2015–16 I-League

The 2015–16 I-League was the ninth season of the I-League, the Indian professional football league, since its establishment in 2007. The season commenced on 9 January 2016, after the Indian Super League finished, and concluded on 24 April 2016.^[2]

I-League

Season	2015–16
Dates	9 January 2016 – 24 April 2016
Champions	Bengaluru 2nd I-League title 2nd Indian title
AFC Champions League	Bengaluru
AFC Cup	Mohun Bagan
Matches played	72
Goals scored	186 (2.58 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ranti Martins (12 goals)
Biggest home win	Mohun Bagan 5–0 Bengaluru (23 April 2016)
Biggest away win	Salgaocar 0–3 Sporting Goa (23 April 2016)
Highest scoring	Sporting Goa 5–2 Shillong Lajong (10 April 2016)
Longest winning run	3 games Bengaluru East Bengal
Longest unbeaten run	11 games Mohun Bagan
Longest winless run	10 games Mumbai
Longest losing run	4 games Salgaocar
Highest attendance	62,342 Mohun Bagan 1–1 East Bengal (23 January 2016)[1]
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

Bengaluru won their second I-League title after winning their first title in 2013–14. The defending champions Mohun Bagan finished second. Aizawl and DSK Shivajians entered the league for the first time in their history, Aizawl through promotion from the I-League 2nd Division and DSK Shivajians through a direct-entry spot.

Teams and season Details

After the 2014–15 I-League season, three-time I-League champions, Dempo, were relegated to the I-League 2nd Division.^[3] Mizo club, Aizawl, were promoted from the 2nd Division earlier in May following a 4–2 victory over Chanmari.^[4] DSK Shivajians were announced as the direct-entry club for this season on 12 November 2015.^[5]

In August 2015, it was first reported that Pune clubs, Pune, and Bharat, the direct-entry side from the previous season, would be withdrawing from the I-League due to the lack of a "long-term vision" for the league.^[6] Then, towards the end of October, it was announced that both Pune and Bharat FC had failed to compile to the AFC-licensing criteria needed to participate in the I-League.^[7] On 21 November 2015, it was confirmed that Royal Wahingdoh, another debutant club from the previous season, were withdrawing from the league.^[8]

Stadiums and locations

Aizawl

Bengaluru

Mumbai

DSK Shivajians

Goa

Kolkata

Shillong Lajong

Kolkata teams
East Bengal
Mohun Bagan

Goan teams
Salgaocar
Sporting Goa

Locations of the 2015–16 I-League teams

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Stadium	Capacity
Aizawl	Rajiv Gandhi Stadium	20,000
Bengaluru	Sree Kanteerava Stadium	24,000
DSK Shivajians	Balewadi Sports Complex	22,000
East Bengal	Salt Lake Stadium	68,000
	Kanchenjunga Stadium	35,000
Mohun Bagan	Salt Lake Stadium	68,000
	Barasat Stadium	22,000
Mumbai	Cooperage Ground	5,000
Salgaocar	Tilak Maidan Stadium	12,000
Shillong Lajong	Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium	30,000
Sporting Goa	Fatorda Stadium	19,500

Personnel and kits

Team	Head coach	Captain	Kit Sponsor	Shirt sponsor
Aizawl	Jahar Das	David Lalrinmuana	Vamos	North East Consultancy Services
Bengaluru	Ashley Westwood	Sunil Chhetri	Puma	JSW
DSK Shivajians	Derrick Pereira	Aser Pierrick Dipanda	Nivia	DSK Group
East Bengal	Trevor Morgan	Gurwinder Singh	Shiv Naresh	Kingfisher
Mohun Bagan	Sanjoy Sen	Shilton Paul	Shiv Naresh	None
Mumbai	Khalid Jamil	Taisuke Matsugae	Nivia	Playwin
Salgaocar	Santosh Kashyap	Karanjit Singh	Shiv Naresh	Salgaocar
Shillong Lajong	Thangboi Singto	Aibor Khongjee	Adidas	Gionee
Sporting Goa	Mateus Costa	Odafa Onyeka Okolie	None	Models

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
East Bengal	Eelco Schattorie	Mutual consent	19 June 2015	Pre-season	Biswajit Bhattacharya	19 June 2015[9]
Salgaocar	Derrick Pereira		26 June 2015		Malky Thomson	26 June 2015[10]
Aizawl	Hmingthana Zadeng		20 August 2015		Manuel Retamero Fraile	20 August 2015
DSK Shivajians	New club				Derrick Pereira	20 August 2015
Salgaocar	Malky Thomson	Mutual consent	29 January 2016[11]	9th	Santosh Kashyap	29 January 2016[12]
Aizawl	Manuel Retamero Fraile	Sacked	7 February 2016[13]	7th	Jahar Das	7 February 2016[13]
East Bengal	Biswajit Bhattacharya	Resigned	11 April 2016[14]	3rd	Trevor Morgan	13 April 2016[15]

