The World Cup is done. European club football is about to get underway. Meanwhile in India... well, take a look for yourself:
Jamshedpur FC is now... Churchill Brothers FC
So, after spending a year outside the system in protest of AIFF accepting a CAS decision (AIFF had no choice but to, of course) to give Inter Kashi the I-League title and with it a slot in the ISL, and with zero football played over the past year, Churchill Alemao will finally get his team to play in India's top tier.
If it's the zero football bit that you find surprising, wait till you find out how they'll do it... by buying off Jamshedpur FC (along with their ISL sporting license and player contracts) from the TATA Group. For a sum of Rs 100. No, no zeroes missing on that.
If nothing else, think what this does to clubs who now have to go around discussing sponsorships and commercial deals only to be faced with a potential backbreaker of a question: 'why should we invest anything if an ISL club is worth about the same as a big packet of chips?'
FIFA ASEAN Cup ditched for Brazil friendly
The operative word being friendly. No one's denying a chance to play Brazil in India is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing but considering India's travails (read: failure) in qualifying to the Asian Cup against the likes of Singapore and Hong Kong, an invite for a competitive tournament against nations from that region could surely have been accorded more than a 'no, we can't go'.
The FIFA ASEAN Cup is the kind of competitive tournament experience India can ill-afford to miss out on, regardless of the enhanced publicity that comes from a game vs. Brazil. Besides, a last-minute withdrawal augurs poorly for future invites to this tournament as well as others.
With Brazilian coach Carlo Ancelotti already having stated that he will be experimenting with the squad and looking to integrate players across the youth teams, could it perhaps have been possible to field an U23 heavy team against them in Kolkata?
P.S. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) are saying now that they will arrange two more high profile friendlies to compensate for the withdrawal, but can anything replace proper competitive action, especially as India embarks on an Asian-Cup-less cycle?
When will the ISL start?
AIFF deputy general secretary M Satyanarayana told PTI that the ISL would start on September 4.
Sources, meanwhile, have told ESPN that the league, now club-led, will only start on October 9.
As you were.
A manager? A coach? A 'World Cup'?
A bizarre drama erupted online over the last fortnight on the coaching staff that would accompany India's U15 to the FIFA World Cup & Festival (to be held in late October) with the focus being on two people: Bibiano Fernandes as coach (current U17 national team coach) and Ranjit Bajaj, owner of Minerva Academy FC as manager.
Now, a national team manager (whatever age group) is an administrative post, functioning entirely as the person responsible for logistics and day-to-day management of the non-football aspects of the team. The coach takes care of everything football related. This is a well-known distinction but one it seems that was lost on Bajaj and many of his supporters on social media. What else would explain his rant about playing styles not matching Bibiano's (who he claimed was too defensive) and yo-yoing on his decision to accept or not accept the role of manager? Bajaj's footballing philosophy would be entirely irrelevant to him becoming the team manager. This was a debate that should have been a non-starter from the get-go.
Oh, and all this for a tournament that's more exhibition than anything else -- every member of FIFA gets an invite, the matches will be played 8 versus 8, there will be unlimited rolling substitutions (among other changes to the rules) and every team is guaranteed multiple matches. You don't go to win the 'Cup', you go to participate in the 'Festival' essentially, with FIFA's stated desire being developmental than competitive.
East Bengal magic
If you've got this far, you deserve some good news (sorry, Mohun Bagan fans). On Thursday, East Bengal pulled off a spectacular 4-1 win over Kuwait's Al Arabi SC to ensure Indian presence in the AFC Champions League Two.
AET | ���� East Bengal 4️⃣-1️⃣ Al Arabi SC ����
������ ���������������� ���� ����������! East Bengal will play #ACLTwo football! pic.twitter.com/gkjHDWBs7M
- #ACLElite | #ACLTwo (@TheAFCCL) August 12, 2026
Jay Gupta scored a stunning header to equalise in the 90th minute, Mohammed Rashid gave them the lead in the second half of Extra Time with a piledriver, David Lalhlansanga then killed the game off with awesome nonchalance, scoring once and setting up Rohit Danu for another in the last four minutes of ET.
This came even as FC Goa lost 0-3 to FK Arkadag to relegate them to the AFC Challenge league (third tier of Asia's continental club football pyramid).