2017–18 I-League 2nd Division

I-League 2nd Division

Season	2017–18
Champions	Real Kashmir
Matches played	95
Goals scored	274 (2.88 per match)
Top goalscorer	Robert Ribeiro (Ozone) (10 goals)
Biggest home win	Ozone 7–0 Madhya Bharat
Biggest away win	Kerala Blasters (R) 1–5 Kerala
Highest scoring	Ozone 7–0 Madhya Bharat
← 2016–17 2018–19 →

The 2017–18 I-League 2nd Division (known as Hero 2017–18 I-League 2nd Division, for sponsorship reasons) was the 11th season of the I-League 2nd Division, the second division Indian football league, since its establishment in 2008. The season started with the preliminary rounds from 14 March to 15 May 2018. The final round of the league took place between 21 May to 30 May 2018 at FSV Arena, Bengaluru.^[1]

This season featured 18 teams, divided into three groups of six teams each. The season also featured the reserve sides of seven Indian Super League clubs, none of which were eligible to qualify for the final round.^[1] Real Kashmir won the title on 30 May 2018 and earned the promotion to 2018–19 I-League.^[2] They also made history becoming first team from state of Jammu & Kashmir to enter the first division of I-League^[3]

Format

Just like the previous season, the I-League 2nd Division will feature a preliminary round and a final round.^[4] During the preliminary round, the 18 teams will be divided into three groups of six teams each. All the matches during the preliminary round will be played in a double round-robin basis, in which every team plays all others in their group once at home and once away.^[1] The winners of the three groups, along with the best second placed team, will qualify for the final round. The seven Indian Super League reserve sides in the league will not be eligible to qualify for the final round.^[4]

During the final round, the four teams will face each other in a single-leg league system at a neutral venue, where each team faces each other once. At the end of the round, the team in first will earn promotion to the next division of Indian football.^[4]

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Team	City/State	Stadium	Capacity
Bengaluru (R)	Bengaluru, Karnataka	Bangalore Football Stadium[5]	8,400
Chennaiyin (R)	Chennai, Tamil Nadu	SSN College Ground[5]	TBA
Delhi Dynamos (R)	Delhi	Ambedkar Stadium	35,000
Delhi United	Delhi	Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground	TBA
Fateh Hyderabad	Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh	Anantapur Sports Village Football Ground[6]	TBA
Goa (R)	Margao, Goa	Fatorda Stadium	19,000
Hindustan	Delhi	Ambedkar Stadium	35,000
Jamshedpur (R)	Jamshedpur, Jharkhand	JRD Tata Sports Complex[5]	24,500
Kerala	Thrissur, Kerala	Thrissur Municipal Corporation Stadium	15,000
Kerala Blasters (R)	Kochi, Kerala	Maharaja's College Stadium	15,000
Langsning	Shillong, Meghalaya	Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium[5]	30,000
Lonestar Kashmir	Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir	TRC Turf Ground	15,000
Madhya Bharat	Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh	JLU Ground	TBA
Mohammedan	Kolkata, West Bengal	Barasat Stadium[7]	22,000
Ozone	Bengaluru, Karnataka	Bangalore Football Stadium	8,400
Pune City (R)	Pune, Maharashtra	Pirangute Football Ground	TBA
Real Kashmir	Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir	TRC Turf Ground	15,000
TRAU	Manipur	Khuman Lampak Main Stadium[5]	35,000

