I-League to restart tomorrow

The fourth edition of the I-League, India's professional football league, will restart tomorrow with matches to be played over the next three days across India. The I-League had taken a three week break for the qualifiers of the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup.

Now the league restarts and will continue until it finishes on May 29 with the final round of matches of the 14 team league on that day. The title race and the fight for survival is open like rarely ever before with numerous clubs involved on both sides of the league table.


So who can win the title?

This seasons title is now for Salgaocar SC to lose. The Goans lead the table with 40 points from 17 matches, while Churchill Brothers are second with 39 points but having played 19 matches already. Early league leaders East Bengal Club are third on 35 points with defending champions Dempo SC are fourth on 34 points both having played 17 matches.

All these clubs still have to face each other, so they could be dropping a lot of points which means that anyone of these four clubs could win the I-League title 2010/11. Salgaocar's biggest drawback is that they are a young team who so far have been ably led by the foreign trio of Luciano Sabrosa, Ryuji Sueoka and Yakubu Yusif. But they have been playing at the top of their game and if they can maintain that for another couple of month's will have to be seen.

On that front the other three sides Churchill Brothers SC, East Bengal Club and Dempo SC have much more experience, which could come handy towards the end of the campaign. These clubs will depend on their foreign star strikers Odafe Onyeka Okolie (Churchill Bros), Tolgay Ozbey (East Bengal) and Ranty Martins Soleye (Dempo) to score.


Who could get relegated?

The fight for survival is a tough one this season. There is no club which is already so far away that they are doomed to be relegated and as last season showed you have to beware until the last match day, the last minutes to survive the drop.

At the moment newcomers ONGC look top candidate for the drop as they are bottom of the league with 11 points, while Air India and JCT have 14 points and Viva Kerala 15 points. JCT have played two matches less at 17 compared to the three other clubs, which is an advantage for the Millmen from Punjab. The young Indian Arrows with 19 points and promoted HAL with 20 points currently look unlikely to have anything to do with relegation, but a couple of wins for the clubs behind them, they lose a few and suddenly they could also be dragged into the relegation battle.

But relegation might not be decided on the field at all as ONGC, Air India and HAL haven't fully complied with the AFC Club Licensing criteria and might be barred from taking part in next seasons I-League, which could also effect the promotion process besides the relegation race.