The seventh season of the Indian Super League (ISL) will kick-off with ATK Mohun Bagan taking on the Kerala Blasters on November 20 in Goa. Earlier this year, defending champions Atlético de Kolkata (ATK) merged with Mohun Bagan and will be competing as ATK Mohun Bagan in this season’s ISL.
The season will be running from November 2020 to March 2021. In a press release, the ISL stated that there will be 115 games played this season as compared to the 95 games last season. Fixtures for the first 11 rounds (55 games) have been released. The remaining games will be decided in December as the league are awaiting further details of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) fixtures which is to be held next year.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation, all games of this season’s ISL will be played in Goa and no spectators will be allowed to watch the games at the stadium. Teams will be in a secure bio-bubble environment similar to that of the Indian Premier League which was held in the UAE earlier this September. The league matches will be played at three venues in Goa – the Fatorda Stadium located in Margao, Tilak Maidan stadium in Vasco and GMC Athletic Stadium in Bambolim.
With SC East Bengal joining the ISL on September 27, the competition has increased to 11 teams. In 2019-20 season, ATK beat Chennaiyin FC to clinch their third league title and FC Goa are the current holders of the League Winners Shield. Although with the ISL is commencing and the teams raring to go, it will be interesting to see how the players adapt mentally this season considering the fact they will be playing without any fans at the stadiums.
