I-League to begin on Jan 9 in Kolkata

New Delhi: The 14th edition of I-League football tournament will kick off on January 9, 2021, in Kolkata. Eleven teams will need to enter the bio-secure bubble 14 days prior to their first match according to the schedule, which will be announced shortly.

The matches will be telecast live on 1Sports.

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the previous edition of I-League came to an abrupt halt before football action resumed once again in India through I-League Qualifier 2020 in October this year. The government of West Bengal and Indian Football Association (IFA) joined hands with All India Football Federation to organise the qualifiers successfully.

All eleven teams will face each other once in the first leg of the league before they are divided into two groups. Top six teams, according to the points table, will face each other once again to decide the winner whereas the other five teams will play against each other in a one-leg league format.

The team with maximum points (cumulative points collected from all 15 matches) will be the winner of I-League 2020-21.

The entire tournament will be hosted in accordance with COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedure released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and no spectator will be allowed inside a stadium during any match.