14th season of the I-League

The 2020–21 I-League ( known as the Hero I-League for sponsorship reasons ) was the 14th temper of the I-League, one of the top tier indian master football leagues, since its establishment in 2007. The tournament was hosted in bio-secure house of cards across four venues in Kolkata due to COVID-19 pandemic situation in India. Mohun Bagan was declared the ace of the 2019–20 season after the cancellation of matches ascribable to the COVID-19 pandemic, since the moment placed team could not catch up flush if all 20 games were completed. [ 1 ] however, following Mohun Bagan ‘s amalgamation with indian Super League ( ISL ) club ATK, the club began competing in the ISL from the 2020–21 ISL season. [ 2 ]

Throughout the First Phase, Churchill Brothers kept its authority with an unbeaten streak of 11 games, while in the second Phase, Gokulam Kerala, Churchill Brothers and TRAU traded the lead respective times throughout the Championship Stage. Entering the final matchday, Gokulam Kerala were ahead on goal remainder. however, with the Gokulam and TRAU facing off, either team could claim the title with a gain. A draw in the Gokulam Kerala–TRAU match and a win were needed for Churchill Brothers to be crowned champions. The crippled ended in a 4–1 win for Gokulam, giving the Malabarians their inaugural I-league title and qualification for the AFC Cup. [ 3 ] NEROCA finished bottomland of the Relegation Stage and were to relegated, but were reinstated by AIFF after the viewing the situation of Covid-19 pandemic. [ 4 ]

Changes from last season [edit ]

Changes in rules and regulations [edit ]

  • AIFF has implemented the ‘3+1’ foreigners rule from this season. Under this rule, each club will be allowed to field a maximum of four foreign players and one of those four foreign players must be from an AFC affiliated country.[5]
  • Due to COVID-19 pandemic, this season’s league format was shortened. All teams will face each other once in the first leg of the league, then they will be divided into two different groups. According to points table from first leg, top six teams will face each other once again in the Championship stage, where the team with most points (cumulative points collected from all fifteen matches) will be declared the winner of the league and qualify for the 2022 AFC Cup group stage. The other five teams will play against each other in a Relegation stage where the team with the lowest points (cumulative points collected from all fourteen matches) will be relegated to the 2nd Division League.[6]

Number of clubs [edit ]

All India Football Federation ( AIFF ) issued an invitation to accept bids for new clubs from not I-League cities, like Delhi, Gangtok, Ranchi, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Mangalore, Bhopal, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ahmedabad and Calicut among many others, to join the league from 2020 onwards. The invitation mentioned that the entity which wins the bid will be granted the right to own and operate a new football club. [ 7 ] On 12 August, AIFF announced that Sudeva FC of Delhi would join the league from this season and Sreenidhi FC, which is based in Hyderabad, will be playing from Visakhapatnam from the following season. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] East Bengal and Mohun Bagan moved to the indian Super League, when East Bengal joined the league as an expansion team, while Mohun Bagan and ATK, the champions of 2019–20 ISL season, merged to play as ATK Mohun Bagan in the ISL. [ 11 ] [ 12 ]

Promoted clubs [edit ]

Promoted from the 2019–20 2nd Division League

Relegated clubs [edit ]

Relegated from the 2019–20 I-League

  • None

Teams [edit ]

Locations of the stadiums for I-league

Stadiums and locations [edit ]

due to COVID-19 pandemic, all the matches will be played in a individual venue. AIFF declared Kolkata as the venue on 14 August. [ 14 ] Matches will be played in Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kishore Bharati Krirangan and Mohun Bagan Ground [ 15 ] in Kolkata, and Kalyani Stadium in Kalyani. [ 16 ]

Head coach changes [edit ]

Transfers [edit ]

Foreign players [edit ]

minimal of three and maximum of four foreign players including one player from AFC—affiliated country per team. [ 41 ] amerind Arrows can not sign any foreign players as they are a depart of AIFF ‘s developmental program. The newly joined team, Sudeva Delhi will playing field an all-Indian police squad for its debut I-League season. [ 42 ]

  • Players name in bold indicates the players who are capped for their respective national team.

inaugural phase [edit ]

Standings [edit ]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Churchill Brothers 10 6 4 0 15 6 +9 22 Promote to Championship Stage (Group A)
2 Punjab 10 5 3 2 12 7 +5 18
3 Real Kashmir 10 4 5 1 18 9 +9 17
4 Gokulam Kerala 10 5 1 4 20 14 +6 16
5 TRAU 10 4 4 2 17 13 +4 16
6 Mohammedan 10 4 4 2 9 8 +1 16
7 Aizawl 10 4 3 3 13 8 +5 15 Demote to Relegation Stage (Group B)
8 Sudeva Delhi 10 2 3 5 11 11 0 9
9 Chennai City 10 3 0 7 7 19 −12 9
10 NEROCA 10 2 2 6 13 15 −2 8
11 Indian Arrows 10 1 1 8 6 31 −25 4

Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) drawing of lots Updated to match ( vitamin e ) played on 1 March 2021. reservoir : I-League Rules for classification : 1 ) points ; 2 ) tete-a-tete points ; 3 ) tete-a-tete goal difference ; 4 ) goal dispute ; 5 ) number of goals scored ; 6 ) draw of lots

Fixtures and results [edit ]

All matches were played at impersonal venues. The “ home ” and “ away ” are designated for administrative purposes .

