The 2011–12 I-League was the fifth season of the I-League. The season began in October 2011 and ended in May 2012. Salgaocar are the defending champions, having won their maiden title in the previous season.

I-League
Season2011–12
ChampionsDempo
3rd I-League title
5th Indian title
RelegatedChirag Club Kerala
HAL
AFC CupEast Bengal
Churchill Brothers
Matches played181
Goals scored521 (2.88 per match)
Top goalscorerRanti Martins (32 goals)
Biggest home winDempo 5-0 Mohun Bagan[1]
Biggest away winHAL 1-8 East Bengal
Highest scoringHAL 1-8 East Bengal
Longest winning run7 games
Dempo
Longest unbeaten run7 games
Dempo
Longest losing run6 games
Chirag United Kerala
Highest attendance90,000
Mohun Bagan 1-0 East Bengal

The current edition has a total of 14 teams contesting for the honors. These include the top twelve teams from the 2010–11 season along with the two promoted sides, Shillong Lajong and Sporting Clube de Goa, who had been the winner and the runner-up in the 2011 I-League 2nd Division respectively.

Teams

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According to the AIFF's rules, the two bottom-most teams from the 2010–11 season-ending points table were supposed to be relegated to the second tier, but in actuality, only ONGC FC were relegated after their second to last place finish, while the team finishing the last, JCT FC decided to disband their senior football team at the close of the session.[citation needed]

Shillong Lajong FC and Sporting Clube de Goa, the Champions & Runner-up respectively, of the 2011 I-League 2nd Division, were promoted to the I-League after being relegated only the previous year.[citation needed]

Stadiums and locations

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Team Location Stadium Capacity
Air India Mumbai Cooperage Ground 12,000
Chirag United Kerala Kozhikode Kaloor International Stadium 60,000
Churchill Brothers Salcette Fatorda Stadium 27,300
Dempo Panjim Fatorda Stadium 27,300
East Bengal Kolkata Salt Lake Stadium 120,000
HAL Bangalore Bangalore Football Stadium 15,000
Mohun Bagan Kolkata Salt Lake Stadium 120,000
Mumbai Mumbai Cooperage Ground 12,000
Pailan Arrows Kolkata Salt Lake Stadium 120,000
Prayag United Kolkata Salt Lake Stadium 120,000
Pune Pune Balewadi Sports Complex 20,000
Salgaocar Vasco Fatorda Stadium 27,300
Shillong Lajong Shillong Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium 25,000
Sporting Goa Panjim Fatorda Stadium 27,300

Managerial changes

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In chronological order from the bottom

Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Incoming manager Date of appointment
Mohun Bagan   Subhash Bhowmick Caretaker 1 June 2011 Pre-season   Steve Darby 19 July 2011
Churchill Brothers   Drago Mamic Caretaker 1 June 2011 Pre-season   Manuel Gomes 9 June 2011
Pailan Arrows   Des Bulpin Sacked 13 August 2011 Pre-season   Sukhwinder Singh 13 August 2011
Chirag United Kerala   P. K. Unnikrishnan Sacked 1 October 2011 Pre-season   Pakir Ali 2 October 2011
Mohun Bagan   Steve Darby Resigned 15 October 2011 Pre-Season   Prasanta Banerjee 18 October 2011
Pailan Arrows   Sukhwinder Singh Resigned 7 February 2012 13th   Sujit Chakravarty 8 February 2012
Churchill Brothers   Manuel Gomes Sacked 14 February 2012 5th   Carlos Roberto Pereira 15 February 2012
Chirag United Kerala   Pakir Ali Sacked 18 February 2012 12th   Biswajit Bhattacharya 18 February 2012

