ISL Final: A look at the cities that have hosted the ultimate showdown

The venue for the 2022-23 season's final was announced on 20th February.

The Indian Super League (ISL) 2022-23 final will take place in Goa, the league confirmed on Monday. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, which has held the final for the last three years, will be the centre stage for the finale once again.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Goa has been a major place for hosting ISL games. The 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, which were played behind closed doors, were entirely held in Goa. With the JLN stadium boasting decent attendance numbers, the organizers perhaps believed it would be ideal to host the final this time around as well. Also, the training facilities provided by Goa are sensational That too, has played a major role in such a decision.

So far, Mumbai City and Hyderabad FC have made it to the ISL knockouts. ATK Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru FC and Kerala Blasters have qualified for the playoffs, with either FC Goa or Odisha FC to fill out to take up that final playoff spot.

With that being said, Khel Now looks at the list of cities to have hosted an ISL final in the past.

Goa

Goa has had the luxury of hosting the most number of ISL finals in the competition’s near-decade history. It has held four ISL finals, including the last three consecutive ones. The first ISL final to be held in Goa was in the 2015 season. In what is regarded as one of the best ISL finals in history, Chennaiyin FC came back to defeat home favorites FC Goa 3-2 in the final.

After that, it hosted the 2019-20 ISL final – where ATK defeated Chennaiyin FC. Over the last two years, Mumbai City and Hyderabad FC have reigned supreme in the ISL final. All four ISL finals have taken place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda – two of which were held behind closed doors.

Mumbai

The home of the 2022-23 ISL Shield champions has also been a favourite among the league’s organizers. With the city being the financial capital of India and home to some of the most popular celebrities, it’s unsurprising over how importance it is given. Over the years, Mumbai has hosted the ISL finals twice. The first-ever ISL final was hosted at the DY Patil Stadium in 2014.

Back then, Atletico de Kolkata defeated Kerala Blasters by a narrow 1-0 margin to be the inaugural ISL champions. The next time Mumbai hosted a final was in 2019. On that occasion, Bengaluru FC won their inaugural ISL title with a narrow 1-0 win over FC Goa – with the game held at the Mumbai Football Arena.

Kochi

After Mumbai and Goa, the third city to host an ISL final was Kochi in 2016. This was, obviously, due to the surging popularity of football in Kerala. Moreover, with Kerala Blasters boasting impressive attendance numbers, the city was given the chance to host the ISL final. In the final, hosts Kerala Blasters faced Atletico de Kolkata in a repeat of the 2014 final. It was a really entertaining game which dragged all the way to extra time.

In the end, the Kolkata side broke the hearts of the home fans by clinching the win on penalties. Kochi is yet to host another Indian Super League final since that. Even though they were among the possibilities to host this season’s final, they ended up losing it to Goa.

Bengaluru

Bengaluru only starting hosting Indian Super League games from the 2017-18 season – when Bengaluru FC entered the league. In their debut ISL campaign, the Blues had a stellar season. They progressed all the way to the final of the ISL, which was to be held at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium.

In its first campaign of hosting ISL games, the Kanteerava stadium got the right to host the 2018 final. However, the Bengaluru FC fans experienced major heartbreak in the final. They saw their beloved side go down to a 3-2 loss to Southern rivals Chennaiyin FC. The Sree Kanteerava has not held an ISL final since, with BFC hosting their home games in the ground.