The Indian Women’s League (IWL) will start later this year, with the Indian women’s national team set to play against Jordan and Uzbekistan in away friendlies on March 22 and March 28. This will be followed by the Olympic Qualifiers against Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan on April 4 and 10th respectively.
Only after this time will the players be able to link up with their clubs, which is too close to the originally planned date of April 15. As a result, the tournament will be delayed by around ten days. This is following a meeting between IWL and AIFF officials, who have discussed the situation at length.
Indian Women’s League to start with 10-day delay
The 2023 edition of the tournament will have 15 participating teams. Of the 15, 11 will be the state league champions alongside the top four from last season. These teams will be divided into two groups and the top three teams will play a Super Six round to decide who wins the league.
This time around, the number of allowed foreigners has also increased. Clubs can now register three foreign players, while two will be allowed to play. One of the on-pitch foreigners will have to be Asian.
Gokulam Kerala are the defending champions of the IWL, and will be looking to play the new format with the same intensity as they did before.
