2018–19 I-League 2nd Division

The 2018–19 I-League 2nd Division (known as Hero 2018–19 I-League 2nd Division for sponsorship reasons), was the 12th season of the I-League 2nd Division, the second division Indian football league, since its establishment in 2008. The league was played from January to April 2019.^[1]

TRAU won the title and earned the promotion to 2019–20 I-League.

Teams

Nominated teams

At the start of the season 23 teams were nominated by the state associations for participation in this edition of the league.^[2] Following clubs were nominated:

Kerala: SAT Tirur, Quartz FC, FC Kerala

Delhi: Hindustan FC, Sudeva Moonlight, Delhi United FC

Manipur: TRAU FC, SSU-Singjamei

Meghalaya: Langsning FC

Mizoram: Chhinga Veng

Sikkim: United Sikkim

West Bengal: Mohammedan Sporting, Rainbow AC

Jammu and Kashmir: Lonestar Kashmir FC, J&K Bank FC

Karnataka: Ozone FC, South United FC

Telangana: Fateh Hyderabad AFC

Odisha: RadhaRaman Club

Bihar: Shirsh Bihar United FC

Gujarat: ARA FC

Jharkhand: Shivansh Jharkhand FC

Madhya Pradesh: Madan Maharaj FC

Selected teams

On 7 December 2018, it was announced by the league committee that nine clubs cleared the licensing criteria and are allowed to participate in this season. Additionally TRAU F.C. were granted three days of extension to clear the club licensing, considering the situation in their state league. TRAU cleared the licensing, taking the total teams competing to sixteen.^{[citation needed]}

Stadiums and locations

Team	City/State	Stadium	Capacity
ARA	Ahmedabad, Gujarat	The Arena	22,000
ATK (R)	Kolkata, West Bengal	Sailen Manna Stadium	15,000
Bengaluru (R)	Bengaluru, Karnataka	Bangalore Football Stadium	8,400
Chennaiyin (R)	Chennai, Tamil Nadu	SSN College Ground	400
Chhinga Veng FC	Aizawl, Mizoram	Rajiv Gandhi Stadium	20,000
Fateh Hyderabad	Hyderabad, Telangana	FSV Arena	100
Goa (R)	Margao, Goa	GMC Athletic Stadium	3,200
Hindustan	Delhi	Ambedkar Stadium	35,000
Jamshedpur (R)	Jamshedpur, Jharkhand	JRD Tata Sports Complex	24,500
Kerala Blasters (R)	Kochi, Kerala	Panampally Ground	300
Lonestar Kashmir	Katra, Jammu and Kashmir	SMVDSB Sports Complex	2,600
Mohammedan	Kolkata, West Bengal	Kalyani Stadium	20,000
Ozone	Bengaluru, Karnataka	Bangalore Football Stadium	8,400
Rainbow	New Barrackpore, West Bengal	Barasat Stadium	22,000
South United	Bengaluru, Karnataka	Bangalore Football Stadium	8,400
TRAU	Imphal, Manipur	Khuman Lampak Main Stadium	35,000

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
ARA	Vivek Nagul	Seven	Amul
ATK (R)	Deggie Cardozo	Nivia	CESC Limited
Bengaluru (R)	Naushad Moosa	Puma	Kia Motors
Chennaiyin (R)	Sameer Shaikh	Performax	Apollo Tyres
Chhinga Veng	Danny Lalduhawma	None	JSJ FitPro
Fateh Hyderabad	Vimal Arora	Vector X[3]	Premier
Goa (R)	Clifford Miranda	Sqad Gear	Xiaomi
Hindustan	Sena	Cosco	Hero Motocorp
Jamshedpur (R)	Kundan Chandra	Nivia	Tata Steel
Kerala Blasters (R)	Renjith Ajithkumar	Six5Six	Muthoot
Lonestar Kashmir	Ishfaq Ahmed	Kaizen	Rising Kashmir
Mohammedan	Raghunath Nandi[4]	Kaizen	Orion
Ozone	David Booth	Lotto	Ozone Group
Rainbow	Jahar Das	Vamos	New Barrackpore Co-operative Homes Ltd
South United	Noel Wilson	Pyramid Sports	Hot Fut
TRAU	Nandakumar Singh[5]	VectorX	HVS Constructions

Coaching changes

Team	Outgoing Head Coach	Manner of departure	Incoming Head Coach	Date of appointment
Mohammedan	Biswajit Bhattacharya	2018	Raghunath Nandi	2018
South United	Miki Lladó	2019	Noel Wilson	2019

