2020 I-League qualifiers

Template:Infobox football league season

The 2020 I-League qualifiers (also known as Hero I-League Qualifiers 2020 for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th season of I-League 2nd Division, the second division of Indian football league, since its establishment in 2008. The league was kicked-off from 25 January 2020.

The season was shortened due to COVID-19 pandemic in India and Mohammedan won the league, being promoted to 2020–21 I-League.

Teams

This season, 17 teams participated, including one reserve side from I-League (Punjab) and eight from Indian Super League (ATK, Jamshedpur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennaiyin, Mumbai City, Goa and Kerala Blasters). All the teams had been divided into three groups of six teams in A and C, and five teams in group B. The teams which made their debut this season were Bengaluru United, Rajasthan FC, Punjab FC (reserves), Hyderabad FC (reserves) and Mumbai City FC (reserves). Indian Arrows reserves were supposed to debut this season, but later withdrew, since it consists of U-16 and U-18 players, which had their board examinations.

Stadiums and locations

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Team	City/State	Stadium	Capacity
ARA	Ahmedabad, Gujarat	EKA Arena	22,000
ATK (R)	Barasat, West Bengal	Aditya Academy Ground	10,000
Rajasthan	Jodhpur, Rajasthan	Maharaja Umed Singh Stadium	6,000
Bengaluru (R)	Bengaluru, Karnataka	Bengaluru Football Stadium	8,400
Bengaluru United	Bengaluru, Karnataka	Bengaluru Football Stadium	8,400
Bhawanipore	Kolkata, West Bengal	Kalyani Stadium	20,000
Chennaiyin (R)	Chennai, Tamil Nadu	SSN College Ground	400
Garhwal	New Delhi, Delhi	Ambedkar Stadium	35,000
Goa (R)	Margao, Goa	GMC Stadium	3,200
Hyderabad (R)	Hyderabad, Telangana	Gachibowli Athletic Stadium	30,000
Jamshedpur (R)	Jamshedpur, Jharkhand	JRD Tata Sports Complex	24,500
FC Kerala	Thrissur, Kerala	Thrissur Municipal Corporation Stadium	15,000
Kerala Blasters (R)	Ernakulam, Kerala	Panampally Ground	300
Lonestar Kashmir	Katra, Jammu and Kashmir	SMVDSB Sports Complex	2,600
Mohammedan	Howrah, West Bengal	Sailen Manna Stadium	15,000
Mumbai City (R)	Mumbai, Maharashtra	Cooperage Ground	5,000
Punjab (R)	Ludhiana, Punjab	Guru Nanak Stadium	15,000

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, all the rescheduled matches after COVID-19 pandemic, will be played in a single venue. AIFF declared Kolkata and Kalyani as the venue on 14 August for the final round after cancelling the remaining matches of the preliminary round. Matches will be played at Kalyani Stadium in Kalyani and at Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
ARA	Template:Flagicon Vivek Nagul	SEVEN	Amul
ATK (R)	Template:Flagicon Deggie Cardozo	Nivia
Bengaluru (R)	Template:Flagicon Naushad Moosa	Puma	Kia Motors
Bengaluru United	Template:Flagicon Richard Hood	MS Sportswear	The Organic World
Bhawanipore	Template:Flagicon Sankarlal Chakraborty	Cosco	Sangbad Pratidin
Chennaiyin (R)	Template:Flagicon Santosh Kashyap	Performax	Apollo Tyres
Garhwal	Template:Flagicon Vikas Rawat	Vector X	ONGC
Goa (R)	Template:Flagicon Clifford Miranda	T10	Adda52.com
Hyderabad (R)	Template:Flagicon Anshul Katiyar	Reyaur Sports	Jai Raj Steel
Jamshedpur (R)	Template:Flagicon Noel Wilson	Nivia	Tata Steel
Kerala	Template:Flagicon TG Purushothaman	Cosco	Yologans
Kerala Blasters (R)	Template:Flagicon Renjith Ajithkumar	Reyaur Sports	Muthoot
Lonestar Kashmir	Template:Flagicon Kenichi Yatsuhashi	Kaizen	Rising Kashmir
Mohammedan	Template:Flagicon Sol Campbell	Kaizen	TRAK Only
Mumbai City (R)	Template:Flagicon Mohan Das	Squad Gear	SportsAdda
Punjab (R)	Template:Flagicon Curtis Fleming	Spartan	Apollo Tyres
Rajasthan	Template:Flagicon Mangesh Desai	AIO Sports	AU Small Finance Bank

Coaching changes

Team	Outgoing Head Coach	Manner of departure	Incoming Head Coach	Date of appointment
Mohammedan	Template:Flagicon Raghunath Nandi	2019	Template:Flagicon Yan Law	2020
Lonestar Kashmir	Template:Flagicon Miquel Llado Plana	2019	Template:Flagicon Kenichi Yatsuhashi	2020

Foreign players

Each club, excluding the reserve sides, can register three foreign players in their squad. One of the foreign players has to be from an AFC Member Nation.