Positions by matchday [edit ]

The mesa lists the positions of teams after each round mentioned in official fixtures. [ 43 ]

Matchday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Aizawl 9 10 6 7 3 4 8 8 5 7 7
Chennai City 2 7 9 10 7 6 9 9 9 9 9
Churchill Brothers 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1
Gokulam Kerala 8 5 10 3 4 6 9 4 4 3 4
Indian Arrows 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
Mohammedan 3 3 3 4 6 7 4 5 7 6 6
NEROCA 7 9 4 6 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Punjab 4 6 8 9 9 5 2 1 2 4 2
Real Kashmir 5 2 2 5 5 2 3 2 3 2 3
Sudeva Delhi 10 4 5 8 8 3 7 7 8 8 8
TRAU 6 8 7 2 2 8 5 6 6 5 5
Promotion to Championship stage (Group A)
Demotion to Relegation stage (Group B)

Results by games [edit ]

Match 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Aizawl L W D W D L D W L W
Chennai City W L L W L W L L L L
Churchill Brothers W D W W D D D W W W
Gokulam Kerala L W L W D L W W W L
Indian Arrows L L L D L L L W L L
Mohammedan W D D D D W L L W W
NEROCA D W L L D L L W L L
Punjab W L L D D W W W D W
Real Kashmir D W D D W D W D W L
Sudeva Delhi L W D L D W D L L L
TRAU D D D W D L W L W W

W

= Win;

D

= Draw;

L

= Loss source : I-League

second phase [edit ]

backing phase ( Group A ) [edit ]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Gokulam Kerala ( C ) 15 9 2 4 31 17 +14 29 Champions and Qualification for 2022 AFC Cup group stage
2 Churchill Brothers 15 8 5 2 22 17 +5 29
3 TRAU 15 7 5 3 27 19 +8 26
4 Punjab 15 6 4 5 18 15 +3 22
5 Real Kashmir 15 5 6 4 23 18 +5 21
6 Mohammedan 15 5 5 5 18 20 −2 20

Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) drawing of lots
( C ) Champion Updated to match ( e ) played on 27 March 2021. source : I-League Rules for classification : 1 ) points ; 2 ) neck and neck points ; 3 ) tete-a-tete goal dispute ; 4 ) finish difference ; 5 ) act of goals scored ; 6 ) withdraw of lotsChampion

Fixtures and results [edit ]

All matches were played at neutral venues. The “ home ” and “ away ” are designated for administrative purposes .

Positions by matchday [edit ]

The board lists the positions of teams after each round mentioned in official fixtures .

Matchday 1 2 3 4 5
Churchill Brothers 1 1 2 3 2
Gokulam Kerala 3 2 3 1 1
Mohammedan 6 6 4 5 6
Punjab 4 4 5 4 4
Real Kashmir 5 5 6 6 5
TRAU 2 3 1 2 3

Results by games [edit ]

Match 1 2 3 4 5
Churchill Brothers W L L D W
Gokulam Kerala W W D W W
Mohammedan L D W L L
Punjab L D L W L
Real Kashmir L L D L W
TRAU W W W D L

W

= Win

;

D

= Draw;

L

= Loss reservoir : I-League

delegating phase ( Group B ) [edit ]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Aizawl 14 7 3 4 21 12 +9 24
2 Sudeva Delhi[a] 14 5 3 6 16 14 +2 18
3 Chennai City 14 5 0 9 16 25 −9 15
4 Indian Arrows[b] 14 3 1 10 11 38 −27 10
5 NEROCA[c] 14 2 2 10 14 22 −8 8

Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) drawing of lots
Notes: Updated to match ( e ) played on 25 March 2021. generator : I-League Rules for classification : 1 ) points ; 2 ) neck and neck points ; 3 ) tete-a-tete goal deviation ; 4 ) goal difference ; 5 ) number of goals scored ; 6 ) drawing of lotsNotes :

Fixtures and results [edit ]

All matches were played at neutral venues. The “ home ” and “ away ” are designated for administrative purposes .

Positions by matchday [edit ]

The postpone lists the positions of teams after each round mentioned in official fixtures .

Matchday 1 2 3 4 5
Aizawl 1 1 1 1 1
Chennai City 3 3 3 3 3
Indian Arrows 5 5 4 4 4
NEROCA 4 4 5 5 5
Sudeva Delhi 2 2 2 2 2

Results by games [edit ]

Match 1 2 3 4
Aizawl W L W W
Chennai City L W L W
Indian Arrows W L W L
NEROCA L L L L
Sudeva Delhi W W W L

W

= Win;

D

= Draw;

L

= Loss informant : I-League

Season statistics [edit ]

Scoring [edit ]

As of 27 March 2021

crown scorers [edit ]

The table includes only the top 10 goalscorers of this season.

circus tent indian scorers [edit ]

The table includes only the list of top Indian goalscorers with more than 2 goals in this season.

top assists [edit ]

The table includes only the top 10 assist providers of the season.

clean Sheets [edit ]

As of 21 March 2021

The table includes only the list of top goalkeepers with more than 1 cleansheet in this season.

discipline [edit ]

As of 27 March 2021

Awards [edit ]

  • Match 1 – Match 55 = First Phase
  • Match 56 – Match 80 = Second Phase

hero of the Match [edit ]

Season awards [edit ]

team of the season [edit ]

Source : arunfoot.com

See besides [edit ]

References [edit ]

Read more: Willem Dafoe