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The 2013–14 I-League (known as the Airtel I-League for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season of the I-League, the top-tier Indian professional league for football clubs, since its establishment in 2007. The season began on 21 September 2013, and ended on 28 April 2014.

Churchill Brothers were the defending champions, having won their second I-League title in the previous season.

On 21 April 2014, Bengaluru were crowned champions with one game remaining, winning their first ever I-League title by defeating Dempo 2–4 at Fatorda Stadium. Bengaluru FC also created history by becoming the first team ever to win the I-League title in its debut season. On 28 April 2014, Mohammedan were relegated from the I-League when Churchill Brothers defeated Salgaocar 2–1, and hence survived relegation. Churchill Brothers also avoided being the first defending champions to be relegated.

During the season, Maria Rebello became the first woman referee internationally to officiate in a country's premier league match when she officiated in Pune vs Shillong Lajong on 8 March 2014.

Teams

A total of 13 teams are currently registered to start the new season. Ten clubs from the previous campaign, two promoted sides from the 2013 I-League 2nd Division and one new expansion team.

Rangdajied United as champions and Mohammedan as runners-up secured direct promotion from the 2nd Division.

United Sikkim and Air India were relegated, although Air India would not have been given a licence to compete in this edition after failing to fulfill the AIFF criteria. This same fate happened to ONGC who have also been left out of the coming season.

Mumbai Tigers was accepted into the league on 27 May 2013 but later withdrew citing unavoidable circumstances with only 20 days left into the start of the new season.

Bengaluru was also accepted into the league and is based in Bangalore. One other consortium from Kerala, whose leading company is Eagles FC, also expressed interest in joining the league. It was also announced in late May that English club Queens Park Rangers also expressed interest but look to be prepared to enter for the 2014–15 season.

On 29 August 2013, the AIFF decided to shut down Pailan Arrows and withdraw them from the coming season. The league committee also announced in May 2013 to use a Conference Model, the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. The top-four from each Conference would advance to play the final round. But this was later dropped.

On 20 September 2013, it was announced that the largest cellular service provider in India, Airtel, will be the title sponsor of I-League for the 2013–14 season.

Venues and locations

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Shirt sponsor	Kit sponsor
Bengaluru	Ashley Westwood	Sunil Chhetri	JSW	none
Churchill Brothers	Mariano Dias	Lenny Rodrigues	Churchill	none
Dempo	Arthur Papas	Clifford Miranda	Dempo	Nike
East Bengal	Armando Colaco	Mehtab Hussain	Kingfisher and SRMB TMT	Shiv-Naresh
Mohammedan	Sanjoy Sen	R Dhanarajan	EMTA Group	none
Mohun Bagan	Karim Bencherifa	Odafe Okolie	McDowell's No.1	Fila
Mumbai	Khalid Jamil	Zohib Amiri	TEN HD	Seven
Pune	Mike Snoei	Anas Edathodika	Peninsula	Adidas
Rangdajied United	Herring Shangpliang	Poibang Pohshna	none	Diadora
Salgaocar	Derrick Pereira	Francis Fernandes	Salgaocar	none
Shillong Lajong	Thangboi Singto	Minchol Son	Aircel	Adidas
Sporting Goa	Óscar Bruzón	Matthew Gonsalves	Models	none
United	Ananta Kumar Ghosh	Deepak Mondal	T.H.P.L.	none

1. On the back of shirt.

2. On the sleeves.

Transfers

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing head coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
Bengaluru	Expansion team			Pre-season	Ashley Westwood	2 July 2013
Dempo	Armando Colaco	End of Contract	31 May 2013		Arthur Papas	1 June 2013
East Bengal	Trevor Morgan	Mutual Agreement	12 May 2013		Marcos Falopa	12 June 2013
Mohammedan	Sanjoy Sen	Resigned	10 May 2013		Abdul Aziz Moshood	10 June 2013
Pune	Derrick Pereira	End of Contract	12 May 2013		Mike Snoei	12 May 2013
Rangdajied United	None				Santosh Kashyap	6 June 2013
Salgaocar	Dave Booth	End of Contract	12 May 2013		Derrick Pereira	12 May 2013
East Bengal	Marcos Falopa	Resigned	13 November 2013	10th (5 games in)	Armando Colaco	20 November 2013
Mohammedan	Abdul Aziz Moshood	Sacked	17 December 2013	11th (13 games in)	Sanjoy Sen	17 December 2013
United	Eelco Schattorie	Resigned	27 January 2014	9th (15 games in)	Ananta Kumar Ghosh	15 February 2014
Rangdajied United	Santosh Kashyap	Sacked	21 February 2014	13th	Herring Shangpliang	1 March 2014

1. Rangdajied United, during the 2013 I-League 2nd Division, were under the control of their General Secretary, Karsing Kurbah.

