Indian Super League playoffs explained

Region:India
Founded:2014
Number Of Teams:6
Champion:Mumbai City (2nd title)
Most Successful Team:ATK (3 titles)
Current:2023–24 Indian Super League playoffs

The Indian Super League playoffs is the annual postseason elimination tournament of Indian Super League for the ISL Cup. Under the current format adopted from the 2022–23 season, 6 teams qualify for the tournament based on regular-season point totals

ISL awards the regular-season champions with the League Winners' Shield and the playoffs winners with ISL Cup.

Standard cup rules – such as the extra time and penalty shootouts – are used to decide drawn games. The higher ranked team from the regular season hosts games if there is only one leg. Winners are in bold.

Playoff system

The top two clubs after the regular season automatically progress to the ISL playoffs. The playoffs culminate with the ISL final, where the winner is presented with the ISL Cup. In the qualifiers, the third-through-sixth ranked teams play a single-elimination match hosted at the higher-ranked team's venue, with the two winners of those matches joining the first and second-ranked teams in two-legged semifinals played over two weeks (since 2022–23). The two winners of those matches eventually meet in the final hosted at a pre-decided venue but from 2023–24 onwards, the final is played at the higher-ranked team's venue.

Qualification

After the regular season, the team with the most points is declared the Champions and presented with the League Winners Shield, automatically qualifying for the playoffs along with the runners-up. At the same time, the next best four clubs qualify to play qualifying playoffs to join the top two in the playoffs. The position of each team is determined by the highest number of points accumulated during the regular season. If two or more teams are level on points, the following criteria are applied in order until one of the teams can be determined as the higher ranked:[1]

  1. Highest number of points accumulated in matches between the teams concerned;
  2. Highest goal difference in matches between the teams concerned;
  3. Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams concerned;
  4. Highest goal difference
  5. Highest number of goals scored
  6. Lowest number of red cards accumulated;
  7. Lowest number of yellow cards accumulated;
  8. Toss of a coin.

History

SeasonsLeague teamsPlayoff teams% of teamsMatches played
20148450%5
2015
2016
2017–20181040%
2018–2019
2019–2020
2020–20211136.3%
2021–2022
2022–2023654.5%7
2023–20241250%
2024–20251346.1%

List of finals

SeasonVenueChampions(Number of titles)ScoreRunners–up
2014Navi Mumbai, MaharashtraAtlético de Kolkata1–0Kerala Blasters
2015Margao, GoaChennaiyin3–2Goa
2016Kochi, KeralaAtlético de Kolkata (2)1–1 (a.e.t)(4–3 p)Kerala Blasters
2017–18Bangalore, KarnatakaChennaiyin (2)3–2Bengaluru
2018–19Mumbai, MaharashtraBengaluru1–0Goa
2019–20Margao, GoaATK (3)3–1Chennaiyin
2020–21Margao, GoaMumbai City2–1ATK Mohun Bagan
2021–22Margao, GoaHyderabad1–1 (a.e.t)(3–1 p)Kerala Blasters
2022–23Margao, GoaATK Mohun Bagan2–2 (a.e.t)(4–3 p)Bengaluru
2023–24Kolkata, West BengalMumbai City (2)3–1Mohun Bagan SG

Appearances by club

Bold indicates they won the ISL Cup that year. Team names in italics indicates the club is defunct or a former Indian Super League member.

Rank Club Year
1 62014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
242014, 2015, 2016, 2020
2014, 2015, 2018, 2020
432018, 2019, 2020
2016, 2019, 2021
2014, 2016, 2022
2020, 2021, 2022
822015, 2016
2019, 2021
1012022
2022
2018

See also

Notes and references

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Scroll Staff . 2020-02-18 . ISL 2019-'20 playoffs: Here are the scenarios explained as top four race goes down to the wire . 2023-08-09 . Scroll.in . en-US.