Indian Super League vs I-League

To see India play at the World Stage has perhaps been one of the oldest dreams of the Indian population, and now we have two platforms that can perhaps enhance the football scene in India and hone the skills of talented players to the world level.

The I-League is the primary platform for men's football in India. The season typically runs between the months of January and May. There are ten clubs across the country that are a part of the I-League, and there is an I-League second division as well. The system of promotion and relegation is used here as well and the teams that top the second division come into the main division, and the teams at the bottom of the first at the end of a season get into the second division. 21 different clubs have participated so far in the I-League. These clubs are a part of the overall AFC confederation and do have a chance to play in the AFC Champion's League, but have hardly ever qualified.

This is unlike the newly proposed idea of the ISL that, in this year, will run only for a month and a half starting from the 19th of September and works on the basis of elimination. It is a competition that works more along the guidelines of cricket's IPL, where players are auctioned off to become apart of one of the 8 teams. the teams aren't clubs in the strictest sense of the world unlike the clubs that compete in the I-League but are teams with owners (celebrities, businessmen, large companies across India).

While the players in the I-League emerge from local interested talent, the ISL players are auctioned off from an identified set of talented footballers and must include a marquee foreign player, 14 domestic players, 7 foreign players and 4 local players.

Have a look at all 8 teams: