# Indian women’s football faces crisis of neglect, agent says 2026-08-20T13:28:04+00:00 | Sports | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Indian Women's League 2 was scheduled to begin on July 20 but has been postponed with no revised date, explanation or compensation for clubs that had already booked grounds and pitches. The Indian Women's League is scheduled for September 3, but sources say no commercial partner deal has been signed yet, even though bids opened in March. Pragati Banka, India's first female FIFA-licensed football agent, told Times Now that the only consistent thing in women's football is the inconsistency. Banka said contracts are often not honoured, with players promised sums of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 6 lakh but not paid. Players fear being labelled troublemakers if they pursue legal action, and clubs take advantage of that. Even after Banka won a case against a Kerala club for a national team player, it took more than six months to collect the money, and the club continued registering new players despite a ban. In the IWL 2, the majority of players are not paid. Pre-seasons are squeezed into 10 days with two sessions a day, and players often face poor food and lack of mattresses. The scouting system is skewed, relying on word of mouth and a few states, and many women's matches are not filmed, leaving eliminated teams without any footage for talent identification. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The AIFF has struggled for years to run women's leagues on time, a pattern that predates the current federation leadership. Without a predictable calendar, clubs cannot sign sponsors or players on fixed contracts, which keeps the league semi-professional at best. The lack of broadcast or streaming for most matches means talented players from states like Karnataka, a strong scouting ground, remain invisible to national selectors. With no commercial partner and the September 3 IWL start date approaching, the next signal to watch is whether the AIFF announces a concrete schedule before the season is again delayed. ## Coverage - timesnownews.com Story leads with agent's criticism of AIFF's management, no official response included This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: AIFF, Indian Women's League, Karnataka, Pragati Banka Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/indian-womens-football-faces-crisis-of-neglect-agent-says/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/indian-womens-football-faces-crisis-of-neglect-agent-says/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/