2020/21 season of ISL is likely to start in November in Kerala or Goa

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is exploring possibilities of hosting the 2020/21 Indian Super League (ISL) season in either Kerala or Goa in a behind-closed-doors fashion amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

The I-League, on the other hand, will most likely have Kolkata as its venue for its new season.

Both the events will be held after necessary approval in writing from the respective state governments, AIFF League Committee announced at a meeting held via video conference on Tuesday.

Referring to the “difficult times”, Subrata Dutta, AIFF’s Senior Vice President stated, “We need extra efforts from everybody to be able to fight against the pandemic to keep our game alive and thriving. We need to take care of the safety of players, all stakeholders and for that, we all need to put our best foot forward.”

With regards to the I-League, the committee tentatively proposed to hold the tournament from the third week of



September taking into consideration the transfer window, which would end on October 20, 2020.

Taking this step would “provide adequate time for the champion clubs to strengthen their team for the next edition of the Hero I-League.”

The date decided to take a decision regarding the holding of the I-League’s second division is August 14, 2020.

Furthermore, in reference to the current pandemic situation, the Committee decided to be lenient and go by last year’s ratings to the 84 clubs who had participated in the last edition for the AIFF Academy Accreditation.

In respect to the club licensing criteria, the AIFF are in talks with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for certain exemptions to the ISL and I-League clubs in view of the prevalent pandemic situation.

Furthermore, the planned Futsal league which was supposed to be organised in the first week of September might be postponed to a later convenient date.