Two teams from 2nd Division League to be promoted to I-League from 2023-24

The Federation’s League Committee meeting was chaired by Mr Lalnghinglova Hmar over video conferencing on Friday, January 13, 2023. The committee provided a major update on I-League.

Secretary General Dr Shaji Prabhakaran, Deputy Secretary General Mr Sunando Dhar were present in the meeting, along with Deputy Chairperson Mr Santanu Pujari, and Committee Members Mr M Satyanarayan, Mr Arif Ali, and Dr Kiran Chowgule. Dr Reginold Varghese, Mr Amit Chaudhary, Mr KP Singh Aluwallia, and Mr KI Nizamuddin were granted leave of absence.

The Committee, in its first order of the day, recommended that two teams from the 2nd Division League be promoted to the Hero I-League from the 2023-24 season onwards.

Sticking to the matter of the 2nd Division League, the Committee also felt that the two teams that get relegated from the I-League must get their fair chance to earn promotion back to the second tier league of Indian Football, and will thus get direct entry into the Final Round of the 2nd Division League from the next season.

The 2022-23 season of the third-tier league will see five teams in the Final Round, with the top two gaining promotion to I-League. The Committee felt that the other three teams that made it to the Final Round should also get a second shot at promotion in the next season when they will again get automatic entry to the Final Round of the third-tier league.

The Committee also deliberated on the All Manipur Football Association’s nomination of a particular team for the Hero 2nd Division League, despite the club finishing fifth in the State League; the AMFA had earlier nominated the state league champions, but that was rescinded later. After much discussion on the general confusion over the nominations from Manipur, the Committee recommended that no nominations be taken from the state for the 2022-23 edition of the 2nd Division League.