‘Permanent paralysis’: Chhetri, Jhingan urge FIFA to solve ISL crisis

new delhi: India’s leading footballers, including Sunil Chhetri, along with several foreign players featuring in the Indian Super League (ISL), on Friday made a collective appeal to FIFA, urging the world governing body to intervene as the country’s top-tier league remains suspended indefinitely.

With the 2025-26 ISL season yet to start, senior national team players such as Chhetri, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Sandhesh Jhingan voiced concern over the prolonged uncertainty, warning that Indian football is slipping into a state of “permanent paralysis”.

“It’s January and we should be on your screens as apart of a competitive football game in the Indian Super League,” Gurpreet said in a joint video statement posted on social media.

“Instead, here we are driven by fear and desperation to say aloud something which we all know,” Jhingan added.

The players said the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is no longer in a position to fulfil its responsibilities and appealed to FIFA to step in to safeguard the future of the sport in the country.

“But more importantly, we are here to make a plea. Indian football governance is no longer able to fulfil its responsibilities.We are now staring at a permanent paralysis. This is the last-ditch effort to save what we can. So we are calling the FIFA to step in and do what it takes to save Indian football,” other players pitched in.

The players stressed that their appeal was not political in nature, but born out of necessity.

“We hope this message gets to the power that are in Zurich. This call is not political, it is not driven by confrontation but by necessity. It might sound like a big word but the truth is that we are facing a humanitarian, sporting and economic crisis. And of course, we need rescuing at the earliest,” other players said in the statement.

“Players, staff, owners and the fans deserve clarity, protection, and a future,” Chhetri

concluded.