One of Indian football's more recognisable clubs just changed hands for 100 rupees — roughly a dollar. Tata Steel has sold Jamshedpur FC's ISL licence, 12 player contracts, and two coaching staff to Goa-based Churchill Brothers, two weeks after the steel giant announced it was walking away from the game entirely.
The city of Jamshedpur, in the eastern state of Jharkhand, no longer has a top-flight football club. Churchill Brothers — based nearly 2,000 km south in Goa — inherit the sporting licence and will carry it into the ISL. What began as Jamshedpur's club is now, effectively, Churchill's vehicle back into Indian football's top division.
From street protests to a done deal
The players tried to stop it. After Tata announced the pullout earlier this month, Jamshedpur's squad issued an emotional public plea asking ownership to reconsider. Fans took to the streets. None of it moved the needle.
"We are glad that this agreement gives our players and coaches the opportunity to continue playing club football," said D. B. Sundara Ramam, Tata Steel's vice president of corporate services. Clinical. Polite. Final.
Jamshedpur won the ISL League Winners' Shield in 2021-22 and the domestic Super Cup last year. They entered the league in 2017, in the era when Reliance was bankrolling the whole ISL project. That partnership between the AIFF and Reliance ended less than a year ago, and Tata's exit now lands in the middle of a league that hasn't yet announced this season's fixtures or a broadcaster. The timing is not a coincidence.
Churchill's complicated road back
For Churchill Brothers, this is the return they've been desperate for. The Goa club last played in India's top flight in 2013-14, and their more recent attempt to earn promotion ended in frustration. They topped the second-tier I-League in 2024-25 after Inter Kashi were found to have fielded an ineligible player — only for Kashi to successfully appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, reclaim their title, and leave Churchill empty-handed. The club withdrew from the following season entirely.
"We had to be back where we belong," Churchill posted on Instagram. "While some saw decline, we saw opportunity. While some saw the end, we saw another beginning."
Jamshedpur, meanwhile, are still active in the Durand Cup and face Mohun Bagan in the quarter-finals on Monday — carrying a club badge that will soon cease to exist in any meaningful form.
