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I-League Qualifiers

Dates	4 – 23 October
Champions	Rajasthan United
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 →

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.

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

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. AIFF allowed relaxation in case nominated clubs could not meet the financial criteria to play in I-League, if they were promoted.

On 4th 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.

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.

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.

Nominated teams

The following teams were nominated by state associations:

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

29 teams were nominated by 18 state associations. Only twelve teams fulfilled the AIFF criteria, and ten teams were accepted for the season. 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.

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	Bala Dahir	Vladislav Nuriev
Corbett	Rogelio Juárez	John Chidi
Delhi	Sérgio Barboza	Willis Plaza
Bengaluru United	Luka Majcen	Pedro Manzi
Kenkre	Zacharie Mbenda
Kerala United	Gabriel Lima Silva	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.

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

Preliminary round

Group A

Group B

Finals

Standings

Matches

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

References

1. Menon, Anirudh (27 October 2021). ""If you want a future for yourself, fight and take it" – The story behind Rajasthan United's I-League fairytale". www.espn.com. ESPN. AIFF Media. Archived from the original on 2 November 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
2. "Hero I-League 2021-22 to be held in Kolkata, League Committee decides via video conferencing". www.the-aiff.com. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
3. ^ Mergulhao, Marcus (14 July 2021). "One state, one team for I-League qualifiers". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
4. "Kenkre FC is all set to join I-League as Chennai City FC gets barred". The Bridge. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
5. Mergulhao, Marcus (7 August 2021). "I-League Qualifiers: AIFF to use financial criteria as tie-breaker to select teams". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
6. "States nominate 29 teams for I-League Qualifiers, AIFF to select 10". The Times of India. 4 August 2021. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
7. "12 teams fulfil criteria, 10 get nod for I-League Qualifiers". The Times of India. 31 August 2021. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
8. "AIFF Statement". www.the-aiff.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
9. Boruah, Pranjal Protim, ed. (18 May 2020). "Adjusting to 'new normal'". Mumbai Mirror. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
10. Apte, Tanay. "Durand Cup 2021: Indian Navy stun Delhi FC with late goal". www.sportskeeda.com. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
11. "Durand Cup 2021: Indian Navy down Delhi FC 2-1 | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
12. ^ "FC Bengaluru United sign foreign strikers Luka Majcen and Pedro Manzi for upcoming season". The Times of India. 26 August 2021. Archived from the original on 26 August 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
13. "A Brazilian to play for a Kerala club, but it is not Blasters or Gokulam". OnManorama. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
14. "Hero I-League Qualifiers 2021 to kick-off on October 4". www.the-aiff.com. Archived from the original on 31 August 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
15. "Hyderya Sports Kashmir FC Disqualified from I-League Qualifiers for Producing Fake Bank Guarantee". News18. 27 September 2021. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
16. "AIFF disqualifies Hyderya Sports FC for producing fake bank guarantee". Sportstar. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2021.

External links

• I-League
• AIFF

• I-League 2 seasons
• 2020–21 in Indian football leagues
• 2021 in Asian second tier association football leagues