2011–12 I-League

I-League
Season	2011–12
Champions	Dempo; 3rd I-League title; 5th Indian title
Relegated	Chirag Club Kerala; HAL
AFC Cup	East Bengal; Churchill Brothers
Matches played	182
Goals scored	521 (2.86 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ranti Martins (32 goals)
Biggest home win	Dempo 5-0 Mohun Bagan
Biggest away win	HAL 1-8 East Bengal
Highest scoring	HAL 1-8 East Bengal
Longest winning run	7 games ; Dempo
Longest unbeaten run	7 games ; Dempo
Longest losing run	6 games ; Chirag United Kerala
Highest attendance	90,000 ; Mohun Bagan 1-0 East Bengal
	← 2010–11 2012–13 →

The 2011–12 I-League was the fifth season of the I-League. The season began in October 2011 and ended in May 2012. Salgaocar are the defending champions, having won their maiden title in the previous season.

The current edition has a total of 14 teams contesting for the honors. These include the top twelve teams from the 2010–11 season along with the two promoted sides, Shillong Lajong and Sporting Clube de Goa, who had been the winner and the runner-up in the 2011 I-League 2nd Division respectively.

Teams

According to the AIFF's rules, the two bottom-most teams from the 2010–11 season-ending points table were supposed to be relegated to the second tier, but in actuality, only ONGC FC were relegated after their second to last place finish, while the team finishing the last, JCT FC decided to disband their senior football team at the close of the session.^{[citation needed]}

Shillong Lajong FC and Sporting Clube de Goa, the Champions & Runner-up respectively, of the 2011 I-League 2nd Division, were promoted to the I-League after being relegated only the previous year.^{[citation needed]}

Stadiums and locations

Kolkata

Kolkata clubs:
East Bengal
Mohun Bagan
Palian Arrows
Prayag United

Goa

Goa clubs:
Churchill Brothers
Dempo
Salgaocar
Sporting Goa

Mumbai

Mumbai clubs:
Air India
Mumbai

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Locations of teams in the 2011-12 I-League

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Air India	Mumbai	Cooperage Ground	12,000
Chirag United Kerala	Kozhikode	Kaloor International Stadium	60,000
Churchill Brothers	Salcette	Fatorda Stadium	27,300
Dempo	Panjim	Fatorda Stadium	27,300
East Bengal	Kolkata	Salt Lake Stadium	120,000
HAL	Bangalore	Bangalore Football Stadium	15,000
Mohun Bagan	Kolkata	Salt Lake Stadium	120,000
Mumbai	Mumbai	Cooperage Ground	12,000
Pailan Arrows	Kolkata	Salt Lake Stadium	120,000
Prayag United	Kolkata	Salt Lake Stadium	120,000
Pune	Pune	Balewadi Sports Complex	20,000
Salgaocar	Vasco	Fatorda Stadium	27,300
Shillong Lajong	Shillong	Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium	25,000
Sporting Goa	Panjim	Fatorda Stadium	27,300

Managerial changes

In chronological order from the bottom

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Mohun Bagan	Subhash Bhowmick	Caretaker	1 June 2011	Pre-season	Steve Darby	19 July 2011
Churchill Brothers	Drago Mamic	Caretaker	1 June 2011	Pre-season	Manuel Gomes	9 June 2011
Pailan Arrows	Des Bulpin	Sacked	13 August 2011	Pre-season	Sukhwinder Singh	13 August 2011
Chirag United Kerala	P. K. Unnikrishnan	Sacked	1 October 2011	Pre-season	Pakir Ali	2 October 2011
Mohun Bagan	Steve Darby	Resigned	15 October 2011	Pre-Season	Prasanta Banerjee	18 October 2011
Pailan Arrows	Sukhwinder Singh	Resigned	7 February 2012	13th	Sujit Chakravarty	8 February 2012
Churchill Brothers	Manuel Gomes	Sacked	14 February 2012	5th	Carlos Roberto Pereira	15 February 2012
Chirag United Kerala	Pakir Ali	Sacked	18 February 2012	12th	Biswajit Bhattacharya	18 February 2012

