The ISL league stage for the 2024-25 season is done, and it's been quite the ride. The logical question now is: when are the playoffs? When's the final, and where will it be held?
The official answer for all that: nothing.
What do we know, though? The league stage ended on March 12, Wednesday. The final standings are on the website, and as per those standings, the league has also announced the playoff pairings: Bengaluru FC vs Mumbai City (3 vs 6), NorthEast United vs Jamshedpur FC (3 vs 5). Up until here, we're good. Now, if the pairings are out, why not announce the playoff dates? And their venues?
Well... there are two major points of confusion here, and both deal with that who has finished third. One of the points is present and material, the other is in the past (but has still not been cleanly dealt with)
Let's start with the critical present issue. NorthEast United, who finished fourth, have approached FIFA about Kerala Blasters fielding an unauthorized player during their match (Dusan Lagator, who was carrying over a pending suspension from the Hungarian league). If the appeal's won, a 0-0 draw becomes a 3-0 win and NorthEast automatically go third.
NEUFC CEO Mandar Tamhane told ESPN that they've requested FIFA to expedite the matter considering its urgency, that they had written in January to AIFF (and then again later) and that now AIFF themselves have also written to FIFA (details uncertain).
The official "final" standings then, may not be so final since they are pending a decision from the sport's global governing body. But what happens to the officially announced pairings then?
If a decision is made in favour of NEUFC, will the ISL now change all the playoff eliminator ties around? (as they surely must). Will it now mean Mumbai City have to travel to either Guwahati or Shillong and face Alaaeddine Ajaraie and co. instead of taking the flight down to Bengaluru? Will Gerard Zaragoza have to plan to overcome the low block of Khalid Jamil at home rather than the more expansive Petr Kratky's plans?
Over the past couple of days, meanwhile, even these "final" standings we see today were in doubt - from the clubs concerned to the league itself, no one was sure who had finished third.
On Monday, ahead of their final league match against playoff-chasing Mumbai City, Bengaluru manager Zaragoza had corrected ESPN at the pre-match press conference when asked about finishing in the top four... "top three." he'd said. It appeared the club were sure they were finishing third regardless of what happened on Tuesday.
During the match itself, Bengaluru rang in some changes, lost rather meekly, and everyone just went about their business. For instance, in the post-match interview, ISL's expert commentator on the night, Erik Partaalu, spoke to Zaragoza about finishing third and meeting Mumbai City again at the Kanteerava for the eliminator. Bengaluru posted on their socials about finishing third, about facing Mumbai City again in the playoffs, before... quietly deleting it.
Cue chaos. Why was the post deleted? Why did the league not immediately announce who would play whom in the eliminator? The ISL official site had Bengaluru fourth immediately after the match, and only changed to reflect what it shows currently sometime during the course of Wednesday.
The reason for all this confusion? The ISL rules to determine who wins a multi-team tie on points is rather convoluted, and more than a little open to interpretation.
The rules state that "if two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above criterion, their place shall be determined as follows:"
"most number of points obtained in the League Matches between the Clubs concerned"
Since three clubs -- Bengaluru, NorthEast and Jamshedpur FC -- were tied on 38 points each, it first goes down to that marker. In that BFC won 7 points, NEUFC won 7 too and JFC won 3.
So, what now? Well, the next clause is:
Superior goal difference resulting from the League Matches between the Clubs concerned
Here's where it gets... interesting. Since on points it's a three-way tie, if we look at GD across the six matches between the three, NEUFC lead with +5, BFC have +4 and JFC have -9.
So, that would mean NorthEast are third, right? Well... what if you apply clause b) to only those teams still tied after clause a)? Then BFC would go through because they drew NorthEast once and beat them once in their two matches. Hence... Bengaluru are third.
The league seems to have applied the latter understanding of the clause, and that's perfectly okay -- why would you apply an additional tiebreaker on three teams if only two are tied after the first tiebreaker -- but just why was there so much confusion in the first place? Why were BFC convinced they had finished third, why did the ISL delay confirmation when it was time to confirm it, why did they simply announce it without any sort of clarification?
That uncertainty hung heavy for quite a while. In fact, it was only late on Wednesday night, a full 24 hours after the Bengaluru-Mumbai City match, that the ISL official account posted the playoff pairings. With NEUFC's appeal still pending, it's not been dispelled completely either.
THE BATTLES ARE SET FOR THE KNOCKOUTS! ��#ISL #LetsFootball #ISLPlayoffs | @JioHotstar @StarSportsIndia pic.twitter.com/JXv9CXJ13z
- Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) March 12, 2025
Going into the international break, this confusion reigns supreme. None of it is helped by something even more fundamental: an official confirmation of when these playoff matches will take place.
Educated guessing and source-speak have put it as eliminators on March 29 and 30, Semifinal first legs on April 2 and 3, second legs on April 6 and 7 and the final on either April 12 or 13. But a fortnight out from the matches, no one can be 100% about any of these dates. Or venues.
With the IPL on, matches must be carefully planned around the cricketing juggernaut's calendar. For instance, if Bengaluru make it to the semifinal, their home leg can't be on April 2 because Royal Challengers Bengaluru have a match, and Mohun Bagan most likely can't play on the 6th in Kolkata since Kolkata Knight Riders have a match on that day. This is because of the likelihood that the respective city's administration would simply say security personnel cannot be stretched that thin on the same day.
So, when exactly are the matches? Who's playing whom? Where will the final be held?... Why is there such chaos in a schedule that surely should have been fixed months in advance? With no force majeure events disrupting the league, surely you don't need to wait till the last minute to plan what are essentially the most important matches of the season from an ISL cup perspective?
Giving the ISL final to the team that's done better in the league stage is a nice thing, sure, but how is it acceptable that the venue of the final of India's premier football tournament will only be announced five-six days before the actual event? 'It's India, bhai. Chalta hain,' goes only so far, surely.
Then again, until late last month, no one was sure the national team's scheduled friendly with Maldives would go ahead on March 19 (because of logistical issues for the Maldives team), so should we really be all that surprised by any of this?
Bring on the ISL playoffs. Whenever. With whoever.
Additional reporting by Aaditya Narayan