2021 I-League qualifiers

I-League Qualifiers
Season2020–21
Dates4 – 23 October
ChampionsRajasthan United[1]
PromotedRajasthan United
Kenkre
Matches22
Goals57 (2.59 per match)
Top goalscorerAnwar Ali Jr. (4 goals)
Highest scoringBengaluru United 3–3 Madan Maharaj
(8 October 2021)
Corbett 1–5 Delhi
(9 October 2021)
Madan Maharaj 0–6 Delhi
(23 October 2021)
Longest winning run4 matches
(Delhi)
Longest unbeaten run6 matches
(Rajasthan United)
Longest winless run4 matches
(ARA, Corbett, Madan Maharaj)
Longest losing run3 matches
(ARA, Madan Maharaj)
Total attendance700
← 2020

The 2021 I-League Qualifiers or Hero I-League Qualifiers 2021 (for sponsorship reasons) was the 14th season of I-League 2nd Division since its establishment in 2008. The league winner secured place in 2021–22 I-League season.

Subrata Dutta, senior vice president of All India Football Federation, and AIFF league committee members held its meeting on 26 June 2021, agreeing that state associations which have conducted a league or qualifying championship, will be eligible to nominate teams for the qualifiers.[2]

Even though states are allowed to nominate two teams, the AIFF said each state association will be represented by just one team in I-League qualifiers. The AIFF has made it clear that only those states which conduct a league will be allowed to nominate a team. At least two states made direct recommendations, but were turned down.[3] AIFF allowed relaxation in case nominated clubs could not meet the financial criteria to play in I-League, if they were promoted.

On 4 December 2021, AIFF barred I-League club Chennai City from participating in 2021–22 season on failing to comply with club licensing regulations, and hence second-placed qualifiers team Kenkre FC was promoted.[4]

Teams

As per AIFF, ten teams will be selected to participate in I-League 2nd Division qualifiers, through State leagues. Only one team among the nominated two teams from each state will be selected.[3]

Selection criteria

  1. State association can nominate up to two teams based on the conducted qualifying tournament in most recent season.
  2. Nominated teams shall meet AIFF financial requirements and be liable to complete club licensing criteria.[5]

Nominated teams

The following teams were nominated by state associations:[6]

  1. Vizag FC (Andhra Pradesh)
  2. Oil India FC, Elevenstar Club (Assam)
  3. Shirsh Bihar United FC (Bihar)
  4. Indian Heroes Daman and Diu FC, Young Hearts FC (Daman and Diu)
  5. Sports Hostel Cuttack (Odisha)
  6. Delhi FC, Garhwal FC (Delhi)
  7. Vasco SC (Goa)
  8. Gandhinagar FC, ARA FC (Gujarat)
  9. Techtro Swades United FC, Shimla FC (Himachal Pradesh)
  10. Peerless SC, Bhawanipore FC (West Bengal)
  11. Hyderya Sports FC, Downtown Heroes FC (Jammu and Kashmir)
  12. Kerala United FC, BASCO Othukkungal (Kerala)
  13. FC Bengaluru United, Kickstart FC (Karnataka)
  14. Madan Maharaj FC (Madhya Pradesh)
  15. Ryntih FC (Meghalaya)
  16. Rajasthan United FC, Zinc Football (Rajasthan)
  17. Corbett FC (Uttarakhand)
  18. PIFA Sports FC, Kenkre FC (Maharashtra)

Selected teams

class=notpageimage|
Locations of I-League Qualifiers 2021 teams

29 teams were nominated by 18 state associations. Only twelve teams fulfilled the AIFF criteria, and ten teams were accepted for the season.[7] Later AIFF decided to withdraw Hyderya Sports FC, runners up of Jammu & Kashmir Professional League, after finding the bank guarantee submitted by them to be not genuine.[8]

RegionQualifying tournamentSelectedCityPosition
NameSeason
1KarnatakaBangalore Super Division2020–21Bengaluru UnitedBangaloreChampions
2KeralaKerala Premier League2020–21Kerala UnitedMalappuramSemi-final
3GujaratGandhinagar Premier League2020-21ARAAhmedabadChampions
4DelhiDelhi Senior Division League2020-21DelhiDelhi2nd place
5RajasthanR-League A Division2020-21Rajasthan UnitedBhilwara2nd place
6Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh Premier League2021Madan MaharajBhopalChampions
7MeghalayaShillong Premier LeagueRyntihShillongLeague suspended
8MaharashtraMFA Elite DivisionKenkreMumbaiLeague not conducted
9UttarakhandUttarakhand Super LeagueCorbettRudrapurLeague not conducted

