Indian Super League playoffs

Annual postseason elimination tournament of the Indian Super League From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ISL Cup playoffs is the annual postseason elimination tournament of the Indian Super League (ISL). Unde the current format adopted for the 2022–23 season, six teams qualify based on their regular-season standings. The top two teams advance directly to the semi-finals, while the remaining four compete in single-leg eliminators. The winner of the final is awarded the ISL Cup. Until the 2021–22 Indian Super League season, the ISL Cup winners awarded the ISL championship title.

Founded2014
RegionIndia
Teams6
Current championsMohun Bagan (2nd title)
Quick facts Founded, Region ...
Indian Super League playoffs
Founded2014
RegionIndia
Teams6
Current championsMohun Bagan (2nd title)
Most championshipsATK (3 titles)
2025 ISL Cup playoffs
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From the 2022–23 Indian Super League season onward, the regular-season League Shield Winners are awarded the championship title in the Indian Super League.

History

More information Seasons, League teams ...
Seasons League teams Playoff teams % of teams Matches played
2014 8 4 50% 5
2015
2016
2017–2018 10 40%
2018–2019
2019–2020
2020–2021 11 36.3%
2021–2022
2022–2023 6 54.5% 7
2023–2024 12 50%
2024–2025 13 46.1%
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Playoffs 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 joining the first and second-ranked teams in two-legged semifinals played over two weeks (since 2022–23). The two winners eventually met 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 teams qualify to qualifying 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.

List of finals

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.

More information Rank, Club ...
RankClubAppYear
1Goa82014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025
2Chennaiyin52014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2024
Kerala Blasters2014, 2016, 2022, 2023, 2024
Mumbai City2016, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025
5ATK42014, 2015, 2016, 2020
Mohun Bagan2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Odisha[a]2015, 2016, 2023, 2024
Bengaluru2018, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2025
9Hyderabad22022, 2023
NorthEast United2019, 2021, 2025
11Jamshedpur12022, 2025
Pune City2018
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See also

Notes and references

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