Mumbai City FC’s Phurba Lachenpa and Vikram Partap Singh scramble to deny Bengaluru FC forward Jorge Pereyra Díaz during their ISL clash. (Credits: AIFF)
For over a decade, the Indian Super League (ISL) was marketed as the “birth of a footballing nation” – a glossy, billionaire-backed project that promised to make football a massively popular game in India, that might possibly take the country to FIFA World Cup qualification. But, as we sit in May 2026, the glamour has faded, and the league now stares at a bottomless pit.