2016–17 I-League

The 2016–17 I-League was the 10th season of the I-League, the top Indian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 2007. The season began on 7 January 2017 and concluded on 30 April 2017.^[1]

I-League

Season	2016–17
Dates	7 January - 30 April 2017
Champions	Aizawl 1st I-League title 1st Indian title
Relegated	Mumbai
AFC Champions League	Aizawl
AFC Cup	Bengaluru
Matches played	90
Goals scored	225 (2.5 per match)
Top goalscorer	Aser Pierrick Dipanda (11 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Debjit Majumder Albino Gomes (8 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Bengaluru 7–0 DSK Shivajians (22 April 2017)
Biggest away win	Minerva Punjab 0–5 East Bengal (29 January 2017)
Highest scoring	Churchill Brothers 4–5 Minerva Punjab (19 February 2017)
Longest winning run	East Bengal (6 games)
Longest unbeaten run	East Bengal Mohun Bagan (9 games)
Longest winless run	Mumbai (16 games)
Longest losing run	Mumbai (6 games)
Highest attendance	29,067 East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan (12 February 2017)
Lowest attendance	300 Minerva Punjab vs Chennai City (8 April 2017)
Total attendance	470,941
Average attendance	5,233
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

Aizawl won their first title on the final day after securing a draw against Shillong Lajong on 30 April 2017. Defending champions Bengaluru finished in the fourth place. Dempo had entered the league after being promoted from the I-League 2nd Division but withdrew from the league along with Salgaocar and Sporting Goa. Aizawl were reinstated into the league after being relegated while Churchill Brothers, Chennai City, and Minerva Punjab were granted direct-entry into the I-League.

Teams

Aizawl

Chennai City

Bengaluru

Minerva Punjab

Mumbai

DSK Shivajians

Churchill Brothers

Kolkata

Shillong Lajong

Kolkata teams
East Bengal
Mohun Bagan

Locations of the 2016–17 I-League teams

Ten teams are competing in the league. The majority of the teams from the previous season as well as recently promoted Dempo were originally supposed to compete this season. Dempo were promoted to the I-League on 30 May 2016, defeating Minerva Academy 3–1.^[2] Aizawl were relegated from the I-League the previous season, despite finishing above last place DSK Shivajians who were exempt from relegation. However, on 27 September 2016, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) announced that Aizawl would be reinstated into the I-League for the 2016–17 season.^[3]

Throughout the summer of 2016, the three Goan I-League clubs – Dempo, Salgaocar, and Sporting Goa – had been indecisive over their participation in the league. On 24 June 2016 it was first announced that Salgaocar and Sporting Goa would withdraw from the I-League following their displeasure over the proposed roadmap for Indian football for the 2017–18 season, with Dempo also threatening to do so next.^[4] However, in September 2015 it was revealed that despite withdrawing Sporting Goa and Dempo still submitted their AFC Licensing documents needed for I-League play.^[5] It was then revealed on 10 November that both Sporting Goa and Dempo were given national licenses for the I-League.^[6] Despite this though, however, on 22 November 2016 it was officially announced by Sporting Goa that they would withdraw from the I-League for good.^[7]

As well as dealing with the Goan clubs potential exit from the league, the AIFF have also worked on providing direct-entry for certain clubs into the I-League for this season. On 26 October 2016 it was revealed that both Minerva Academy and FC Bardez had submitted documents for direct-entry into the I-League.^[8] However, on 23 November, it was announced that the AIFF would be issuing new tenders for a direct-entry side in the league after none of the three sides which applied fulfilled the financial criteria.^[9]

On 8 December 2016, after Dempo confirmed their exit from the league, the AIFF reinstated Churchill Brothers into the I-League.^[10] Finally, on 11 December 2016, the AIFF granted direct-entry to both Chennai City and Minerva Punjab to bring the number of teams in the league to ten.^[11]

