2021 I-League qualifiers

The 2021 I-League Qualifiers or Hero I-League Qualifiers 2021 (for sponsorship reasons) was the 14th season of I-League 2nd Division since its establishment in 2008. The league winner secured place in 2021–22 I-League season.

I-League Qualifiers

Dates	4 – 23 October
Champions	Rajasthan United[1]
Promoted	Rajasthan United Kenkre
Matches played	22
Goals scored	57 (2.59 per match)
Top goalscorer	Anwar Ali Jr. (4 goals)
Highest scoring	Bengaluru United 3–3 Madan Maharaj (8 October 2021) Corbett 1–5 Delhi (9 October 2021) Madan Maharaj 0–6 Delhi (23 October 2021)
Longest winning run	4 matches (Delhi)
Longest unbeaten run	6 matches (Rajasthan United)
Longest winless run	4 matches (ARA, Corbett, Madan Maharaj)
Longest losing run	3 matches (ARA, Madan Maharaj)
Total attendance	700
← 2020 2022–23 →

Subrata Dutta, senior vice president of All India Football Federation, and AIFF league committee members held its meeting on 26 June 2021, agreeing that state associations which have conducted a league or qualifying championship, will be eligible to nominate teams for the qualifiers.^[2]

Even though states are allowed to nominate two teams, the AIFF said each state association will be represented by just one team in I-League qualifiers. The AIFF has made it clear that only those states which conduct a league will be allowed to nominate a team. At least two states made direct recommendations, but were turned down.^[3] AIFF allowed relaxation in case nominated clubs could not meet the financial criteria to play in I-League, if they were promoted.

On 4 December 2021, AIFF barred I-League club Chennai City from participating in 2021–22 season on failing to comply with club licensing regulations, and hence second-placed qualifiers team Kenkre FC was promoted.^[4]

Teams

As per AIFF, ten teams will be selected to participate in I-League 2nd Division qualifiers, through State leagues. Only one team among the nominated two teams from each state will be selected.^[3]

Selection criteria

1. State association can nominate up to two teams based on the conducted qualifying tournament in most recent season.
2. Nominated teams shall meet AIFF financial requirements and be liable to complete club licensing criteria.^[5]

Nominated teams

The following teams were nominated by state associations:^[6]

1. Vizag FC (Andhra Pradesh)
2. Oil India FC, Elevenstar Club (Assam)
3. Shirsh Bihar United FC (Bihar)
4. Indian Heroes Daman and Diu FC, Young Hearts FC (Daman and Diu)
5. Sports Hostel Cuttack (Odisha)
6. Delhi FC, Garhwal FC (Delhi)
7. Vasco SC (Goa)
8. Gandhinagar FC, ARA FC (Gujarat)
9. Techtro Swades United FC, Shimla FC (Himachal Pradesh)
10. Peerless SC, Bhawanipore FC (West Bengal)
11. Hyderya Sports FC, Downtown Heroes FC (Jammu and Kashmir)
12. Kerala United FC, BASCO Othukkungal (Kerala)
13. FC Bengaluru United, Kickstart FC (Karnataka)
14. Madan Maharaj FC (Madhya Pradesh)
15. Ryntih FC (Meghalaya)
16. Rajasthan United FC, Zinc Football (Rajasthan)
17. Corbett FC (Uttarakhand)
18. PIFA Sports FC, Kenkre FC (Maharashtra)

Selected teams

Corbett

Delhi

Madan Maharaj

Rajasthan United

ARA

Kenkre

Bengaluru United

Kerala United

Ryntih

Locations of I-League Qualifiers 2021 teams

29 teams were nominated by 18 state associations. Only twelve teams fulfilled the AIFF criteria, and ten teams were accepted for the season.^[7] Later AIFF decided to withdraw Hyderya Sports FC, runners up of Jammu & Kashmir Professional League, after finding the bank guarantee submitted by them to be not genuine.^[8]

	Region	Qualifying tournament		Selected	City	Position
		Name	Season
1	Karnataka	Bangalore Super Division	2020–21	Bengaluru United	Bangalore	Champions
2	Kerala	Kerala Premier League	2020–21	Kerala United	Malappuram	Semi-final
3	Gujarat	Gandhinagar Premier League	2020-21	ARA	Ahmedabad	Champions
4	Delhi	Delhi Senior Division League	2020-21	Delhi	Delhi	2nd place
5	Rajasthan	R-League A Division	2020-21	Rajasthan United	Bhilwara	2nd place
6	Madhya Pradesh	Madhya Pradesh Premier League	2021	Madan Maharaj	Bhopal	Champions
7	Meghalaya	Shillong Premier League		Ryntih	Shillong	League suspended
8	Maharashtra	MFA Elite Division		Kenkre	Mumbai	League not conducted
9	Uttarakhand	Uttarakhand Super League		Corbett	Rudrapur	League not conducted

