Former India national football team captain Sunil Chhetri has appealed to Tata Group to reconsider the recent decision to shut down the first team operations of Jamshedpur FC which he has come out in a passionate voice and says it is a blow to the football culture and the national football team simply cannot afford to lose one of its most tenacious and steadfast institutional supporters.
The veteran striker has reflected on the club’s shock exit in a widely shared post on X on Sunday and explained why long-term stakeholders are so important to survival and growth when the current state of Indian football is weak. Chhetri said that being a financial and structural stakeholder in the country’s football landscape should be very resilient. He said when the whole world seems as if it is going to collapse, the community relies on its fundamental pillars to be in charge and secure.
Chhetri paid tribute to the Tata Group’s contribution over the years, starting from the Tata Football Academy and going on to form Jamshedpur FC. The club has been removed from the top division and it hit you in the heart, he said. Many of the displaced players and coaches will go for greener pastures and the league schedule will be just fine with one less team but Chhetri said if Tata is pulled out of the top league, it will be a disaster.
Knowing that major sporting decisions are often predicated on cold commercial calculations and boardroom realities, Chhetri passionately pleaded for corporate empathy. He had been calling for the Tata Group’s leadership think tank to take it to heart and re-think the decision. Even though it’s not easy to make the business case for keeping the club going, he said it’s the single most critical lifeline Indian football needs at this moment.
The controversy starts with an official announcement from Jamshedpur FC on Friday that the club would be removed from the Indian Super League starting 2026-27. Jamshedpur Football and Sporting Private Limited (TATA Steel) is responsible for the management of the club. Although they confirmed their departure from the top league, the club is going to be in the game with the grassroots initiatives and the youth programs and the team will be looking at young talent. Jamshedpur FC (2017-18 ISL season) played out in the top flight for nine years. The club achieved their best result in the 2021-22 season when they won the ISL League Shield under the manager Owen Coyle and returned to the playoffs in 2024-25 season under Khalid Jamil.
