Three reasons why AIFF are making mistake with postponing the Federation Cup to post-ISL tournament

The Federation Cup returns after the 2016-17 season

With the 2026-27 season just around the horizon, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has confirmed the dates for some of the biggest tournaments set to take part in the campaign. The new season will be kicking off with the historic Durand Cup, which will begin from July – acting as a pre-season competition before the Indian Super League (ISL) begins in early September.

However, one interesting aspect of the Indian football calendar created by the federation for the upcoming campaign is the much-awaited return of the Federation Cup. Indeed, the age-old tournament will be making a return to Indian football since being rechristened in 2017. The last time a Federation Cup happened was in the 2016-17 campaign – with Bengaluru FC winning the competition by defeating Mohun Bagan in the final.

However, it’s the schedule for the returning Federation Cup that immediately catches the eye. That is because of the competition is poised to happen from April 20 to May 10 (2027), well after the end of the ISL campaign. Basically, it has been kept as a post-season tournament – akin to how the Super Cup and other cup competitions have been treated by the AIFF.

That itself seems to devaluate the prestige of the competition, mostly because many teams might not even be able to perform to their best ability by the time the Federation Cup starts. With it being after the ISL campaign, many players would have switched off or been too fatigued to be able to perform to their best in this cup competition.

Here, we look at a few reasons why AIFF are making mistake by postponing the Federation Cup to becoming a post-ISL season tournament.

3. Potential drop in viewership interest

With the Federation Cup poised to happen as a post-ISL tournament, that can also possibly impact the overall excitement or fan interest in it. Because this will happen well after the lengthy ISL is done, some Indian football fans cannot be faulted to have Indian Football fatigue and not being that bothered to catch out this historic tournament.

There are questions around whether the winners of the Federation Cup even get a continental place, because of India’s place in the AFC coefficient points rankings, which further threatens to devaluate the prestige or the Federation Cup. With fans already having watched a lot of their team’s action through the ISL campaign and knowing there might be a drop in quality in the cup matches, they might be too switched off to properly invest in the tournament.

That would further hamper the future of the competition, and AIFF pushing it to the back of the line as a post-league campaign tournament doesn’t help its case at all.

Also Read: Durand Cup 2026 to run from 25th July to 23rd August, featuring 24 teams across six venues

2. Fatigued players struggling in unfavourable conditions

With the Federation Cup pushed back to the April-May period, the footballers are being asked to perform at a high level at the onset of the Indian summer. It’s during mid-to-late April that temperatures start soaring in India, making it extremely unfavourable for footballers aiming to play top-level football.

Because of the sheer humidity and hot conditions it makes it difficult for any athlete to cover many kilometres in a match while maintaining utmost sharpness and concentration. That was proven in the final phase of the 2025-26 ISL campaign, where many results were quite underwhelming because of players struggling to cope with the hot and humid conditions.

It’s not like the Federation Cup matches will be played in the cool hills, as they are likely to take place in the cities where temperatures will soar once the competition begins. That will itself fatigue the already tired players after a lengthy league campaign, which will impact their performances, slowing them down and not allowing them to perform at optimal levels to entertain fans.

1. Teams failing to perform at peak sharpness

It won’t be surprising if the 2026-27 Federation Cup ends up witnessing a lot of drab draws or narrow victories with teams just failing to play to their optimum levels. Normally, in any domestic campaign, football clubs start peaking from around December to the April period after getting enough match sharpness and minutes on the pitch.

That is exactly why the majority of football federations around the world tend to align cup competition matches to take part simultaneously as the league campaigns are going on, to ensure that teams can maintain their high momentum levels to entertain fans in cup competitions.

Granted, some teams around the world often take time to rest players in cup games – but the sharpness of even the benched or rotational players assures entertaining matches in those matches. That might not exactly be the case for the Federation Cup, because most teams playing in it would already have been past their best in the campaign.

The major objective of most ISL or lower division sides will be to perform their best in the league, trying to win the competition or at least achieve a high finish. As they will use up the majority of their energy in these league matches, many teams might just be too spent out or exhausted to be able to operate at their 100% in the Federation Cup.

So if the Federation Cup ends up being a bit of a boring tournament, the AIFF have nobody but themselves to blame for it!

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