Stadiums and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Aizawl	Aizawl, Mizoram	Rajiv Gandhi Stadium	5,000[12]
Bengaluru	Bangalore, Karnataka	Sree Kanteerava Stadium	24,000[13]
Chennai City	Chennai, Tamil Nadu	Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium	40,000[14]
Churchill Brothers	Vasco da Gama, Goa	Tilak Maidan Stadium	12,000[15]
DSK Shivajians	Pune, Maharashtra	Balewadi Stadium	12,000[16]
East Bengal	Kolkata, West Bengal	Barasat Stadium	22,000[17]
Minerva Punjab	Ludhiana, Punjab	Guru Nanak Stadium	15,000[18]
Mohun Bagan	Kolkata, West Bengal	Rabindra Sarobar Stadium	22,000[19]
Mumbai	Mumbai, Maharashtra	Cooperage Ground	5,000[20]
Shillong Lajong	Shillong, Meghalaya	Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium	30,000[21]

Personnel and kits

Team	Head coach	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Aizawl	Khalid Jamil	Vamos	NE Consultancy Services
Bengaluru	Albert Roca	Puma	JSW Group
Chennai City	V Soundararajan	Classic Polo	Baako
Churchill Brothers	Derrick Pereira	Strikke Sports	Churchill Group
DSK Shivajians	Dave Rogers	Nivia	DSK Group
East Bengal	Mridul Banerjee	Shiv Naresh	Kingfisher
Minerva Punjab	Surinder Singh	T10 Sports	Indian Armed Forces
Mohun Bagan	Sanjoy Sen	Shiv Naresh	None
Mumbai	Oscar Bruzon	Nivia	Playwin
Shillong Lajong	Thangboi Singto	Adidas	Gionee

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Bengaluru	Ashley Westwood	End of Contract	1 June 2016[22]	Pre-season	Albert Roca	6 July 2016[23]
DSK Shivajians	Derrick Pereira	Resigned	8 June 2016[24]	Dave Rogers	14 June 2016[25]
Mumbai	Khalid Jamil	Resigned	15 June 2016[26]	Santosh Kashyap	22 June 2016[27]
Aizawl	K. Malsawmkima	Assistant coach	20 December 2016[28]	Khalid Jamil	20 December 2016[28]
Chennai City	Robin Charles Raja	Sacked	7 February 2017[29]	10th	V Soundararajan	9 February 2017[30]
Churchill Brothers	Alfred Fernandes	Assistant coach	17 February 2017[31]		Derrick Pereira	17 February 2017[31]
Mumbai	Santosh Kashyap	Sacked	18 March 2017[32]		Óscar Bruzón	19 March 2017[33]
East Bengal	Trevor Morgan	Resigned	17 April 2017[34]	3rd	Mridul Banerjee	18 April 2017[35]

Foreign players

A team can register up to four foreign players, of which one should compulsorily be a national of an Asian Country.^[36]

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Asian Player
Aizawl	Kamo Stephane Bayi	Alfred Jaryan	Kingsley Obumneme	Mahmoud Amnah
Bengaluru	John Johnson	Marjan Jugović	Juanan	Cameron Watson
Chennai City	Charles	Marcos Thank	Echezona Anyichie
Churchill Brothers	Ansumana Kromah	Anthony Wolfe		Bektur Talgat Uulu
DSK Shivajians	Saša Kolunija	Shane McFaul	Juan Quero	Kim Song-yong
East Bengal	Wedson Anselme	Willis Plaza	Ivan Bukenya	Chris Payne
Minerva Punjab	Victor Amobi	Loveday Enyinnaya	Kareem Omolaja	Sang-Min Kim
Mohun Bagan	Eduardo Ferreira	Sony Norde	Darryl Duffy	Katsumi Yusa
Mumbai	Densill Theobald			Djelaludin Sharityar
Shillong Lajong	Fábio Pena	Aser Pierrick Dipanda	Dan Ignat	Yuta Kinowaki

Results

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Aizawl (C)	18	11	4	3	24	14	+10	37	Qualification to Champions League qualifier
2	Mohun Bagan	18	10	6	2	27	12	+15	36
3	East Bengal	18	10	3	5	33	15	+18	33
4	Bengaluru	18	8	6	4	30	15	+15	30	Qualification to AFC Cup qualifying play-off[a]
5	Shillong Lajong	18	7	5	6	24	23	+1	26
6	Churchill Brothers	18	5	5	8	24	26	−2	20
7	DSK Shivajians	18	4	6	8	22	30	−8	18
8	Chennai City	18	4	5	9	15	29	−14	17
9	Minerva Punjab	18	2	7	9	17	33	−16	13[b]
10	Mumbai (R)	18	2	7	9	9	28	−19	13[b]	Relegation to I-League 2nd Division

