After a long break, one of India’s finest Footballing tournaments is back and running, putting a smile on thousands of Indian Football fans across the country who were eagerly waiting for their favourite teams to take on the field after such a long break.
Hero I-league was known as the top tier league of Indian Football until very recently and was formerly known as the National Football League or the NFL.
The former Champions Mohun Bagan FC and their rivals and another Kolkata Giant, East Bengal have moved to play the Indian Super League(ISL) this season but the league surely doesn’t loose it’s worth and instead makes it more interesting with the entry of two more teams to replace them this season, namely the third Kolkata Giant, Mohamedan Sporting Club who make their come back into the ILeague, and debutants Sudeva FC from Delhi, who interestingly are supposed to play the league with an all India squad instead of foreigners being allowed and to be used by other teams.
This season’s league kicks of today with 3matches on the same day and few exciting teams to clash against each other. Fans and critics have already taken their notepads out with players to watch out for in the league many of whom would already be clashing on Day 1, from Roundglass Punjab FC’s Bhutanese Ronaldo Chencho Gyeltshen to TRAU FC’s young sensation Seiminman Manchhong.
All the teams look pretty well prepared on paper as well as on pitch with their pre-season practice and training sessions, but people love drama and hence there came a twist in the tale for this season’s league with few changes in the rules of the league.
Generally, each team would play other teams twice in a home and away fixtures, but due to the Covid situation, it has been decided that in the initial stage of the league, each team will play once against each other and then the teams will get divided into two groups namely Group A and Group B, the former consisting of the top 6 teams who would play against each other once to determine the champions while the later would consist of 5 teams who would play against each other once to determine the relegation and the points earned in 1st, phase of the league would be carried forward for teams in both groups.
Due to the current Covid situation all over the Globe, the tournament would be confined to a single destination, which is Kolkata and the teams would stay under Bio-Bubble for further protectionn and safety.
The games will be played in three slots over the day, which are 2 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm respectively, with a varying number of games each day starting with 3 games on Match Day 1.
There will be 11 teams participating in this season’s ILeague, from all over the country namely:
- Aizawl FC, Mizoram.
- Chennai City FC, Tamil Nadu.
- Churchill Brother FC, Goa.
- Gokulam Kerala FC, Kerala.
- Indian Arrows.
- Mohammedan SC, Bengal.
- NEROCA FC, Manipur.
- Roundgalss Punjab FC, Punjab.
- Real Kashmir FC, Jammu & Kashmir.
- Sudeva Moonlight FC, Delhi.
- TRAU FC, Manipur.
The matches will be played across 4 stadiums in and around Kolkata, including the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata.
The fixtures for Match Day 1 are:
9th January, 2021-
1) Sudeva Moonlight vs Mohammedan SC, 2:00 PM IST
2) Roundglass Punjab FC vs Aizawl FC, 4:00 PM IST
3) Gokulam Kerala FC vs Chennai City FC, 7:00 PM IST
TELECAST:
For people who would definitely not be willing to miss an opportunity to watch these teams in action, all the matches will be available Live on 1Sports Facebook and TV channel.
