Chhetri, while acknowledging it "takes a lot to be a stakeholder in Indian football", urged the Tata Group, which owns the club, to reconsider their decision. (File Photo)Sunil Chhetri, India’s record goalscorer and former captain, has urged Jamshedpur FC’s team management to reverse their decision to pull out of the Indian Super League (ISL). The club, who had won the ISL Shield in the 2021/22 season, announced on Friday that it will not be part of the league from the next season onwards.It was a decision that has left their players in a lurch and Chhetri, while acknowledging it “takes a lot to be a stakeholder in Indian football”, urged the Tata Group, which owns the club, to reconsider their decision. “To know that Jamshedpur has folded first team operations is a punch to the gut. The players and staff will be without clubs, and they might find one by the end of it all. The League will have a team less, but the season will go on. However, not having the TATA group involved in the top tier of Indian football – that would be a disaster with no alternative,” said Chhetri in a lengthy statement that he posted on X.It takes a lot to be a stakeholder in Indian football. It has been like that for some time now. But when everything around looks like it will crumble, you bank on family to hold on to each other. And more often than not, it is the elders in the house that you turn to, for…— Sunil Chhetri (@chetrisunil11) August 2, 2026“I understand that some tough decisions in sport are down to what makes sense in the board room. But I can only request and hope that the think tank at TATA picks their heart over head and reconsiders this call. It might be a poor business decision, but it will be the one Indian football needs the most at this hour.”Jamshedpur will be the latest name to have exited the league. Pune City FC folded under financial strain, Delhi Dynamos relocated to become Odisha FC, while Hyderabad FC too succumbed to prolonged monetary trouble, relocating to Delhi to become Sporting Delhi FC. However, club captain Pronay Halder said that Jamshedpur’s exit feels different because the owners also operate the TATA Football Academy — which has produced players like Renedy Singh and Subrata Paul — and is known for a rich history of nurturing footballers.“I have been a professional footballer for 16 years, and this is the most difficult thing I have ever faced. All of us knew that Indian football is struggling at the moment, but no one could imagine that a club like Jamshedpur FC would withdraw from the top league. This club is run by TATA, who have a rich history of contributing towards Indian football. Even during Covid, when other clubs were struggling to pay salaries, all of our needs were taken care of. So this news has caught us blindsided. We believed that regardless of the difficulties, this is one club which will never fold. Turns out, the assumption was wrong,” he had told the Indian Express.