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries. A team could use four foreign players on the field during each game including at least one player from the AFC country.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	Former Players
Bengaluru	John Johnson	Curtis Osano	Johnny Menyongar	Sean Rooney
Churchill Brothers	Cristian Lagos	Abdelhamid Shabana	Anthony Wolfe	Daniell Zeleny	Henri Antchouet Amoreirinha Hugo Machado Ahmad Al Kaddour Naser Al Sebai Yasser Shahen
Dempo	Simon Colosimo	Tolgay Ozbey	Beto	Zohib Islam Amiri	Billy Mehmet Shinnosuke Honda
East Bengal	Chidi Edeh	Uga Okpara	James Moga	Ryuji Sueoka
Mohammedan	Josimar	Luciano Sabrosa	Penn Orji	Taro Hasegawa	Tolgay Ozbey
Mohun Bagan	Echezona Anyichie	Christopher Chizoba	Odafe Okolie	Katsumi Yusa	Harrison Muranda
Mumbai	Yusif Yakubu	Henry Ezeh	Ebi Sukore	Ahmad Hatifi	Sandjar Ahmadi Zohib Islam Amiri
Pune	Calum Angus	Pierre Douhou	Riga Mustapha	Mirjan Pavlović	James Meyer Raul Fabiani
Rangdajied United	Ranti Martins	Kim Song-Yong	Lamine Tamba	Yohei Iwasaki	Edmar Figueira
Salgaocar	Dudu Omagbemi	Chika Wali	Darryl Duffy	Matthew Foschini	Claude Gnakpa
Shillong Lajong	Uilliams	Taisuke Matsugae	Cornell Glen	Minchol Son
Sporting Goa	Martins Ekwueme	Ogba Kalu Nnanna	Gonzalo Hinojal	Boima Karpeh	Arturo Navarro
United	Eric Brown	Waheed Adekunle	Bello Razaq	Hasan Al Moustafa	Ranti Martins

• ^1 Foreign players who left their clubs midway or after first half of the season.

League table

1. United, Rangdajied United and Churchill Brothers were barred from I-League they failed to meet Asian Football Confederation's licensing criteria.

Results

Season statistics

As of 28 April 2014

Top scorers Rank Player Team Goals 1 Sunil Chhetri Bengaluru 14 Darryl Duffy Salgaocar Cornell Glen Shillong Lajong 4 Josimar Mohammedan 13 5 Ranti Martins Rangdajied United 12 6 Boima Karpeh Sporting Goa 11 7 Eric Brown United 10 Sean Rooney Bengaluru Balwant Singh Churchill Brothers

Top Indian Scorers Rank Player Team Goals 1 Sunil Chhetri Bengaluru 14 2 Balwant Singh Churchill Brothers 10 3 Gilbert Oliveira Salgaocar 6 4 Boithang Haokip Shillong Lajong 5 T Lalnunpuia Rangdajied United Jeje Lalpekhlua Dempo Robin Singh Bengaluru

Hat-tricks

Player	Club	Against	Result	Date
Kalu Ogba	Sporting Goa	Shillong Lajong	5—1	14 December 2013
Tolgay Özbey	Dempo	Churchill Brothers	4—1	28 March 2014
Yusif Yakubu	Mumbai	Churchill Brothers	4—2	13 April 2014
Cornell Glen	Shillong Lajong	Mohammedan	5—4	16 April 2014

Player scored 4 goals

Disciplinary

• Most red cards (2)
  • Echezona Anyichie (Mohun Bagan)
  • Amrinder Singh (Pune)
• Most yellow cards (7)
  • Eric Brown (United SC)
  • Yohei Iwasaki (Rangdajied United)
  • Luciano Sabrosa (Mohammedan)
  • Lamine Tamba (Rangdajied United)
• Worst disciplinary record (2 red cards & 5 yellow cards)
  • Echezona Anyichie (Mohun Bagan)

Fair play

The Fair Play qualities of the participating teams and which are pertinent to the spectators will be evaluated using the FIFA Fair Play evaluation form. Salgaocar led the Fair Play rankings at the end of the season.

Average attendance

Average attendance at the various clubs were as follows:

Awards

AIFF Awards

All India Football Federation awarded the following awards for the I-League season, voted by all the captains and the coaches of all the participating clubs.