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Bengaluru (R)	Naushad Moosa[8]	Puma	JSW
Chennaiyin (R)	Syed Sabir Pasha[9]	Performax	Apollo Tyres
Delhi Dynamos (R)	Francisco Perez Lazaro[10]	T10 Sports	Kent RO Systems
Delhi United	Hugo Martins[11]	None	Peregrine Aviation
Goa (R)	Clifford Miranda[12]	None	None
Fateh Hyderabad	Ellimishetty Shyam[13]	None	Premier
Hindustan	Vikrant Sharma[14]	Cosco	Hero Motocorp
Jamshedpur (R)	Hilal Parray[15]	Nivia	Tata
Kerala	T G Purushothaman[16]	TGP	Yogakshemam Loans
Kerala Blasters (R)	Renjith Ajithkumar[13]	Admiral	Muthoot
Langsning	Hering Shangpliang[17]	None	Lotto
Lonestar Kashmir	Clebson Duarte da Silva[18]	TBA	TBA
Madhya Bharat	José Carlos Hevia[19]	None	None
Mohammedan	Biswajit Bhattacharya[20]	Kaizen [21]	TBA
Ozone	Dave Booth[22]	None	Ozone Group
Pune City (R)	Roger Lamesa Grau	Adidas	Suzuki Gixxer
Real Kashmir	David Robertson[23]	TBA	TBA
TRAU	L Nandakumar Singh[24]	Nike[25]	HVS

Foreign players

Each club, excluding the Indian Super League reserve sides, can register three foreign players in their squad. One of the foreign players has to be from an AFC Member Nation.^[1]

Club	Player 1	Player 2	AFC player
Delhi United	Ladji Saika Sylla	Kouame Konan Zacharie
Fateh Hyderabad	Edmund Owusu Peprah[13]	Godwin Quashiga[13]	Nuriev Vladislav[13]
Hindustan	Amestrong Alexandré[26]	Martins Rami[26]
Kerala	Abdoul Karim Sylla	Bala Alhassan Dahir[27]
Langsning	Lancine Toure[17]	Jacson Glei Da Silva Clemente[17]	Kento Sakurai[17]
Lonestar Kashmir	Alexandre Tabillon[28]
Madhya Bharat	Ibrahim Sylla
Mohammedan	Fikru Teferra[29]	Echezona Anyichie[30]	Wael Ayan[31]
Ozone	Robert de Souza Ribeiro [32]	Chika Wali[33]	Son Yong-chan
Real Kashmir	Loveday Enyinnaya	Yao Kouassi Bernard
TRAU	Princewell Emeka [34]	Christoppe Jonnette[35]

Preliminary round

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied in the order given to determine the rankings: Greater number of points obtained in the matches between the Teams concerned Goal difference resulting from the matches between the Teams concerned Greater number of goals scored in the matches between the Teams concerned Goal difference in all the matches Greater number of goals scored in all the matches Drawing of lots

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		RKFC	HIN	FCP	DU	DD	LK
1	Real Kashmir	10	6	4	0	15	8	+7	22	Advance to Final round		—	3–3	0–0	1–0	2–0	2–1
2	Hindustan	10	5	5	0	13	7	+6	20			0–0	—	0–0	4–2	2–1	1–0
3	Pune City (R)[a]	10	2	7	1	10	9	+1	13			0–1	0–0	—	3–3	1–0	3–2
4	Delhi United	10	1	6	3	10	11	−1	9			1–1	0–0	0–0	—	0–1	3–0
5	Delhi Dynamos (R)[a]	9	2	2	5	5	9	−4	8			2–3	0–1	0–0	0–0	—	a
6	Lonestar Kashmir	9	0	2	7	9	18	−9	2			1–2	1–2	3–3	1–1	0–1	—

Fixtures and results

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KB	OFC	FCK	FH	FCG	MBSC
1	Kerala Blasters (R)[a]	10	7	0	3	25	17	+8	21			—	1–4	1–5	3–2	2–1	6–0
2	Ozone	10	5	4	1	19	3	+16	19	Advance to Final round		0–1	—	1–0	0–0	0–0	7–0
3	Kerala	10	6	1	3	19	12	+7	19			3–2	0–2	—	2–1	2–1	3–0
4	Fateh Hyderabad	10	5	2	3	23	16	+7	17			2–4	0–0	4–2	—	3–2	2–1
5	Goa (R)[a]	10	2	3	5	13	15	−2	9			0–2	1–1	0–0	1–4	—	5–1
6	Madhya Bharat	10	0	0	10	3	39	−36	0			0–3	0–4	0–2	1–5	0–2	—

