The 2022-23 I-League season will kick off on November 12 at Malappuram, Kerala, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said on Tuesday. In the opening match, defending champions Gokulam Kerala FC will face last season’s runners-up Mohammedan Sporting.
I-League 2022-23 fixtures released eleven days ahead of first match
With the COVID restrictions lifted, all the 12 clubs are set to play in as many as 13 venues across the country. The last two seasons saw the league being played from within the confines of the bio bubble, as all the matches were played in Kolkata, Kalyani and Naihati in West Bengal.
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.
“There’s a lot of excitement around this season’s I-League, with the league set to be held in the home and away format once again. We have taken great care to ensure that around 80 per cent of the matches will be played under floodlights, and that goes to show how much development most of these venues have gone through,” said AIFF Secretary General Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran.
Gokulam Kerala will play six of their home matches at the Payannad Stadium while the other five will be played at the EMS Stadium in Kozhikode, where they have already been playing in previous campaigns. The Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar, will also make its I-League debut, with Real Kashmir FC shifting to the venue from February onwards. The Deccan Arena in Hyderabad and the Chhatrasal Stadium in New Delhi will be the other two debuting venues in the league this season for Sreenidi Deccan FC and Sudeva Delhi FC, respectively. Over in Delhi, the historic Ambedkar Stadium will play host to Rajasthan United FC.
Amongst the other clubs, Mohammedan Sporting will operate from the Kishore Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata, Churchill Brothers FC Goa from the Bambolim Stadium, Goa, Aizawl FC from the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Aizawl, RoundGlass Punjab from the Tau Devi Lal Stadium, in Panchkhula, while Imphal clubs NEROCA FC and TRAU FC will operate out of the Khuman Lampak Stadium.
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.