Personnel and kits

TeamManagerCaptainKit manufacturerShirt sponsor
ARAIndia Vivek NagulNigeria Bala DahirSEVENAmul
CorbettIndia Caetano PinhoIndia Subodh KumarNivia SportsAmenity Sports Academy
DelhiIndia Surinder SinghIndia Anwar AliSpartanSpartan
Bengaluru UnitedIndia Richard HoodIndiaDharmaraj RavananSix5six SportsThe Organic World
KenkreIndia Akhil KothariIndia Ali Azhar DelhiwalaHummel
Kerala UnitedIndia Bino GeorgeIndia Arjun JayarajSEGAMicro Health Laboratories
Madan MaharajIndia Amit Kumar JaiswalIndia Mehtab HossainRocky SportsKamla Devi Public School
Rajasthan UnitedIndia Vikrant SharmaNigeria Ali Ola SmithAIO SportsMISTK
RyntihIndia Wallamkupar KharpranIndia Banpynkhrawnam NongkhlawT10 SportsSamkhamti

Foreign players

Each club could register up to three foreign players in their squad. One of the foreign players had to be from an AFC member nation.

TeamPlayer 1Player 2AFC player
ARASenegal Hamidou Dieye[9]Nigeria Bala DahirUzbekistan Vladislav Nuriev
CorbettPanama Rogelio JuárezNigeria John Chidi
DelhiBrazil Sérgio Barboza[10]Trinidad and Tobago Willis Plaza[11]
Bengaluru UnitedSlovenia Luka Majcen[12]Spain Pedro Manzi[12]
KenkreCameroon Zacharie Mbenda
Kerala UnitedBrazil Gabriel Lima Silva[13]Nigeria Francis Nwankwo
Madan MaharajNigeria Loveday EnyinnayaSouth Africa William Twala
Rajasthan UnitedNigeria Akeem Abioye
Ryntih

Format

The ten participating teams have been divided into two groups of five. They will face each other once in the first league leg.

Teams finishing at the top two group positions will proceed to the Final round, where they will play against each other once in a round-robin format. The team that finishes top after the end of 26 matches, will earn promotion to the Hero I-League 2021–22 season.

26 matches are set to be played in the entire tournament, with 20 of them being in the group stage, while six matches will be played in the Final round.[14]

The total number of teams was reduced to nine, after Hyderya Sports FC was found to have produced fake bank guarantee documents.[15][16]

Preliminary round

Group A

PosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Rajasthan United312054+15Qualified for Finals
2Madan Maharaj312054+15
3Ryntih31024403
4Bengaluru United302146−22
Source: AIFF
4 October 2021 (2021-10-04) Rajasthan United 3–2 Ryntih Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45
  • Sanyasi 12'
  • S. Singh 45+1'
  • Thapa 67'
ReportStadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 30
Referee: Jamal Mohamed
6 October 2021 (2021-10-06) Rajasthan United 1–1 Bengaluru United Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45
  • S. Singh 78'
Report
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 40
Referee: Lakshay
8 October 2021 (2021-10-08) Bengaluru United 3–3 Madan Maharaj Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45
Report
  • Bhowmick 13', 52'
  • Murmu 90+3'
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 30
Referee: C. R. Srikrishna
11 October 2021 (2021-10-11) Ryntih 0–1 Madan Maharaj Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45Report
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 20
Referee: R Kannan
13 October 2021 (2021-10-13) Madan Maharaj 1–1 Rajasthan United Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45
Report
  • Musharaf 90+4'
Stadium: FSV Arena
Attendance: 0
Referee: Surojit Das
13 October 2021 (2021-10-13) Bengaluru United 0–2 Ryntih Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45Report
  • Sohktung 29'
  • Challam 77'
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 40
Referee: Lakshay

Group B

PosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Delhi4400112+912Qualified for Finals
2Kenkre421143+17
3Kerala United420275+26
4Corbett402228−62
5ARA401339−61
Source: AIFF
5 October 2021 (2021-10-05) Kerala United 1–2 Kenkre Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30
  • Valiyattu 48'
Report
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 20
Referee: Surojit Das
5 October 2021 (2021-10-05) Corbett 1–1 ARA Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45
  • Patil 15'
Report
  • Nuriev 75'
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 30
Referee: Suresh Devaraj
7 October 2021 (2021-10-07) Delhi 3–0 ARA Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30
ReportStadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 40
Referee: Ramachandran Venkatesh
7 October 2021 (2021-10-07) Kerala United 2–0 Corbett Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45
ReportStadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 30
Referee: V Eshwar Rao
9 October 2021 (2021-10-09) Corbett 1–5 Delhi Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30
  • Chidi 13'
Report
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 15
Referee: Mrutyunjay Amatya
9 October 2021 (2021-10-09) ARA 1–2 Kenkre Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45
Report
  • Noorani 14'
  • Mhatre 66'
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 40
Referee: Ranjita Devi Tekcham
12 October 2021 (2021-10-12) Kenkre 0–0 Corbett Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30ReportStadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 10
Referee: Suresh Devaraj
12 October 2021 (2021-10-12) Delhi 2–1 Kerala United Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45
Report
  • Dhath 23'
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 50
Referee: C. R. Srikrishna
14 October 2021 (2021-10-14) ARA 1–3 Kerala United Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30
  • Shaikh 83'
Report
  • Nwankwo 46', 51'
  • Mohammedali 90+4'
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 25
Referee: Jamal Mohamed
14 October 2021 (2021-10-14) Kenkre 0–1 Delhi Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45Report
  • Bohham 2'
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 20
Referee: Mrutyunjay Amatya