Source: IndiaFooty.com
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) drawing of lots
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Bengaluru qualified for the 2018 AFC Cup by winning the 2016–17 Federation Cup.
2. Minerva Punjab ahead of Mumbai on head-to-head record; Minerva Punjab–Mumbai 2–1, Mumbai–Minerva Punjab 0–0

Results table

Home \ Away	AFC	BFC	CCFC	CB	DSK	EB	MP	MB	MFC	SLFC
Aizawl		1–1	1–0	3–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	2–1
Bengaluru	1–0		2–0	3–0	7–0	1–3	1–1	0–0	3–0	3–0
Chennai City	2–0	1–1		1–1	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–2	2–1	1–4
Churchill Brothers	1–3	2–1	6–1		3–0	0–2	4–5	2–1	1–2	0–0
DSK Shivajians	0–1	2–2	2–0	1–1		1–2	4–4	0–0	5–0	2–3
East Bengal	1–1	2–1	3–0	1–2	0–1		3–1	0–0	2–0	1–1
Minerva Punjab	2–2	0–1	0–2	0–0	0–0	0–5		0–1	2–1	1–2
Mohun Bagan	3–2	3–0	2–1	1–0	3–1	2–1	4–0		2–2	2–0
Mumbai	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–4	0–0	0–0		1–1
Shillong Lajong	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–0	1–2	1–2	2–1	1–1	3–1

Source: I-League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers Rank Player Club Goals 1 Aser Pierrick Dipanda Shillong Lajong 11 2 Willis Plaza East Bengal 9 3 Wedson Anselme East Bengal 8 Darryl Duffy Mohun Bagan 5 Sunil Chhetri Bengaluru 7 C.K. Vineeth Bengaluru 7 Kamo Stephane Bayi Aizawl FC 6 Ansumana Kromah Churchill Brothers 9 Bektur Talgat Uulu Churchill Brothers 5 Jeje Lalpekhlua Mohun Bagan Robin Singh East Bengal

Top Indian scorers Rank Player Club Goals 1 C.K. Vineeth Bengaluru 7 Sunil Chettri Bengaluru 3 Jeje Lalpekhlua Mohun Bagan 5 Robin Singh East Bengal 5 Holicharan Narzary DSK Shivajians 4 Balwant Singh Mohun Bagan 7 Karan Sawhney Mumbai 3 Udanta Singh Bengaluru Chesterpoul Lyngdoh Churchill Brothers Brandon Vanlalremdika Aizawl Laldanmawia Ralte Aizawl Samuel Lalmuanpuia Shillong Lajong Brandon Fernandes Churchill Brothers

As of 30 April 2017^[37]

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of I-League hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
C.K. Vineeth	Bengaluru	Mumbai	3–0	18 January 2017	[38]
Wedson Anselme	East Bengal	Minerva Punjab	5–0	29 January 2017	[39]
Bektur Talgat Uulu 4	Churchill Brothers	Chennai City	6–1	22 April 2017	[40]

⁴ Player scored 4 goals.

Fair play

Churchill Brothers led the fair play table at the end of the season.^[41]

Rank	Team	Total Points
1	Churchill Brothers	8.07
2	Chennai City	7.91
3	Shillong Lajong	7.79
4	Bengaluru	7.76
	DSK Shivajians	7.76
6	Aizawl	7.74
7	East Bengal	7.73
8	Minerva Punjab	7.69
9	Mumbai	7.63
10	Mohun Bagan	7.49

Attendance

As of 30 April 2017

Average home attendances

Team	GP	Cumulative	High	Low	Mean
East Bengal	9	88,537	29,067	2,351	9,726
Bengaluru	9	78,771	12,642	5,311	8,752
Mohun Bagan	9	71,199	23,859	3,256	7,911
Aizawl	9	62,488	11,000	4,725	6,943
Shillong Lajong	9	56,200	23,700	3,200	6,244
Chennai City	9	26,538	5,434	1,123	2,949
Minerva Punjab	9	24,814	5,169	300	2,757
Churchill Brothers	9	23,044	3,927	1,736	2,560
Mumbai	9	19,319	3,624	838	2,145
DSK Shivajians	9	10,051	1,547	648	1,118
Total	90	470,941	29,067	300	5,233

