Template:Infobox football league
The Indian Women's League is the top division women's professional football league in India with the first season kicking off in Cuttack in October 2016.[1] The league is run by the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
History
Since 1991, the top women's football tournament in India has been the Indian Women's Football Championship. The tournament served as a female equivalent of the Santosh Trophy, with states competing against each other.[2] There had never been an organized national football league for women; however, leagues were started by state associations for women. The first women's state football league was set up in 1976 in Manipur. The Indian Football Association of West Bengal founded the Calcutta Women's League in 1993. Leagues were also started in Mumbai and Goa in 1998 and 1999 respectively.[2]
In 2014, after the success of the India women's team, mainly in the SAFF Women's Championship, a push to start a women's football league, mainly along the lines of the recently started and successful Indian Super League, started.[3] Clubs such as Pune and Bengaluru FC had expressed interest in the joining a women's league.[3] It was around this time that the All India Football Federation started plans to create the ISL-style league for women.[4]
On 21 April 2016, over a year after the AIFF started plans for a women's football league, the AIFF President, Praful Patel, said that a women's football league would kick off in October 2016Template:Update after with six teams to be decided, with the goal to expand to eight teams by 2017.[1] Just over two months later, on 5 July 2016, the AIFF organized a workshop to discuss the India women's national team and discuss the proposed women's football league. Five Indian Super League sides (Delhi Dynamos, Chennaiyin FC, Kerala Blasters, FC Pune City, Atletico de Kolkata) and three I-League teams (Bengaluru FC, Aizawl FC, Mumbai FC) attended the workshop. It was announced that the league would feature the eight teams in the league and two other spots would be determined through a pre-qualification round.[5]
On 14 October, the AIFF announced that the preliminary rounds for the Women's League would begin on 17 October 2016 in which ten teams are split into two groups of five teams each, with the winner from each group qualifying for the national finals.[6]
Seasons
Season 1 (2016–17)
Template:Main On 24 January 2017, AIFF launched the first ever women's professional league with six teams. The participating teams – FC Alakhpura (Haryana), Jeppiaar Institute of Technology FC (Puducherry), Aizawl FC (Women) (Mizoram), FC Pune City (women) (Maharashtra), Rising Student's Club (Odisha) and Eastern Sporting Union (Manipur) play each other in a round-robin format with the top four teams advancing to the semifinals. All matches of the two-week Indian Women's League (IWL) were played at Delhi's Ambedkar Stadium with the first match scheduled for Saturday, January 28.
Season 2 (2017–18)
Template:Main The final round of the season was played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Shillong. Rising Student's Club from Odisha were crowned champions after beating Eastern Sporting Union.
Season 3 (2018–19)
Template:Main Indian Women's League season 3 main round started on 5 May 2019. All matches to be played in Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana, Punjab.[7] The 2018–19 IWL will have 12 teams, divided into two groups. The teams will play each other once and the top two teams will compete in the semi-final.Sethu FC crowned unbeaten champions
Season 4 (2019–20)
Template:Main
Indian Women's League season 4 main round started on 24 January 2020. All matches were played in Bangalore Football Stadium, Bengaluru, Karnataka.[8] The 2019–20 IWL will have 12 teams, divided into two groups. The teams would play each other once and the top two teams would compete in the semi-final. Gokulam Kerala were crowned champions after beating KRYPHSA F.C. 3–2 in the final.[9]
| Group A | Group B |
|---|---|
| Baroda Football Academy | Bangalore United FC |
| BBK Dav FC | Bidesh XI FC |
| FC Kolhapur City | Odisha Police FC |
| Kickstart FC | Kenkre FC |
| KRYPHSA | Sreebhumi FC |
| Sethu | Gokulam Kerala |
Results
| Season | Winner | Result | Runner Up | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016–17 | Eastern Sporting Union | 3–0 | Rising Student's Club | [10][11] |