Finals

Standings

PosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Rajasthan United (C)321030+37Promotion to 2021–22 I-League
2Kenkre312021+15
3Delhi311172+54
4Madan Maharaj300309−90
Source: AIFF
(C) Champions

Matches

18 October 2021 (2021-10-18) Kenkre 1–0 Madan Maharaj Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30
ReportStadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 20
Referee: Ramachandran Venkatesh
18 October 2021 (2021-10-18) Delhi 0–1 Rajasthan United Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45Report
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 40
Referee: Surojit Das
20 October 2021 (2021-10-20) Delhi 1–1 Kenkre Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30
Report
  • Pandhare 56'
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 40
Referee: Jamal Mohamed
20 October 2021 (2021-10-20) Madan Maharaj 0–2 Rajasthan United Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45Report
  • Chhetri 88'
  • Hp. Singh 90+4'
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 20
Referee: V Eshwar Rao
23 October 2021 (2021-10-23) Madan Maharaj 0–6 Delhi Bangalore, Karnataka
11:30Report
Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 40
Referee: Surojit Das
23 October 2021 (2021-10-23) Rajasthan United 0–0 Kenkre Bangalore, Karnataka
15:00ReportStadium: Bangalore Football Stadium
Attendance: 100
Referee: Ramachandran Venkatesh

Statistics

Top scorers

RankPlayerClubGoals
1India Anwar Ali Jr.Delhi4
2Brazil Sérgio BarbozaDelhi3
3India Shubham BhowmickMadan Maharaj2
India Sukjit SinghRajasthan United
India Jiten MurmuMadan Maharaj
India Sheen Stevenson SohktungRyntih

References

  1. ^ Menon, Anirudh (27 October 2021). ""If you want a future for yourself, fight and take it" – The story behind Rajasthan United's I-League fairytale". www.espn.com. ESPN. AIFF Media. Archived from the original on 2 November 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  2. ^ "Hero I-League 2021-22 to be held in Kolkata, League Committee decides via video conferencing". www.the-aiff.com. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b Mergulhao, Marcus (14 July 2021). "One state, one team for I-League qualifiers". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  4. ^ "Kenkre FC is all set to join I-League as Chennai City FC gets barred". The Bridge. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  5. ^ Mergulhao, Marcus (7 August 2021). "I-League Qualifiers: AIFF to use financial criteria as tie-breaker to select teams". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  6. ^ "States nominate 29 teams for I-League Qualifiers, AIFF to select 10". The Times of India. 4 August 2021. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  7. ^ "12 teams fulfil criteria, 10 get nod for I-League Qualifiers". The Times of India. 31 August 2021. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  8. ^ "AIFF Statement". www.the-aiff.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  9. ^ Boruah, Pranjal Protim, ed. (18 May 2020). "Adjusting to 'new normal'". Mumbai Mirror. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  10. ^ Apte, Tanay. "Durand Cup 2021: Indian Navy stun Delhi FC with late goal". www.sportskeeda.com. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  11. ^ "Durand Cup 2021: Indian Navy down Delhi FC 2-1 | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  12. ^ a b "FC Bengaluru United sign foreign strikers Luka Majcen and Pedro Manzi for upcoming season". The Times of India. 26 August 2021. Archived from the original on 26 August 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  13. ^ "A Brazilian to play for a Kerala club, but it is not Blasters or Gokulam". OnManorama. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  14. ^ "Hero I-League Qualifiers 2021 to kick-off on October 4". www.the-aiff.com. Archived from the original on 31 August 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  15. ^ "Hyderya Sports Kashmir FC Disqualified from I-League Qualifiers for Producing Fake Bank Guarantee". News18. 27 September 2021. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  16. ^ "AIFF disqualifies Hyderya Sports FC for producing fake bank guarantee". Sportstar. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
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