Team	Player 1	Player 2	Asian Visa
ARA	Template:Flagicon Eze Stanley	Template:Flagicon Camara Bakia	Template:Flagicon Rajesh Pariyar
Rajasthan	Template:Flagicon Collins Patterson		Template:Flagicon Muhammad Iqbal
Bengaluru United	Template:Flagicon Robert Primus	Template:Flagicon William Opoku
Bhawanipore	Template:Flagicon Philip Adjah	Template:Flagicon Ansumana Kromah
Garhwal	Template:Flagicon Bala Dahir	Template:Flagicon Ekomobong Victor Philip
FC Kerala	Template:Flagicon Cyrille Brohiri
Lonestar Kashmir	Template:Flagicon Ellon Maxwell	Template:Flagicon Bema Coulibaly
Mohammedan	Template:Flagicon Willis Plaza	Template:Flagicon Eze Kingsley	Template:Flagicon Abhishek Rijal

Preliminary round

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied in the order given to determine the rankings: Greater number of points obtained in the matches between the Teams concerned Goal difference resulting from the matches between the Teams concerned Greater number of goals scored in the matches between the Teams concerned Goal difference in all the matches Greater number of goals scored in all the matches Drawing of lots

I-League qualifiers

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, usual final round format was scrapped off. It was decided that the final round of the league will be rescheduled into a new format and all the non-reserve teams from the preliminary stage will automatically progress to this round. It was officially named as I-League Qualifiers. The teams in this round will play in a round-robin format in two venues, at Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata and Kalyani Stadium in Kalyani, near Kolkata. The team with highest points would advance to the 2020–21 I-League. Out of the eight non-reserve teams, FC Kerala, Lonestar Kashmir FC and Rajasthan FC pulled out from tournament due to financial and other constraints.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied in the order given to determine the rankings: Greater number of points obtained in the matches between the Teams concerned Goal difference resulting from the matches between the Teams concerned Greater number of goals scored in the matches between the Teams concerned Goal difference in all the matches Greater number of goals scored in all the matches Drawing of lots

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Template:Flagicon Syed Shoaib Ahmed	ARA	7
	Template:Flagicon Ekombong Victor Philip	Garhwal
3	Template:Flagicon Dieye Hamidou	ARA	6
4	Template:Flagicon Shakir Ahmed Sheikh	Lonestar Kashmir	5
	Template:Flagicon John Chidi Uzodinma	Mohammedan
	Template:Flagicon William Pauliankhum	ATK (R)
7	Template:Flagicon Billu Teli	Jamshedpur (R)	4
	Template:Flagicon Ronaldo Oliveira	Kerala Blasters (R)

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Template:Flagicon Syed Shoaib Ahmed	ARA	Mumbai City (R)	5–0	25 January 2020
Template:Flagicon Mohammad Asrar Rehbar	Bengaluru United	Mumbai City (R)	6–0	1 March 2020
Template:Flagicon John Chidi Uzodinma	Mohammedan	Bengaluru (R)	3–1	5 March 2020
Template:Flagicon Syed Shoaib Ahmed	ARA	Mumbai (R)	3–1	6 March 2020
Template:Flagicon Ekombong Victor Philip	Garhwal	ATK (R)	4–1	10 March 2020

Cleansheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Template:Flagicon Srijith R	Bengaluru United	4
2	Template:Flagicon Iprotip Das	ARA	3
	Template:Flagicon Priyant Singh	Mohammedan
4	Template:Flagicon Nitin Meel	Rajasthan	2
	Template:Flagicon Raj Kumar Mahato	Jamshedpur (R)
	Template:Flagicon Amrit Gope	Jamshedpur (R)
	Template:Flagicon Ahamed Afsar	Kerala
	Template:Flagicon Lara Sharma	ATK (R)
	Template:Flagicon Sayak Barai	Garhwal
	Template:Flagicon Antonio da Silva	Goa (R)

Average home attendances

Team	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip
F.C. Kerala	2	900	700	200	450
ARA	4	1150	450	150	287
Bhawanipore	3	395	300	20	131
Rajasthan	2	200	200	200	200
Lonestar Kashmir	4	567	350	52	141
Garhwal	3	1400	550	350	466
Mohammedan	2	1400	1200	200	700
Bengaluru United	4	1050	450	150	262
ATK (R)	5	1201	700	50	240
Goa (R)	4	1250	500	200	312
Mumbai City (R)	4	760	200	160	190
Kerala Blasters (R)	3	360	250	50	120
Bengaluru (R)	2	555	455	100	277
Chennaiyin (R)	4	215	100	25	53
Hyderabad (R)	3	375	200	50	125
Punjab (R)	3	465	250	105	155
Jamshedpur (R)	4	697	237	60	174
Total	54	12,940	1200	20	239

External links

• https://i-league.org/category/2nd-division-league/
• https://www.the-aiff.com/competitions/second-division