New Delhi: The Indian Super League (ISL), which was started in 2014, has been going on without any teams being promoted or demoted. But that will longer be the case from the 2024-25 edition.
All India Football Federation (AIFF) general secretary Kushal Das said on Saturday that all stakeholders in the league have agreed that relegation and promotion will be an intrinsic part of the league in four years’ time.
He further informed that I-League winners will get “direct slots” in the top-tier ISL in 2022 and 2023.
“Going forward, in the next two-three years Indian football will have a structured road map in terms of relegation and promotion,” Das was quoted as saying by PTI.
“The road map is for the next two years… The winner of I-League will get a direct slot in ISL purely on sporting merit from 2022.
“Then, from 2024-25 there will be promotion, relegation where the bottom-placed team in ISL will be relegated to the second tier and the I-League winner will be promoted to ISL. This is the road map agreed by all stakeholders,” he added.
The seventh edition of ISL, to be held at three venues in Goa, is likely to kick off towards the end of November with strict health and safety measures in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eleven teams are likely to take part in this season’s ISL. Ten of them — Odisha FC, ATK Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru FC, FC Goa, Chennaiyin FC, Kerala Blasters, Mumbai City FC, North East United FC, Hyderabad FC and Jamshedpur FC — are confirmed.
Kolkata’s East Bengal are asset to be the newest entry to the country’s elite league, after having recently tied up with a sponsor.