Fixtures and results

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		TRAU	BFC	LFC	JFC	MSC	CFC
1	TRAU	10	7	2	1	26	9	+17	23	Advance to Final round		—	1–2	3–1	5–0	4–1	4–0
2	Bengaluru (R)[a]	10	5	2	3	19	13	+6	17			2–2	—	0–3	2–0	2–1	6–1
3	Langsning	10	4	3	3	16	9	+7	15			0–1	1–1	—	5–0	1–1	2–1
4	Jamshedpur (R)[a]	10	3	2	5	11	22	−11	11			1–1	2–1	1–3	—	1–1	3–2
5	Mohammedan	10	3	3	4	12	13	−1	12			1–3	1–0	0–0	2–1	—	4–0
6	Chennaiyin (R)[a]	10	2	0	8	8	26	−18	6			1–2	1–3	1–0	0–2	1–0	—

Fixtures and results

Final round

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Real Kashmir (C)	3	2	1	0	8	6	+2	7	Promotion to 2018–19 I-League
2	Hindustan	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4
3	Ozone	3	0	2	1	4	5	−1	2
4	TRAU	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2

Fixtures and results

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Robert D‘Souza Ribiero	Ozone	10
2	C. S. Sabeeth	Ozone	9
3	Aakif Javaid	Lonestar Kashmir	7
	Shaiborlang Kharpan	Kerala Blasters (R)
	Sahal Abdul Samad	Kerala Blasters (R)
	Kitboklang Pale	Langsning
	Princewill Emeka	TRAU
8	Shreyas VG	Kerala	6
	Gourav Mukhi	Jamshedpur (R)
	Hitova Ayemi	Fateh Hyderabad
	Kushant Chauhan	Hindustan

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Mithun Samanto	Hindustan	7
	Abhishek Das	Ozone
3	Anuj Kumar	Pune City (R)	6
4	Sukhwinder Singh	Real Kashmir	5
5	Royal Basumatary	Delhi United	4
6	Ahamad Afsar	Kerala	3
	Shayon Roy	Delhi Dynamos (R)
	Surjay Kumar Pariyar	Langsning
	Tajuddin	TRAU
	Avjit Kar	Kerala Blasters (R)
	Mohammed Nawaz	Goa (R)

Highest Attendances

Rank	Home team	Score	Away team	Attendance	Date	Stadium
1	Jamshedpur (R)	1–3	Langsning	8,256	4 April 2018 (2018-04-04)	JRD Tata Sports Complex
2	Jamshedpur (R)	3–2	Chennaiyin (R)	6,315	23 March 2018 (2018-03-23)	JRD Tata Sports Complex
3	Real Kashmir	0–0	Pune City (R)	5,992	21 March 2018 (2018-03-21)	TRC Turf Ground
4	Jamshedpur (R)	1–1	Mohammedan	5,342	21 April 2018 (2018-04-21)	JRD Tata Sports Complex
5	Jamshedpur (R)	1–1	TRAU	4,200	20 March 2018 (2018-03-20)	JRD Tata Sports Complex
6	Kerala	3–2	Kerala Blasters (R)	4,000	12 April 2018 (2018-04-12)	Corporation Stadium
7	TRAU	1–2	Bengaluru (R)	3,500	21 April 2018 (2018-04-21)	Khuman Lampak Main Stadium
8	TRAU	4–1	Mohammedan	3,100	5 April 2018 (2018-04-05)	Khuman Lampak Main Stadium
9	Lonestar Kashmir	0–1	Delhi Dynamos (R)	3,000	20 March 2018 (2018-03-20)	TRC Turf Ground
10	TRAU	3–1	Langsning	3,000	13 May 2018 (2018-05-13)	Khuman Lampak Main Stadium

References

External links

• Official I-League website.