Foreign players

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Club Player 1 Player 2 Player 3 Asian Player
Air India   Henry Ezeh   Lamine Tamba   Takayuki Omi
Chirag United Kerala   Isaac Boakye   Charles Dzisah   David Sunday None
Churchill Brothers   Roberto Mendes Silva   Henry Antchouet   David Opara   Antun Kovacic
Dempo   Ranty Martins   Koko Sakibo   Densill Theobald   Yusuke Kato
East Bengal   Edmilson   Uga Samuel Okpara   Penn Orji   Tolgay Özbey
HAL   Joseph Femi Adeola   Rohit Chand
Mohun Bagan   Jose Ramirez Barreto   Hudson Lima Silva   Odafa Onyeka Okolie None
Mumbai   Kingsley Chioma   Gbeneme Friday   Ebi Sukore   Zohib Islam Amiri
Pailan Arrows Pailan Arrows don't use foreigners as they are an Indian Developmental Side
Prayag United   Josimar   Yusif Yakubu   Bello Razaq   Kayne Vincent[nb 1]
Pune   Keita Mandjou   Pierre Djidjia Douhou   Chika Wali   Arata Izumi
Salgaocar   Luciano Sabrosa   Maxime Belouet   Chidi Edeh   Ryuji Sueoka
Shillong Lajong   James Gbilee   Johnny Menyongar   Christopher Chizoba   Matthew Mayora
Sporting Goa   Boubacar Keita   Ogba Kalu Nnanna   James Moga   Park Jae-Hyun

Ownership changes

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Club New owner Previous owner Date
Pailan Arrows   Pailan Group   All India Football Federation 31 July 2011[2]
Prayag United   Prayag Group   RP-Chirag 3 August 2011[3]
Chirag United Kerala   Chirag Computers   Viva Kerala Group 7 August 2011[4]
Shillong Lajong   Anglian Holdings (20% stake)1 29 February 2012[5]
  • 1: Anglian Holdings only brought 20% in Shillong Lajong. The rest of the club is still owned by Shillong Lajong plc.

League table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Dempo (C) 26 18 3 5 59 21 +38 57
2 East Bengal 26 15 6 5 46 22 +24 51 2013 AFC Cup Group stage[a]
3 Churchill Brothers 26 14 6 6 47 28 +19 48 2013 AFC Cup Group stage[b]
4 Mohun Bagan 26 13 8 5 51 32 +19 47
5 Pune 26 13 7 6 44 34 +10 46
6 Salgaocar 26 12 8 6 32 19 +13 44
7 Prayag United 26 11 9 6 41 32 +9 42
8 Sporting Goa 26 11 7 8 53 43 +10 40
9 Air India 26 9 5 12 30 37 −7 32
10 Shillong Lajong 26 7 7 12 24 44 −20 28
11 Mumbai 26 7 3 16 31 52 −21 24
12 Chirag United Kerala (R) 26 6 2 18 28 50 −22 20 Relegation to 2013 I-League 2nd Division[c]
13 Pailan Arrows 26 2 10 14 17 40 −23 16
14 HAL (R) 26 1 5 20 19 68 −49 8 Relegation to 2013 I-League 2nd Division
Source: IndiaFooty.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. ^ East Bengal, the winner of the 2012 Indian Federation Cup, qualified for the 2013 AFC Cup.
  2. ^ Dempo refused to enter the 2013 AFC Cup, so they were replaced by Churchill Brothers.[6]
  3. ^ Pailan Arrows were not relegated in the season as they were a developmental team.

Season charity

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IMG Reliance and the I-League have joined hands with the polio eradication campaign India Unite to End Polio Now. IUEPN is an initiative of Aidmatrix Foundation, supported by UNICEF, and a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), World Health Organization (WHO), National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP), Rotary International and US Centre for Disease Control (CDC).[7]

Season statistics

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Top scorers

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[8]

Rank Player Club Goals
1   Ranti Martins Dempo 32
2   Odafa Onyeka Okolie Mohun Bagan 26
3   Tolgay Özbey East Bengal 18
  Henry Antchouet Churchill Brothers
5   James Moga Sporting Goa 16
  Mandjou Keita Pune
7   Yusif Yakubu Prayag United 12
8   Josimar Prayag United 11
  Ogba Kalu Sporting Goa
10   Gbeneme Friday Mumbai 10
  David Sunday Chirag United Kerala

Top Indian scorers

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Rank Player Club Goals
1   Chinadorai Sabeeth Pailan Arrows 9
  Manandeep Singh Air India
3   Abdul Hamza HAL 8
  C.K. Vineeth Chirag United Kerala
5   Sandesh Gadkari Air India 7
  Subhash Singh Pune
7   Dawson Fernandes Sporting Goa 6
  Clifford Miranda Dempo
  Lalrindika Ralte Churchill Brothers