| 2017–18 | Rising Student's Club | 1–1 Template:Aet Template:Pso |
Eastern Sporting Union | |
| 2018–19 | Sethu | 3–1 | Manipur Police SC | |
| 2019–20 | Gokulam Kerala | 3–2 | KRYPHSA | [9] |
Winning head coaches
| Head Coach | Club | Wins | Winning season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Flagicon | Eastern Sporting Union | 1 | 2016−17 |
| Template:Flagicon Sukla Dutta | Rising Student's Club | 1 | 2017−18 |
| Template:Flagicon Amrutha Aravind | Sethu FC | 1 | 2018−19 |
| Template:Flagicon Priya P.V | Gokulam Kerala | 1 | 2019–20 |
Prizes
Prize money
As updated on 14 February 2020. [9]
| Position | Purse |
|---|---|
| Champions | Template:INR 10 Lakhs |
| 1st Runners-up | Template:INR 5 Lakhs |
| Most Valuable Player | Template:INR 1.25 Lakhs |
| Top Goalscorer | Template:INR 1 Lakh |
| Best Goalkeeper | Template:INR 1 Lakh |
| Emerging Player | Template:INR 75 Thousand |
Stats and players
Top goal scorers
| Rank | Player | Seasons | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Template:Flagicon Ngangom Bala Devi | 2 | 38 |
| 2 | Template:Flagicon Sabitra Bhandari | 2 | 31 |
| 3 | Template:Flagicon Nongmaithem Ratanbala Devi | 3 | 25 |
| Template:Flagicon Sandhiya Ranganathan | 4 | ||
| 5 | Template:Flagicon Yumnam Kamala Devi | 3 | 22 |
| 6 | Template:Flagicon Dangmei Grace | 4 | 15 |
| Template:Flagicon Anju Tamang | 4 | ||
| 8 | Template:Flagicon Karishma Shirvoikar | 2 | 11 |
| 9 | Template:Flagicon Manisha Kalyan | 3 | 9 |
| Template:Flagicon Irom Prameshwori Devi | 4 | ||
| Template:Flagicon Kashmina M. S. | 3 | ||
| 12 | Template:Flagicon Sanju Yadav | 3 | 8 |
| 13 | Template:Flagicon Sasmita Malik | 1 | 7 |
| Template:Flagicon Pyari Xaxa | 3 | ||
| Template:Flagicon Soumya Guguloth | 1 | ||
| 16 | Template:Flagicon Sabina Khatun | 1 | 6 |
| Template:Flagicon Jabamani Tudu | 3 | ||
| 18 | Template:Flagicon Fazila Ikwaput | 1 | 5 |
| Template:Flagicon Heigrujam Daya Devi | 1 | ||
| Template:Flagicon Indumathi Kathiresan | 3 | ||
| Template:Flagicon Pradeepa Sekar | 3 | ||
| Template:Flagicon Sumithra Kamaraj | 2 |
Top scorer by season
Hat-trick scorer
Template:Main Template:Updated
| Multiple hat-tricks scorer | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Player | Hat-tricks | Last hat-trick |
| 1 | Template:Flagicon Template:Sortname | 7 | 20 May 2019 |
| 2 | Template:Flagicon Template:Sortname | 5 | 1 February 2020 |
| 3 | Template:Flagicon Template:Sortname | 4 | 6 February 2020 |
| 4 | Template:Flagicon Template:Sortname | 3 | 12 May 2019 |
| Template:Flagicon Template:Sortname | 4 February 2020 | ||
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Women's football league from October. Times of India(21 April 2016). Retrieved 22 April 2016.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 India – List of Women's Champions. RSSSF. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Now A Women's Football League?. NDTV Sports(26 January 2015). Retrieved 22 April 2016.
- ↑ AIFF Plans to Start Indian Super League-Style Women's Football. NDTV Sports(17 December 2014). Retrieved 22 April 2016.
- ↑ AIFF conducts workshop for National Women's League. Times of India(5 July 2016). Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ↑ INDIAN WOMEN'S LEAGUE PRELIMS TO KICK-OFF ON OCT 17. The All India Football Federation(14 October 2016). Retrieved 14 October 2016.
- ↑ Indian Women's League 2018–19 to kick off on May 5 in Ludhiana | Goal.com. www.goal.com. Retrieved 2019-04-13.
- ↑ Hero Indian Women's League returns, scheduled to kick-off from January 24(9 January 2019).
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Gokulam Kerala crowned new Hero IWL champions after thrilling finale. AIFF(14 February 2020). Retrieved 15 February 2020.
- ↑ Eastern Sporting Union crowned inaugural Indian Women's League champions. hindustantimes.com(14 February 2017). Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ↑ Eastern Sporting Union win inaugural Indian Women's League. espnfc.com(14 February 2017). Retrieved 10 March 2017.
External links
- Official website, the-AIFF.com Template:In lang
Template:Indian Women's League Template:Football in India Template:AFC women's leagues Template:Top level women's association football leagues around the world Template:Sports leagues of India