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Asian Player
Air India	Henry Ezeh	Lamine Tamba		Takayuki Omi
Chirag United Kerala	Isaac Boakye	Charles Dzisah	David Sunday	None
Churchill Brothers	Roberto Mendes Silva	Henry Antchouet	David Opara	Antun Kovacic
Dempo	Ranty Martins	Koko Sakibo	Densill Theobald	Yusuke Kato
East Bengal	Edmilson	Uga Samuel Okpara	Penn Orji	Tolgay Özbey
HAL	Joseph Femi Adeola			Rohit Chand
Mohun Bagan	Jose Ramirez Barreto	Hudson Lima Silva	Odafa Onyeka Okolie	None
Mumbai	Kingsley Chioma	Gbeneme Friday	Ebi Sukore	Zohib Islam Amiri
Pailan Arrows	Pailan Arrows don't use foreigners as they are an Indian Developmental Side
Prayag United	Josimar	Yusif Yakubu	Bello Razaq	Kayne Vincent^{[nb 1]}
Pune	Keita Mandjou	Pierre Djidjia Douhou	Chika Wali	Arata Izumi
Salgaocar	Luciano Sabrosa	Maxime Belouet	Chidi Edeh	Ryuji Sueoka
Shillong Lajong	James Gbilee	Johnny Menyongar	Christopher Chizoba	Matthew Mayora
Sporting Goa	Boubacar Keita	Ogba Kalu Nnanna	James Moga	Park Jae-Hyun

Ownership changes

Club	New owner	Previous owner	Date
Pailan Arrows	Pailan Group	All India Football Federation	31 July 2011^[2]
Prayag United	Prayag Group	RP-Chirag	3 August 2011^[3]
Chirag United Kerala	Chirag Computers	Viva Kerala Group	7 August 2011^[4]
Shillong Lajong	Anglian Holdings (20% stake)¹		29 February 2012^[5]

¹: Anglian Holdings only brought 20% in Shillong Lajong. The rest of the club is still owned by Shillong Lajong plc.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dempo (C)	26	18	3	5	59	21	+38	57
2	East Bengal	26	15	6	5	46	22	+24	51	2013 AFC Cup Group stage^[a]
3	Churchill Brothers	26	14	6	6	47	28	+19	48	2013 AFC Cup Group stage^[b]
4	Mohun Bagan	26	13	8	5	51	32	+19	47
5	Pune	26	13	7	6	44	34	+10	46
6	Salgaocar	26	12	8	6	32	19	+13	44
7	Prayag United	26	11	9	6	41	32	+9	42
8	Sporting Goa	26	11	7	8	53	43	+10	40
9	Air India	26	9	5	12	30	37	−7	32
10	Shillong Lajong	26	7	7	12	24	44	−20	28
11	Mumbai	26	7	3	16	31	52	−21	24
12	Chirag United Kerala (R)	26	6	2	18	28	50	−22	20	Relegation to 2013 I-League 2nd Division^[c]
13	Pailan Arrows	26	2	10	14	17	40	−23	16
14	HAL (R)	26	1	5	20	19	68	−49	8	Relegation to 2013 I-League 2nd Division

Source: IndiaFooty.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ East Bengal, the winner of the 2012 Indian Federation Cup, qualified for the 2013 AFC Cup.
^ Dempo refused to enter the 2013 AFC Cup, so they were replaced by Churchill Brothers.^[6]
^ Pailan Arrows were not relegated in the season as they were a developmental team.

