Indian Super League Standings: 2025-26 Points Table

There’s a particular buzz that comes with checking a league table late in the season, when two clubs sit level on points and one is above the other only on goal difference. That’s the Indian Super League’s 2025-26 race, where East Bengal and Mohun Bagan were tied on 26 points in late September 2026, per Goal India’s ISL table, and learning to read that table — played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points — shows exactly who controls the playoff race and who’s already slipping.

Current season: 2025-26 · Teams: 13 · Playoff qualifiers: 6 teams · Most titles: ATK (3 titles) · Reigning champion: East Bengal (1st title)

Six rows, one pattern: the numbers that drive ISL conversations live in different places — the league’s table, its regulations, and its season records — and each row below points to the authority behind it.

How many teams qualify for the ISL Cup playoffs?

Six. The ISL’s official league-table regulations are explicit: the top six clubs on the league table qualify for the playoff matches, with the top two going straight to the semifinals and teams ranked third through sixth entering a knockout round.

Which positions in the ISL standings reach the playoffs?

• Positions 1-2: automatic semifinal places
• Positions 3-6: knockout round for the two remaining semifinal spots
• Position 7: the first club left out, with no playoff match to play

The implication: the playoff race stays crowded on purpose. With six of 13 teams qualifying, most of the league remains alive deep into the season, which keeps the standings relevant in more cities for longer.

What is the format of the ISL 2025-26?

• 13 teams in the 2025-26 season
• Double round-robin: every club plays each other at home and away
• Season spans two calendar years, 2025 into 2026
• Top six teams then enter the playoffs

The 13-team field is visible in Goal India’s 2025-26 ISL table, while the league’s double round-robin format means every club meets the others once at home and once away. The competition is formally listed as the Indian Super League 2025-2026, confirming the two-calendar-year span, according to Futbol24’s ISL season listing (stat aggregator).

How many matches are played in the regular season?

• Each club plays the other 12 clubs twice
• The standings update after every match round

That format rewards consistency: there are no single-elimination escapes in the regular season. Every club has to prove itself against every other club, and the points column absorbs the results round by round.

What comes after the regular season?

• Top two clubs advance directly to the semifinals
• Clubs ranked 3-6 play a knockout round
• The two knockout winners complete the semifinal lineup

From the regular-season table, the format turns into a knockout competition. One bad match can end a title run no matter how strong the table position was.

What this means: when the playoff race tightens, trust the league’s own standings page over any screenshot or scraper — the table is a live document, not a poster.

Who owns the Indian Super League?

• League operator: Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL)
• FC Goa co-owner: Virat Kohli, alongside other investors
• Richest clubs: Mumbai City FC and Bengaluru FC are the names most often repeated

The ISL is operated by Football Sports Development Limited, the commercial entity behind the competition, according to Wikipedia’s 2025-26 ISL season summary. Club ownership is more fragmented. FC Goa counts Virat Kohli among its co-owners as part of a wider investor group — a detail reflected in ESPN’s Indian Super League coverage.

Is Virat Kohli still owner of FC Goa?

• Yes — Kohli is a co-owner, not a solo owner
• His investment sits inside a wider ownership group

The short version: Virat Kohli is still part of FC Goa’s ownership structure. The longer version is that “owner” in the ISL usually means a group of investors, and Kohli is the most famous name in that group.

Which football club in India is the richest?

• Mumbai City FC and Bengaluru FC are the names most often repeated
• Full budgets are not published, so the ranking shifts with spending and valuations

Wealth in the ISL shows up in squad depth, foreign signings, and facilities rather than in a published balance sheet. That makes “richest” a moving target — but the same two or three clubs keep appearing in the conversation.

The pattern: ownership resources show up in the standings indirectly. Deeper pockets tend to mean deeper squads, and deeper squads tend to hold up better over a long round-robin.

How to read the Indian Super League standings today

What do points, wins, and goal difference mean in the ISL table?

• Played (P): matches so far
• Won (W): wins, worth 3 points each
• Draw (D): draws, worth 1 point each
• Lost (L): losses, worth 0 points
• Goals for (GF): total goals scored
• Goals against (GA): total goals conceded
• Goal difference (GD): goals scored minus goals conceded
• Points (Pts): the number that actually ranks the teams

The columns never change across ISL tables — official or editorial — so the standings are easy to scan once you know the shorthand: P, W, D, L, GF, GA, GD, Pts.

