April onwards as the relegation and promotion battles get tighter amongst the clubs.

Indian Women’s League 2

The Indian Women’s League Two, the second division of the women’s league structure in Indian football, has started thrillingly in the 2025-26 season. Two teams will have the chance to get promoted to the Indian Women’s League at the end of the campaign, with the teams being separated for the final round, where the top two sides prevail. The exact dates for the final rounds of matches have not been confirmed yet, but it is likely to take place in April itself.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram.