The 2020-’21 edition of the I-League will begin in Kolkata on 9 January, the All India Football Federation announced on Saturday.
The 14th edition of the competition that was pushed forward due to the Covid-19 pandemic will now be played in a bio-secure bubble in Kolkata.
The I-League qualifiers were played in the city in October last month that saw Mohammedan Sporting earn promotion to the top division.
However, the rescheduled tournament is set to have a different format this season. All eleven teams will face each other once before the top six and the bottom five get divided into two different groups. Teams in both groups would play one round of matches among themselves with the team with the most points overall being declared the winner.
“We can’t thank Government of West Bengal and IFA enough for their unconditional support to hosting the Hero I-League Qualifier this year. Without their support, we couldn’t even think of hosting the tournament smoothly,” I-League CEO Sunando Dhar was quoted as saying on the AIFF website.
“Hero I-League Qualifier was a stage rehearsal for the next edition of Hero I-League as it’ll be a longer and more challenging tournament from every single aspect. We’ll work with them hand in hand to make it a grand success and we’re confident to pull it off successfully,” he added.
The 11 teams that will participate in the I-League are as follows:
Aizawl FC, Chennai City FC, Churchill Brothers, Gokulam Kerala, Indian Arrows, Mohammedan Sporting, NEROCA, Punjab FC, Real Kashmir, Sudeva and TRAU