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
ARA	Vivek Nagul	Bala Dahir	SEVEN	Amul
Corbett	Caetano Pinho	Subodh Kumar	Nivia Sports	Amenity Sports Academy
Delhi	Surinder Singh	Anwar Ali	Spartan	Spartan
Bengaluru United	Richard Hood	Dharmaraj Ravanan	Six5six Sports	The Organic World
Kenkre	Akhil Kothari	Ali Azhar Delhiwala	Hummel
Kerala United	Bino George	Arjun Jayaraj	SEGA	Micro Health Laboratories
Madan Maharaj	Amit Kumar Jaiswal	Mehtab Hossain	Rocky Sports	Kamla Devi Public School
Rajasthan United	Vikrant Sharma	Ali Ola Smith	AIO Sports	MISTK
Ryntih	Wallamkupar Kharpran	Banpynkhrawnam Nongkhlaw	T10 Sports	Samkhamti

Foreign players

Each club could register up to three foreign players in their squad. One of the foreign players had to be from an AFC member nation.

Team	Player 1	Player 2	AFC player
ARA	Hamidou Dieye[9]	Bala Dahir	Vladislav Nuriev
Corbett	Rogelio Juárez	John Chidi
Delhi	Sérgio Barboza[10]	Willis Plaza[11]
Bengaluru United	Luka Majcen[12]	Pedro Manzi[12]
Kenkre	Zacharie Mbenda
Kerala United	Gabriel Lima Silva[13]	Francis Nwankwo
Madan Maharaj	Loveday Enyinnaya	William Twala
Rajasthan United	Akeem Abioye
Ryntih

Format

The ten participating teams have been divided into two groups of five. They will face each other once in the first league leg.

Teams finishing at the top two group positions will proceed to the Final round, where they will play against each other once in a round-robin format. The team that finishes top after the end of 26 matches, will earn promotion to the Hero I-League 2021–22 season.

26 matches are set to be played in the entire tournament, with 20 of them being in the group stage, while six matches will be played in the Final round.^[14]

The total number of teams was reduced to nine, after Hyderya Sports FC was found to have produced fake bank guarantee documents.^[15][16]

Preliminary round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Rajasthan United	3	1	2	0	5	4	+1	5	Qualified for Finals
2	Madan Maharaj	3	1	2	0	5	4	+1	5
3	Ryntih	3	1	0	2	4	4	0	3
4	Bengaluru United	3	0	2	1	4	6	−2	2

Source: AIFF

Rajasthan United v Ryntih

4 October 2021 (2021-10-04)	Rajasthan United	3–2	Ryntih	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45	Sanyasi 12' S. Singh 45+1' Thapa 67'	Report		Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 30 Referee: Jamal Mohamed

Rajasthan United v Bengaluru United

6 October 2021 (2021-10-06)	Rajasthan United	1–1	Bengaluru United	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45	S. Singh 78'	Report	Manzi 42'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 40 Referee: Lakshay

Bengaluru United v Madan Maharaj

8 October 2021 (2021-10-08)	Bengaluru United	3–3	Madan Maharaj	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45	Pradhan 69' Kumar 81' Vaz 90+4'	Report	Bhowmick 13', 52' Murmu 90+3'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 30 Referee: C. R. Srikrishna

Ryntih v Madan Maharaj

11 October 2021 (2021-10-11)	Ryntih	0–1	Madan Maharaj	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45		Report	Enyinnaya 90'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 20 Referee: R Kannan

Madan Maharaj v Rajasthan United

13 October 2021 (2021-10-13)	Madan Maharaj	1–1	Rajasthan United	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45	Murmu 12'	Report	Musharaf 90+4'	Stadium: FSV Arena Attendance: 0 Referee: Surojit Das

Bengaluru United v Ryntih

13 October 2021 (2021-10-13)	Bengaluru United	0–2	Ryntih	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45		Report	Sohktung 29' Challam 77'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 40 Referee: Lakshay

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Delhi	4	4	0	0	11	2	+9	12	Qualified for Finals
2	Kenkre	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	7
3	Kerala United	4	2	0	2	7	5	+2	6
4	Corbett	4	0	2	2	2	8	−6	2
5	ARA	4	0	1	3	3	9	−6	1