Season charity

IMG Reliance and the I-League have joined hands with the polio eradication campaign India Unite to End Polio Now. IUEPN is an initiative of Aidmatrix Foundation, supported by UNICEF, and a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), World Health Organization (WHO), National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP), Rotary International and US Centre for Disease Control (CDC).^[7]

Season statistics

Top scorers

^[8]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ranti Martins	Dempo	32
2	Odafa Onyeka Okolie	Mohun Bagan	26
3	Tolgay Özbey	East Bengal	18
3	Henry Antchouet	Churchill Brothers	18
5	James Moga	Sporting Goa	16
5	Mandjou Keita	Pune	16
7	Yusif Yakubu	Prayag United	12
8	Josimar	Prayag United	11
8	Ogba Kalu	Sporting Goa	11
10	Gbeneme Friday	Mumbai	10
10	David Sunday	Chirag United Kerala	10

Top Indian scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Chinadorai Sabeeth	Pailan Arrows	9
1	Manandeep Singh	Air India	9
3	Abdul Hamza	HAL	8
3	C.K. Vineeth	Chirag United Kerala	8
5	Sandesh Gadkari	Air India	7
5	Subhash Singh	Pune	7
7	Dawson Fernandes	Sporting Goa	6
	Clifford Miranda	Dempo
	Lalrindika Ralte	Churchill Brothers

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Odafa Onyeka Okolie	Mohun Bagan	Pailan Arrows	3–1	23 October 2011
James Moga	Sporting Clube de Goa	Salgaocar	4–2	5 November 2011
Josimar	Prayag United	Pune	5–1	5 November 2011
Tolgay Özbey	East Bengal	HAL	8–1	23 November 2011
Henry Antchouet	Churchill Brothers	Shillong Lajong	6–0	17 December 2011
David Opara	Churchill Brothers	Sporting Clube de Goa	5–0	28 December 2011
Odafa Onyeka Okolie	Mohun Bagan	Churchill Brothers	3–2	15 January 2012
David Opara	Churchill Brothers	Chirag United Kerala	4–0	4 April 2012
Rohit Chand	HAL	Pune	4–6 ^{[permanent dead link]}	10 April 2012
Gbeneme Friday	Mumbai	HAL	5–1 ^{[permanent dead link]}	14 April 2012
David Sunday	Chirag United Kerala	East Bengal	3–4	16 April 2012
Chinadorai Sabeeth	Pailan Arrows	Chirag United Kerala	3–0^[usurped]	25 April 2012

Scoring

First goal of the season: C.K. Vineeth for Chirag United Club Kerala against HAL (22 October 2011)^[9]
Fastest goal of the season: 3 minutes – Anthony Pereira for Dempo against Shillong Lajong (23 November 2011)^[10]
Widest winning margin: 7 goals
- HAL 1-8 East Bengal (23 November 2011)
Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 10 goals
- Pune 6-4 HAL (10 April 2012)
Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 4 goals
- Pune 6-4 HAL (10 April 2012)
Most goals scored in a match by a single player: 4 goals
- Tolgay Özbey for East Bengal against HAL (23 November 2011)
- Gbeneme Friday for Mumbai against HAL (14 April 2012)

End-of-season awards

Fan's Player of the Year — Francis Fernandes
FPAI Young Player of the Year — Manandeep Singh
FPAI Foreign Player of the Year — Ranti Martins
FPAI Indian Player of the Year — Syed Rahim Nabi
FPAI Coach of the Year — Trevor Morgan

FPAI Team of the Year

Formation: 4-4-2^[11]

Position	Name	Club
GK	Karanjit Singh	Salgaocar
RB	Deepak Kumar Mondal	Prayag United
CB	Mahesh Gawli	Dempo
CB	Uga Okpara	East Bengal
LB	Syed Rahim Nabi	Mohun Bagan
RM	Rocus Lamare	Salgaocar
CM	Pierre Djidjia Douhou	Pune
CM	Beto	Churchill Brothers
LM	Penn Orji	East Bengal
ST	Odafa Onyeka Okolie	Mohun Bagan
ST	Ranti Martins	Dempo
Coach	Trevor Morgan	East Bengal

Notes

^ Prayag United are allowed up to four foreign players (per I-League rules), one of which must be from Asia. Despite being a New Zealander and having represented them at youth international level Kayne Vincent is considered Japanese due to his Japanese mother.