Foreign players

Each club, excluding the Indian Super League reserve sides, can register three foreign players in their squad. One of the foreign players has to be from an AFC Member Nation.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Asian Visa
ARA
Chhinga Veng FC	Godwin Quashiga
Fateh Hyderabad	Edmund Owusu Peprah	Forster Addae	Emile Demey
Hindustan	Trokon Saykiamien	Ronaque Bakshi	Maruf Fazly
Lonestar Kashmir	Wahab Lasisi	Jagaba Hamza	Lhendup Dorji[6]
Mohammedan	Phillip Adjah Tetteh[7]	Arthur Kouassi
Ozone	Chika Wali	William Opoku
Rainbow	Joel Sunday	Emmanuel Chigozie
South United
TRAU	Princewill Emeka	Joseph Olaleye

Preliminary round

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied in the order given to determine the rankings: Greater number of points obtained in the matches between the Teams concerned Goal difference resulting from the matches between the Teams concerned Greater number of goals scored in the matches between the Teams concerned Goal difference in all the matches Greater number of goals scored in all the matches Drawing of lots

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Bengaluru (R)[a]	8	7	1	0	26	3	+23	22
2	Goa (R)[a]	8	5	0	3	17	7	+10	15
3	Lonestar Kashmir	8	3	2	3	8	13	−5	11	Advance to Final Round
4	ARA	8	3	1	4	10	14	−4	10
5	Hindustan	8	0	0	8	5	29	−24	0

Fixtures and results

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ozone	8	6	2	0	19	6	+13	20	Advance to Final Round
2	Fateh Hyderabad	8	4	1	3	12	9	+3	13
3	Kerala Blasters (R)[a]	8	2	2	4	8	13	−5	8
4	South United	8	1	4	3	10	16	−6	7
5	Chennaiyin (R)[a]	8	1	3	4	8	13	−5	6

Fixtures and results

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Chhinga Veng	10	6	2	2	18	11	+7	20	Advance to Final Round
2	TRAU	10	5	2	3	17	20	−3	17
3	Mohammedan	10	5	1	4	21	13	+8	16
4	ATK (R)[a]	10	4	2	4	15	14	+1	14
5	Rainbow	10	3	4	3	17	16	+1	13
6	Jamshedpur (R)[a]	10	1	1	8	10	24	−14	4

Fixtures and results

Final round

Group champions from preliminary round and second placed team from Group C will qualify for this round. The four sides will play each other twice in the home and away format. The team that finishes top of the table in the Final Round will be crowned champions, and earn promotion.^[8]

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	TRAU (Q)	6	5	0	1	13	5	+8	15	Promotion to I-League
2	Chhinga Veng	6	4	1	1	12	6	+6	13
3	Ozone	5	1	0	4	4	6	−2	3
4	Lonestar Kashmir	5	0	1	4	3	15	−12	1

Fixtures and results

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 25 May 2019^[9]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Phillip Adjah Tetteh	Mohammedan	10
	Princewill Emeka Olariche	TRAU
3	C. S. Sabeeth	Ozone	8
4	Joel Sunday	Rainbow	7
	Joseph Mayowa Olaleye	TRAU
6	Aaren D Silva	Goa (R)	6
7	Altamash Sayed	Bengaluru (R)	5
	Arthur Kouassi	Mohammedan
	Thomyo L. Shimray	ATK (R)
	Yumnam Singh	ATK (R)
	Roshan Singh	Bengaluru (R)
	Jagaba Hamza	Lonestar Kashmir
	Lalliansanga	Chhinga Veng

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Syed Shoaib Ahmed	ARA FC	Hindustan FC	4–3 (H)	16 January 2019	[10]
Liston Colaco	FC Goa (R)	Hindustan FC	6-0 (H)	21 January 2019
Imanuel Lalthazuala	Chhinga Veng FC	Rainbow AC	3-1 (H)	4 March 2019
Phillip Adjah Tetteh	Mohammedan	Jamshedpur (R)	2-4 (A)	22 March 2019

Clean sheets

As of 25 May 2019

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Zothanmawia	Chhinga Veng	6
2	Aditya Patra	Bengaluru (R)	5
	Shubham Dhas	Goa (R)
	Dharmindar Guru	Ozone
5	Mithun Samonto	TRAU	4
6	Jedidi Haokip	ATK (R)	3
	Priyant Kumar Singh	Mohammedan
8	Fayaz Shaikh	Fateh Hyderabad	2
	Dibyendu Sarkar	Rainbow
	Abhishek Das	ARA

References

External links

• Official I-League website.