The ranking logic is defined by the ISL’s official league-table regulations: points come first (three for a win, one for a draw, none for a loss), then goal difference, then goals scored, then head-to-head criteria if the teams are still inseparable.

In late September 2026, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan were both on 26 points, but East Bengal’s goal difference was +19 against Mohun Bagan’s +14 — which is why East Bengal sat higher, according to Goal India’s 2025-26 ISL table.

What this means: for new fans, the reading order is simple. The points column tells you where a club stands; goal difference tells you how convincingly. In the playoff race, both can matter in the same breath.

The pattern: goal difference is the quiet decider that can shift playoff fates.

Who is the highest paid Indian footballer?

The honest answer: the ISL’s biggest pay cheque usually goes to a foreign marquee signing, not an Indian player. ESPN’s Indian Super League coverage tracks that pattern in the transfer market, where overseas names command the top salaries and domestic players fill the squad structure below them.

Who is the richest Indian footballer?

• Sunil Chhetri is the name most often cited in Indian football wealth discussions
• Public estimates put his net worth around $5 million

Sunil Chhetri is the face of Indian football, and the numbers attached to his career reflect that status. Public estimates place his net worth around $5 million, according to Wikipedia’s 2025-26 ISL season summary.

Is Sunil Chhetri a millionaire?

• At an estimated $5 million, yes — comfortably into seven figures
• His earnings still sit far below the top of the global game

If the estimate holds, Chhetri is a millionaire several times over. The more revealing comparison is global: even Indian football’s most recognisable player earns a small fraction of what top European stars make in a season — a gap that helps explain why the ISL’s salary structure depends so heavily on marquee imports.

Why this matters: the league’s wage market is a table of its own, with foreign stars at the top and domestic players further down. For Indian footballers, the path to higher earnings runs through international exposure and national-team success, not just domestic contracts.

Which is the most loved football club in India?

• Mohun Bagan Super Giant: the historic following, carried through from the ATK-Mohun Bagan merger
• Kerala Blasters: the regional powerhouse with a massive fanbase
• Everyone else: strong local support, but these two dominate the “most loved” argument

“Most loved” is a feeling, not a statistic, but two clubs keep dominating the argument. Mohun Bagan Super Giant, the identity formed after the ATK-Mohun Bagan merger, carries a historic following that shows up in every match. Kerala Blasters, by contrast, have built a massive regional fanbase that fills the stands regardless of league position.

The pattern: popularity in the ISL rarely follows the standings. Clubs with enormous fanbases can finish outside the playoff places and still fill the stadium, which is why the table tells you who is winning — but not always who is loved.

What is the ISL points table for 2025-26?

• East Bengal — 26 points, +19 goal difference
• Mohun Bagan — 26 points, +14 goal difference
• Mumbai City — inside the top six
• Bengaluru — inside the top six
• Punjab FC — inside the top six
• Jamshedpur FC — inside the top six
• FC Goa — just outside, in seventh on some official snapshots

In late September 2026, Goal India’s ISL table showed East Bengal and Mohun Bagan tied on 26 points, with East Bengal ahead on goal difference; Mumbai City, Bengaluru, Punjab FC, and Jamshedpur FC completed the top six at that snapshot. ESPN’s Indian Super League standings mirrored the same top-order pattern.

Where to find the official ISL standings online?

• The league’s own standings page
• Sports media mirrors: ESPN and Goal India
• Stat aggregators: Soccer Association, Futbol24

The canonical version of the table lives on the official ISL standings page, which lists played, won, draw, lost, goals for, goals against, goal difference, and points for every club. The same data appears on ESPN, Goal India, and stat aggregators like Soccer Association’s ISL table, with small timing differences between snapshots.

What this means: the 2025-26 table is not one fixed document but a series of snapshots. The official page is the source of truth; everything else is a mirror that can be a few hours behind.

The implication: always verify the table from the official source before making claims about positions.

The contrast between confirmed and unclear highlights the need for official sources.