TheI-League kicks off its tenth season with the first round of matches this weekend. On Saturday, defending champions Bengaluru FC take on Shillong Lajong in Bangalore and East Bengal host Aizawl FC in Barasat.
Here are the key talking points for the season ahead:
The ISL's looming shadow
With the cash-rich Indian Super League (ISL) occupying not just three critical months of the Indian football calendar since its launch in 2014, but also seemingly usurping the I-League's place as the prime football property in the country, it seemed endgame for the older league. The thinking was that a two-league system was unsustainable but, with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) reporting a forty per cent increase in stadium attendance during the 2015-16 I-League season, and the support base for teams like Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Bengaluru FC, and the latter's success in the AFC Cup last year, it's made the federation and their marketing partners IMG-Reliance think twice about pulling the plug on the I-League.
Reports suggest there's now a rethink on how best to merge the two leagues. Insiders say there's a push to make the 2017 ISL a merged league, but it might only be possible from the 2018-19 season - which means this could be the last season of the top division of Indian football.
The favourites
Bengaluru, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan will not just enjoy some of the best support but also start as title contenders, considering the depth in their respective squads.
The defending champions have had some changes to their squad, including Albert Roca replacing Ashley Westwood as coach, but the core of the team remains the same. Mohun Bagan, the 2015 champions, lost only two matches last season but were let down by the number of draws, especially in the latter half of the tournament. East Bengal have always threatened to achieve big things, but then seen their challenge fall away midway through the league in recent years. This year, they are a standby team for the AFC Cup, who will only have to play the continental competition should Bengaluru FC win two games and qualify for the group stage of the AFC Champions League. This might mean Trevor Morgan will get to concentrate purely on the task at hand.
The dark horses
Expect Mumbai FC to spoil the party for a few teams this season. They had a good start to the 2016 I-League as well, finding themselves in the top three for a large part of the early stages, during which time they also beat Bengaluru FC 2-0 at home. The common perception of Mumbai FC as a club with middling ambition could change this year under Santosh Kashyap, whose influence as coach of Royal Wahingdoh in 2014-15 is still remembered for the way the Shillong club often took the game to their opposition. Mumbai will play with pace, vigour and aggression and their fans will make Cooperage a very tricky venue for teams to pick up points in.
Former Mumbai coach Khalid Jamil is now with Aizawl FC, a young team which showed a lot of spunk in their maiden season last year. Jamil has taken influential Mumbai FC players Jayesh Rane and Ashutosh Mehta to Aizawl. There is a good base of local talent within the team, and the addition of Liberian Alfred Jaryan - who also played under Jamil in Mumbai - and Ivory Coast's Kamo Bayi will add more teeth to the Aizawl attack.
The newcomers
The I-League returns to the Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana after a six-year hiatus, with Minerva Punjab taking over from where JCT, Phagwara left off. Minerva might find the step-up to top-division football a tough one, but the experience of having Colm Toal, who helped former national coach Bob Houghton design India's youth development program about a decade ago, as technical director could help.
Chennai City become the first team from that city since Indian Bank (2003-04) to be a part of the national league. Chennai, as a venue, has shown an appetite for football during the ISL (Chennaiyin FC) but how well it embraces a tournament that will probably have less on-ground publicity and fewer film stars and cricketers attending games could be the litmus test for the I-League's interest quotient as a whole.
The foreign coach jinx
In 20 previous seasons, there have been just three non-Indian coaches who have been able to guide their team to the title. Serbian Zoran Djordjevic helped Churchill Brothers win their first league title in 2008-09, Moroccan Karim Bencherifa with Salgaocar two seasons later and Ashley Westwood twice in three seasons.
The common reasoning is that while old-timers like Sukhwinder Singh, Shabbir Ali, TK Chathunni, Subrata Bhattacharya and Subhas Bhowmick extracted the best out of their teams with their man-management skills, the newer crop of Indian coaches like Derrick Pereira, Armando Colaco, Mariano Dias and Sanjoy Sen have a more evolved view of world football and tap into the best of tactical acumen from coaches around the world.
This year, the Indian coaches outnumber the foreign ones by seven to three, and barring mid-season sackings and other mishaps, it would be an intriguing battle of wits between philosophies of coaching that will bring India against Spain and England.
The need to stay fresh
With an extra team this season, there's more football - and that could affect the teams in the early stages. The league has announced the first nine rounds of matches, between January 7 and February 15; that's also when Bengaluru FC and Mohun Bagan take part in AFC competitions. In addition, the Indian national team will be in action in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers March onwards. They did play two World Cup qualifiers last year as well, but by then the Indian team was already out of the reckoning for qualification for Russia; this time there's a good chance India will have easier opposition and meaningful matches.
Keeping this in mind, all coaches will be hard-pressed to maintain a balance between fielding their best squads for every match and gambling by resting a few key players in the odd game. Niggles and injuries will need to be dealt with smartly. The depth in squads will play a critical role in deciding which teams will occupy pole position heading into the back end of the league, when the national team's commitments could force the top Indian players to miss a few important games.