Highest attendances

Rank	Home team	Score	Away team	Attendance	Date	Stadium
1	East Bengal	0–0	Mohun Bagan	29,067	12 February 2017 (2017-02-12)	Kanchenjunga Stadium
2	Mohun Bagan	2–1	East Bengal	23,859	9 April 2017 (2017-04-09)	Kanchenjunga Stadium
3	Shillong Lajong	1–1	Aizawl	23,700	30 April 2017 (2017-04-30)	JLN Stadium
4	East Bengal	1–1	Aizawl	12,700	7 January 2017 (2017-01-07)	Barasat Stadium
5	Bengaluru	1–3	East Bengal	12,642	25 February 2017 (2017-02-25)	Sree Kanteerava Stadium

Awards

Hero of the Match

Round	Hero of the Matches
1	Kingsley Obumneme	Udanta Singh	Thoi Singh	Kingsley Fernandes	Karanjit Singh
2	Mahmoud Amnah	Darryl Duffy	Willis Plaza	Karanjit Singh	Adil Khan
3	Mahmoud Amnah	Jeje Lalpekhlua	Milan Singh	Lalrindika Ralte	C.K. Vineeth
4	Rupert Nongrum	Jerry Mawihmingthanga	Marcos Thank	Ivan Bukenya	Jayesh Rane
5	Saša Kolunija	Chesterpoul Lyngdoh	Aser Pierrick Dipanda	Marcos Thank	Wedson Anselme
6	Aser Pierrick Dipanda	Alfred Jaryan	Rowilson Rodrigues	Willis Plaza	Katsumi Yusa
7	Anirudh Thapa	Prabir Das	Vishal Kaith	Wedson Anselme	Holicharan Narzary
8	Kingsley Obumneme	Charles	Shane McFaul	Sunil Chhetri	Rehenesh TP
9	Brandon Fernandes	Albino Gomes	Laxmikant Kattimani	Vishal Kaith	Vinit Rai
10	Anthony Wolfe	Aser Pierrick Dipanda	Densil Theobald	Balwant Singh	Laldanmawia Ralte
11	Brandon Vanlalremdika	Robin Singh	Anthony Wolfe	Arnab Das Sharma	Vishal Kaith
12	Aser Pierrick Dipanda	Chesterpoul Lyngdoh	Kamo Stephane Bayi	Lenny Rodrigues	Nanda Kumar
13	Nim Dorjee Tamang	Laldanmawia Ralte	Naveen Kumar	Daniel Lalhlimpuia	Sony Norde
14	Kareem Omolaja	Holicharan Narzary	Arindam Bhattacharya	Vishal Kaith	Karanjit Singh
15	Michael Soosairaj	Milan Singh	Laxmikant Kattimani	Jayesh Rane	Sony Norde
16	Cameron Watson	Kamo Stephane Bayi	Krishna Pandit	Jerry Mawihmingthanga	Karanjit Singh
17	Zohmingliana Ralte	Bektur Talgat Uulu	Sunil Chhetri	Rowllin Borges	Isaac Vanlalsawma
18	Mandar Rao Desai	Bikash Jairu	Kim Song-yong	Kamo Stephane Bayi	Sony Norde

Season awards

Hero I-League 2016–17 awards were voted by coaches and captains of the participating teams.^[42]

Award	Recipient
Hero of the League	Sunil Chhetri (Bengaluru)
Best Goalkeeper	Debjit Majumder (Mohun Bagan)
Jarnail Singh Best Defender	Anas Edathodika (Mohun Bagan)
Best Midfielder	Alfred Jaryan (Aizawl)
Best Striker	Aser Pierrick Dipanda (Shillong Lajong)
Emerging Player	Jerry Lalrinzuala (DSK Shivajians)
Syed Abdul Rahim Best Coach	Khalid Jamil (Aizawl)
Best Organizers	DSK Shivajians Bengaluru
Fairplay award	Churchill Brothers
Best referee	Pranjal Banerjee

See also

• 2016–17 I-League 2nd Division
• 2016–17 Indian Women's League season
• 2016–17 Aizawl F.C. season
• 2016–17 Bengaluru FC season
• 2016–17 Mohun Bagan A.C. season
• 2016–17 East Bengal F.C. season
• 2016–17 Mumbai F.C. season