<p>The 14th edition of Hero I-League will kick off on January 9 next year in Kolkata, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said on Saturday.</p>.<p>The 11 participating teams will be required to enter a bio-secure bubble 14 days prior to their first match according to the schedule, which will be announced shortly.</p>.<p>The matches will be telecast live on 1Sports.</p>.<p>Owing to the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/coronavirus-live-news-covid-19-latest-updates.html" target="_blank">Covid-19</a> pandemic, the previous edition of the second-tier league was stopped abruptly before football action resumed in India through the I-League Qualifier in October this year.</p>.<p>The West Bengal government and Indian Football Association (IFA) joined hands with the AIFF to organise the qualifiers successfully.</p>.<p>Sunando Dhar, CEO, Leagues, lauded the stakeholders for their "unconditional support" in staging the tournaments without any fuss.</p>.<p>"We can't thank government of West Bengal and IFA enough for their unconditional support to hosting the Hero I-League Qualifier this year. Without their support, we couldn't even think of hosting the tournament smoothly."</p>.<p>"Hero I-League Qualifier was a stage rehearsal for the next edition of Hero I-League as it'll be a longer and more challenging tournament from every single aspect.</p>.<p>"We'll work with them hand in hand to make it a grand success and we're confident to pull it off successfully," Dhar mentioned.</p>.<p>All the 11 teams will face each other once in the first leg of the league before they are divided into two different groups.</p>.<p>The top six teams, according to the points table, will face each other once again to decide the winner while the other five teams will play against each other in a one-leg league format.</p>.<p>The team with maximum points (cumulative points collected from all fifteen matches) will be the winner of the I-League 2020-21.</p>.<p>The tournament will be organised by adhering to the Covid-19 guidelines released by the union health ministry and no spectator will be allowed inside a stadium during a match.</p>
<p>The 14th edition of Hero I-League will kick off on January 9 next year in Kolkata, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said on Saturday.</p>.<p>The 11 participating teams will be required to enter a bio-secure bubble 14 days prior to their first match according to the schedule, which will be announced shortly.</p>.<p>The matches will be telecast live on 1Sports.</p>.<p>Owing to the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/coronavirus-live-news-covid-19-latest-updates.html" target="_blank">Covid-19</a> pandemic, the previous edition of the second-tier league was stopped abruptly before football action resumed in India through the I-League Qualifier in October this year.</p>.<p>The West Bengal government and Indian Football Association (IFA) joined hands with the AIFF to organise the qualifiers successfully.</p>.<p>Sunando Dhar, CEO, Leagues, lauded the stakeholders for their "unconditional support" in staging the tournaments without any fuss.</p>.<p>"We can't thank government of West Bengal and IFA enough for their unconditional support to hosting the Hero I-League Qualifier this year. Without their support, we couldn't even think of hosting the tournament smoothly."</p>.<p>"Hero I-League Qualifier was a stage rehearsal for the next edition of Hero I-League as it'll be a longer and more challenging tournament from every single aspect.</p>.<p>"We'll work with them hand in hand to make it a grand success and we're confident to pull it off successfully," Dhar mentioned.</p>.<p>All the 11 teams will face each other once in the first leg of the league before they are divided into two different groups.</p>.<p>The top six teams, according to the points table, will face each other once again to decide the winner while the other five teams will play against each other in a one-leg league format.</p>.<p>The team with maximum points (cumulative points collected from all fifteen matches) will be the winner of the I-League 2020-21.</p>.<p>The tournament will be organised by adhering to the Covid-19 guidelines released by the union health ministry and no spectator will be allowed inside a stadium during a match.</p>