Transfers

Main article: I-League transfers for the 2015–16 season

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to Five per team. A team could use Four foreign players on the field each game.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Asian Player
Aizawl	Alfred Jaryan	Emmanuel Chigozie	Joel Sunday	Yuta Kinowaki
Bengaluru	John Johnson	Michael Collins	Curtis Osano	Kim Song-Yong
DSK Shivajians	Aser Pierrick Dipanda	Douhou Pierre	Juan Quero	Zohib Islam Amiri
East Bengal	Bernard Mendy	Ranti Martins	Bello Razaq	Do Dong-hyun
Mohun Bagan	Luciano Sabrosa	Sony Norde	Cornell Glenn	Katsumi Yusa
Mumbai	Ryuki Kozawa	Eric Brown	Son Min-chol	Taisuke Matsugae
Salgaocar	Éder Monteiro Fernandes	Darryl Duffy	Martin Scott	Calvin Mbarga
Shillong Lajong	Fábio Pena	Uilliams	Penn Orji	Yusuke Yamagata
Sporting Goa	Loveday Enyinnaya	Odafa Onyeka Okolie	Densil Theobald	Mahmoud Amnah

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Bengaluru (C)	16	10	2	4	24	17	+7	32	Qualification to Champions League qualifying play-off
2	Mohun Bagan	16	8	6	2	32	16	+16	30	Qualification to AFC Cup qualifying play-off[a]
3	East Bengal	16	7	4	5	22	18	+4	25
4	Sporting Goa	16	5	7	4	24	20	+4	22	Withdrew[b]
5	Mumbai	16	4	7	5	20	19	+1	19
6	Shillong Lajong	16	4	6	6	14	23	−9	18
7	Salgaocar[c]	16	4	4	8	19	27	−8	16	Withdrew[b]
8	Aizawl[d]	16	4	4	8	15	21	−6	16
9	DSK Shivajians[e]	16	3	6	7	16	25	−9	15

Source: I-League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) play-off match
(C) Champions
Notes:

1. Mohun Bagan qualified for the 2017 AFC Cup by winning the 2015–16 Federation Cup.
2. Sporting Goa and Salgaocar withdrew from I-League.^[16]
3. Salgaocar ahead on head-to-head record with a 1–1 draw and 1–0 win over Aizawl over the two legs.
4. Aizawl were supposed to be relegated, but reinstated for 2016–17 season.^[17]
5. DSK Shivajians were given relegation immunity for three years.^[18]

Result table

Home \ Away	AFC	BFC	DSK	KEB	MB	MUM	LAJ	SFC	SCG
Aizawl	—	0–1	2–0	2–3	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–1	0–2
Bengaluru	1–0	—	4–1	3–1	0–2	1–0	3–0	2–0	1–2
DSK Shivajians	0–1	1–1	—	2–0	0–2	1–0	1–1	2–3	3–1
East Bengal	2–0	0–1	1–0	—	2–1	2–2	4–0	2–1	0–0
Mohun Bagan	3–1	5–0	3–3	1–1	—	2–0	1–1	4–2	1–0
Mumbai	2–2	2–0	4–0	0–0	0–0	—	2–1	2–1	2–2
Shillong Lajong	3–1	0–2	1–1	1–0	2–2	0–0	—	1–0	1–0
Salgaocar	1–1	1–2	1–1	3–1	1–3	2–2	1–0	—	0–3
Sporting Goa	1–1	2–2	0–0	1–3	1–1	3–2	5–2	1–1	—

Source: Results & Fixtures
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

As of 24 April 2016^[19]

Top scorers Rank Player Team Goals 1 Ranti Martins East Bengal 12 2 Darryl Duffy Salgaocar 11 Cornell Glen Mohun Bagan 4 Aser Pierrick Dipanda DSK Shivajians 7 5 Odafa Onyeka Okolie Sporting Goa 6 6 Katsumi Yusa Mohun Bagan 5 Kim Song-Yong Bengaluru Sony Norde Mohun Bagan Sunil Chhetri Bengaluru Sushil Kumar Singh Mumbai

Top Indian scorers Rank Player Team Goals 1 Sunil Chhetri Bengaluru 5 Sushil Kumar Singh Mumbai 3 C.K. Vineeth Bengaluru 4 Jeje Lalpekhlua Mohun Bagan 5 Bikash Jairu East Bengal 3 Sumit Passi Sporting Goa 7 Balwant Singh Mohun Bagan 2 Eugeneson Lyngdoh Bengaluru Jackichand Singh Salgaocar Marcus Masceranhas Sporting Goa Nicholas Fernandes Sporting Goa Subhasish Bose Sporting Goa Thongkhosiem Haokip Salgaocar Jayesh Rane Mumbai

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Ranti Martins	East Bengal	Shillong Lajong	4–0	9 February 2016	[20]
Darryl Duffy	Salgaocar	DSK Shivajians	3–2	14 February 2016	[21]
Ranti Martins	East Bengal	Aizawl	3–2	12 March 2016	[22]

Awards

AIFF Awards

All India Football Federation awarded the following awards for the I-League season.^[23]

• Best player of I-League: Sony Norde (Mohun Bagan)
• Best goalkeeper of I-League: Amrinder Singh (Bengaluru)
• Best defender of I-League: John Johnson (Bengaluru)
• Best midfielder of I-League: Eugeneson Lyngdoh (Bengaluru)
• Best forward of I-League: Ranti Martins (East Bengal)
• Best coach of I-League: Ashley Westwood (Bengaluru)
• Best organizer of I-League: Bengaluru