Tata Steel Vice-President D.B. Sundara Ramam insists Jamshedpur FC's withdrawal from the ISL was a long-planned strategic pivot back to grassroots football — not a reaction to the uncertainty surrounding the league's commercial future.
Jamshedpur FC's departure from the Indian Super League was a deliberate, board-approved strategic decision made independently of any turbulence surrounding the league's future, Tata Steel Vice-President (Corporate Services) D.B. Sundara Ramam said on Tuesday, August 4, 2026.
The club's exit brings an end to a nine-year top-flight run and came in the months following significant uncertainty over the ISL's future after the expiry of the Master Rights Agreement between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL). Sundara Ramam was emphatic, however, that the timing was coincidental.
"The current decision has nothing to do with whatever changes have happened in the last one year. Our decision has been independent of that," he told PTI in an exclusive interview. "Even if the earlier long-term agreement continued, our decision would have been the same because this was an internal decision."
Tata Steel began reviewing its football strategy last year, ultimately concluding that its bandwidth was better directed toward its traditional strength: identifying and nurturing young talent at the community level. "We thought we should go back to our legacy of grassroots development because our football ecosystem has been there since 1987. ISL has been there for only around a decade," Sundara Ramam said.
"I would say it was not even a financial decision. It was a strategic decision on where we wanted to focus our bandwidth," he added, also dismissing any suggestion of a falling-out with the AIFF. "There has been no disagreement with the AIFF on participation fees or any other issue. We continue to enjoy excellent relations with them."
The decision was approved through a two-tier process involving club management and Tata Steel's board. "This is a corporate-run club. It is not something one individual can decide. Once we got the board's clearance, we informed the AIFF, the players and everyone concerned," Sundara Ramam explained.
Central to the pivot is the Tata Football Academy (TFA), founded in 1987, which Sundara Ramam said will now receive greater focus. The academy has trained around 275 cadets, of whom over 150 have represented India and 26 have captained the national team at various age group levels. Alumni include former India internationals Renedy Singh, Carlton Chapman, Deepak Mondal, Gouramangi Singh and Syed Rahim Nabi.
Tata Steel's grassroots programme, running since 2017-18, has reached nearly 6,700 children. "We thought, why don't we channelise our entire energy and time into our academies? That's where we have achieved success over several decades," he said.
Sundara Ramam was clear that the company is not walking away from the sport altogether. "We are not stepping away from football. We are stepping back into the space where Tata Steel has made its biggest contribution to Indian football for decades." He also noted that football is one of 19 sports the company supports, alongside hockey, archery, climbing, swimming and athletics.
Reporting sourced from The Hindu Sport. Photo courtesy The Hindu Sport.