I-League 2022-23 starts November 12, home-away format returns after COVID
The last two seasons of the I-League were held in West Bengal venues due to COVID-19 restrictions. Holders Gokulam to kick off 2022-23 season vs Mohammedan Sporting.
The I-League 2022-23 football season will start on November 12 and will end in March next year.
The upcoming season will also see the I-League return to its traditional home-and-away format after the last two editions, played in a shortened format, were held across different venues in West Bengal - Kolkata, Kalyani and Naihati - due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The return to the traditional format means each team will play the other twice, once at home and once away. There will be no bio-bubbles and teams will be free to move around.
After all the league matches are over, the table topper will be declared the winner while the bottom two teams will be relegated to the 2nd tier of the I-League.
I-League 2022-23, the 16th edition of the football competition, will feature 12 teams - Aizawl FC, Churchill Brothers, Gokulam Kerala FC, Mumbai Kenkre, Mohammedan Sporting, NEROCA, Punjab FC, Rajasthan United, Real Kashmir, Sreenidi Deccan, Sudeva Delhi and TRAU.
Indian Arrows, the developmental team run by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), however, will not play in the upcoming tournament after the project was dissolved earlier this year.
Last year’s finalists, Gokulam Kerala FC and Mohammedan Sporting will face off in the opening match of the I-League 2022-23 at the Payyanad Stadium in Kerala - Gokulam’s home ground.
Gokulam Kerala FC will enter the season as two-time reigning champions and are chasing a historic hattrick. No team in Indian football history has won the I-League thrice in-a-row.
Kolkata giants East Bengal are the only other club to win back-to-back domestic titles, then known as the National Football League (NFL), in 2002-03 and 2003-04.