Kerala Blasters’s current owners, Magnum Sports Private Limited, has entered into an agreement to sell 100 percent of its stake in the club to Al Fursan Sports Investment Group of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), thus marking the return of Gulf-based investment into the Indian Super League (ISL) after the exit of the City Football Group from Mumbai City FC last year. In a press conference on Tuesday, the new management also stated that there are plans of constructing a new stadium for the club to play its home matches in.

The Blasters are also the second club to change ownership ahead of this season, after the TATA Group sold Jamshedpur FC for a token amount of Rs 100 to Churchill Brothers, possibly marking the latter’s entry into the ISL.

The sale to Al Fursan, an investment group with links to the Al Qasimi royal family of Sharjah, will be completed in a staggered manner over the course of the season. Meanwhile the task of handling the club’s “commercial and operational activities” this season has been handed to the Kerala-based Offioh Sporty India Private Limited, KBFC’s current CEO Abhik Chatterjee said on Tuesday.

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“Kerala Blasters Football Club confirms that its ownership, magnum sports private ltd., has entered into a definitive agreement for the 100% sale of Kerala Blasters Football Club,” said the club in its statement that was released before the press conference in Kochi.

Offioh CEO Thameem Anwar, who was present at the press conference along with the group’s co-founder Shararh Kuniyil, said that the club will be playing its home matches at the Kaloor Stadium, officially the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, in Kochi as has been the case in every season. “We have currently fixed Kochi stadium itself (for our home matches),” he said. KBFC had a few run-ins with the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA), owners of the stadium, in the days before the start of the 2025/26 season over the rent that they have to pay for using the ground as their home venue.

“Discussion on rent will be held with the GCDA later, but we have already had other fruitful discussions with them and there are no problems as such for now,” he said.

Anwar further said that there is plans for a new stadium being discussed, although he refused to divulge more details about where it would be located. “For the ISL, all our matches will be in Kochi this season. For the next season, we are actually planning to make a new stadium itself. The stadium that is here doesn’t match up to the standards set by FIFA. So there is that situation,” he said.