• Best player of I-League: Sunil Chhetri (Bengaluru)
• Best goalkeeper of I-League: Karanjit Singh (Salgaocar)
• Best defender of I-League: John Johnson (Bengaluru)
• Best midfielder of I-League: Douhou Pierre (Pune)
• Best forward of I-League: Sunil Chhetri (Bengaluru)
• Best referee of I-League: Pratap Singh
• Best assistant referee of I-League: Sapan Kennedy

FPAI Awards

Football Player's Association of India awarded the following award for the season

• Indian player of the year : Balwant Singh
• Coach of the season : Ashley Westwood
• Young player of the season : Alwyn George
• Foreign player of the season : Daryl Duffy
• Fans player of the season : Boithang Haokip

Number of teams by state

References

1. ^ "Summary — I-League 2013/2014". Soccer 24. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
2. ^ "Attendance figures of Airtel I-League 2013–14". All India Football Federation. 3 July 2014.
3. ^ "I-League 13/14: Avg Spectators of Clubs". I-League. 3 July 2014. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
4. "Churchill Brothers are I-League champions 2012/13". All India Football Federation. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
5. "Bengaluru FC crowned champions on I-League debut". The Times of India. 21 April 2014.
6. "Mohammedan Sporting relegated from I-League". Goal.com. 28 April 2014.
7. "O Maria! Meet the Global trendsetter". I-League. 1 April 2014. Archived from the original on 5 April 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
8. "AIFF gives green signal to JSW and Mumbai Tigers, revamps I-League to Conference Model". Kick Off India. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
9. "Mumbai Tigers pull out of I-League". Zee News. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
10. "QPR keen to participate in the I-League from the 2014–15 season". Goal India. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
11. "AIFF decide to shut down Pailan Arrows". Goal India. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
12. "AIFF's Emergency Committee meets in New Delhi". All India Football Federation. Archived from the original on 4 March 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
13. "Airtel roped in as I-League's title sponsor". The Times of India.
14. Munjunath, Akash. "Bengaluru FC's Home Support: Their 12th man!". Goal.com. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014.
15. "JSW appoint Ashley Westwood as their coach". Goal India. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
16. "Dempo SC bids farewell to Armando Colaco". Goal India. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
17. "Arthur Papas signs three year deal as Dempo SC coach". Dempo Sports Club. Archived from the original on 30 June 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
18. Mohan, Srinivasan. "'I'm not leaving East Bengal for money' – Trevor Morgan". Goal.com. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
19. "Marcos Falopa joins East Bengal as head coach". Goal India. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
20. "Sanjoy Sen resigns as Mohammedan coach". Goal India. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
21. "Mohammedan appoint Moshood as new head coach". Goal India. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
22. "Pune FC to part ways with Coach Derrick after four successful years". Pune Football Club. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
23. "Pune FC seal Dutch coach Mike Snoei". Pune Football Club. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
24. "Delhi's Kashyap to coach Rangdajied". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
25. ^ "Derrick Pereira confirms decision to join Salgaocar for next season". Goal India. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
26. ^ "Struggling East Bengal try Colaco luck". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
27. ^ "MDSP Appoint Sanjoy Sen As New Coach". I-League. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
28. "Dutchman Eelco Schattorie is no longer United SC coach, resigns from his post!". Arunfoot. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
29. "United SC sign Waheed in place of Ranty". The Times of India. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
30. "Rangdajied United Part Ways With Santosh Kashyap". 21 February 2014. Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
31. "New Coach Hering Shangpliang Begins Rangdajied Reign With Win Over Bengaluru FC". 1 March 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
32. "Rangdajied United FC qualify for I-League 1st division". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
33. "Mohammedan Sporting sign Taro Hasegawa to complete their foreign contingent". Goal.com. 14 February 2014.
34. ^ "Ranty Martins joins Rangdajied". The Hindu. 17 February 2014.
35. Mergulhao, Marcus. "Three football clubs barred from I-League". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
36. "Airtel I-League 2013-14 Standings". Archived from the original on 15 September 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
37. "Players — I-League". Soccerway. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
38. "I-League 2013–14 regulations". AIFF. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
39. "Airtel I-League FairPlay Points Table". I-League.
40. "Important decisions taken in the meeting". All India Football Federation. 14 May 2014. Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
41. "Balwant Singh named Indian Player of the Year and more from the FPAI Indian Football Awards". 29 April 2014.

• 2013–14 I-League
• I-League seasons
• 2013–14 in Indian football leagues
• 2013–14 in Asian association football leagues