Source: AIFF

Kerala United v Kenkre

5 October 2021 (2021-10-05)	Kerala United	1–2	Kenkre	Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30	Valiyattu 48'	Report	Fernandez 65' (pen.) Pandre 72'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 20 Referee: Surojit Das

Corbett v ARA

5 October 2021 (2021-10-05)	Corbett	1–1	ARA	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45	Patil 15'	Report	Nuriev 75'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 30 Referee: Suresh Devaraj

Delhi v ARA

7 October 2021 (2021-10-07)	Delhi	3–0	ARA	Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30	Temuri 29' Barboza 36' Thingnam 60'	Report		Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 40 Referee: Ramachandran Venkatesh

Kerala United v Corbett

7 October 2021 (2021-10-07)	Kerala United	2–0	Corbett	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45	Mohammedali 41' Thonikkara 83'	Report		Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 30 Referee: V Eshwar Rao

Corbett v Delhi

9 October 2021 (2021-10-09)	Corbett	1–5	Delhi	Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30	Chidi 13'	Report	Plaza 45+2' Ali Jr. 75', 90+5' Shadap 89' Bohham 90'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 15 Referee: Mrutyunjay Amatya

ARA v Kenkre

9 October 2021 (2021-10-09)	ARA	1–2	Kenkre	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45	Dahir 70'	Report	Noorani 14' Mhatre 66'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 40 Referee: Ranjita Devi Tekcham

Kenkre v Corbett

12 October 2021 (2021-10-12)	Kenkre	0–0	Corbett	Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30		Report		Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 10 Referee: Suresh Devaraj

Delhi v Kerala United

12 October 2021 (2021-10-12)	Delhi	2–1	Kerala United	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45	Ali Jr. 48' Jangra 61'	Report	Dhath 23'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 50 Referee: C. R. Srikrishna

ARA v Kerala United

14 October 2021 (2021-10-14)	ARA	1–3	Kerala United	Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30	Shaikh 83'	Report	Nwankwo 46', 51' Mohammedali 90+4'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 25 Referee: Jamal Mohamed

Kenkre v Delhi

14 October 2021 (2021-10-14)	Kenkre	0–1	Delhi	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45		Report	Bohham 2'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 20 Referee: Mrutyunjay Amatya

Finals

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Rajasthan United (C)	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7	Promotion to 2021–22 I-League
2	Kenkre	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
3	Delhi	3	1	1	1	7	2	+5	4
4	Madan Maharaj	3	0	0	3	0	9	−9	0

Source: AIFF
(C) Champions

Matches

Kenkre v Madan Maharaj

18 October 2021 (2021-10-18)	Kenkre	1–0	Madan Maharaj	Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30	Raju 85'	Report		Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 20 Referee: Ramachandran Venkatesh

Delhi v Rajasthan United

18 October 2021 (2021-10-18)	Delhi	0–1	Rajasthan United	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45		Report	Thapa 90+2'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 40 Referee: Surojit Das

Delhi v Kenkre

20 October 2021 (2021-10-20)	Delhi	1–1	Kenkre	Bangalore, Karnataka
12:30	Barboza 79' (pen.)	Report	Pandhare 56'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 40 Referee: Jamal Mohamed

Madan Maharaj v Rajasthan United

20 October 2021 (2021-10-20)	Madan Maharaj	0–2	Rajasthan United	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:45		Report	Chhetri 88' Hp. Singh 90+4'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 20 Referee: V Eshwar Rao

Madan Maharaj v Delhi

23 October 2021 (2021-10-23)	Madan Maharaj	0–6	Delhi	Bangalore, Karnataka
11:30		Report	Barboza 6' (pen.) Mali 20', 22' Gagandeep 57', 64' Ali Jr. 73'	Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 40 Referee: Surojit Das

Rajasthan United v Kenkre

23 October 2021 (2021-10-23)	Rajasthan United	0–0	Kenkre	Bangalore, Karnataka
15:00		Report		Stadium: Bangalore Football Stadium Attendance: 100 Referee: Ramachandran Venkatesh

Statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Anwar Ali Jr.	Delhi	4
2	Sérgio Barboza	Delhi	3
3	Shubham Bhowmick	Madan Maharaj	2
	Sukjit Singh	Rajasthan United
	Jiten Murmu	Madan Maharaj
	Sheen Stevenson Sohktung	Ryntih