Hat-tricks

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Player For Against Result Date
  Odafa Onyeka Okolie Mohun Bagan Pailan Arrows 3–1 23 October 2011
  James Moga Sporting Clube de Goa Salgaocar 4–2 5 November 2011
  Josimar Prayag United Pune 5–1 5 November 2011
  Tolgay Özbey East Bengal HAL 8–1 23 November 2011
  Henry Antchouet Churchill Brothers Shillong Lajong 6–0 17 December 2011
  David Opara Churchill Brothers Sporting Clube de Goa 5–0 28 December 2011
  Odafa Onyeka Okolie Mohun Bagan Churchill Brothers 3–2 15 January 2012
  David Opara Churchill Brothers Chirag United Kerala 4–0 4 April 2012
  Rohit Chand HAL Pune 4–6 [permanent dead link] 10 April 2012
  Gbeneme Friday Mumbai HAL 5–1 [permanent dead link] 14 April 2012
  David Sunday Chirag United Kerala East Bengal 3–4 16 April 2012
  Chinadorai Sabeeth Pailan Arrows Chirag United Kerala 3–0 25 April 2012

Scoring

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  • First goal of the season: C.K. Vineeth for Chirag United Club Kerala against HAL (22 October 2011)[9]
  • Fastest goal of the season: 3 minutesAnthony Pereira for Dempo against Shillong Lajong (23 November 2011)[10]
  • Widest winning margin: 7 goals
    • HAL 1-8 East Bengal (23 November 2011)
  • Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 10 goals
    • Pune 6-4 HAL (10 April 2012)
  • Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 4 goals
    • Pune 6-4 HAL (10 April 2012)
  • Most goals scored in a match by a single player: 4 goals

End-of-season awards

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FPAI Team of the Year

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Formation: 4-4-2[11]

Nat. Position Name Club
  GK Karanjit Singh Salgaocar
  RB Deepak Mondal Prayag United
  CB Mahesh Gawli Dempo
  CB Uga Okpara East Bengal
  LB Syed Rahim Nabi Mohun Bagan
  RM Rocus Lamare Salgaocar
  CM Pierre Djidjia Douhou Pune
  CM Beto Churchill Brothers
  LM Penn Orji East Bengal
  ST Odafa Onyeka Okolie Mohun Bagan
  ST Ranti Martins Dempo
  Coach Trevor Morgan East Bengal

Notes

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  1. ^ Prayag United are allowed up to four foreign players (per I-League rules), one of which must be from Asia. Despite being a New Zealander and having represented them at youth international level Kayne Vincent is considered Japanese due to his Japanese mother.

References

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  1. ^ "I-League: Dempo SC 5-0 Mohun Bagan - Goal.com". Archived from the original on 3 January 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  2. ^ "I-League: I Will Buy Some New Players If We Can't Have Jeje And The Rest Of The Players – Pailan Group To AIFF". goal.com. goal.com. 31 July 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  3. ^ "I-League: United Sports Club To Be Rechristened As 'Prayag United'". goal.com. goal.com. 3 August 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  4. ^ "I-League: Viva Kerala Renamed As Chirag United Kerala – It's Turning Into An Absolute Joke". goal.com. goal.com. 7 August 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  5. ^ "Shillong Lajong tie up with NRI owned Danish club". Times of India. Times of India. 29 February 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  6. ^ "AIFF to approach Churchill Brothers to participate in the AFC Cup". goal.com. 30 November 2012.
  7. ^ "Polio awareness campaign at I-League". Times of India. 19 November 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
  8. ^ "Players – I-League – India – Results, fixtures, tables and news – Soccerway". int.soccerway.com.
  9. ^ "HAL Bangalore vs Chirag United Club Kerala Lineups and Statistics". goal.com. goal.com. 22 October 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  10. ^ "Dempo SC 5-0 Shillong Lajong FC - Goal.com". Archived from the original on 25 November 2011.
  11. ^ "Indian Football News Updates – Page 55". indianfootballnetwork.com. 12 May 2012.