The 2017–18 Indian Super League season was the fourth season of the

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is a professional association football league in India and the highest level of the Indian football league system. Administered by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner Football Sport ...

, one of the top Indian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

leagues. It was established in 2013. The regular season started on 17 November 2017 and ended on 4 March 2018,

The finals ''The Finals'' is a free-to-play first-person shooter, developed and published by Embark Studios. The game focuses on team-based matches on maps with a destructible environment, where players (who are divided into a number of distinct classes) ...

began on 7 March 2018, concluding with the final on 17 March 2018. ATK were the defending champions from the 2016 season, however they could not advance to the playoffs. Chennaiyin won their second Indian Super League title by defeating

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

3–2 in the final. Two new sides joined the league as expansion teams:

and

Jamshedpur Jamshedpur (; ), also known as Tatanagar, is a major industrial city in eastern India. It is the List of cities in Jharkhand by population, largest city in the state of Jharkhand. With a population of 629,658 in the city limits and 1.3 million ...

. The two new clubs are the ninth and tenth teams in the league. This made it the first edition of the ISL in which there are more than eight teams participating. As well as expanding two teams, the league also expanded two more months, being played in five months instead of three. Away goal rule is introduced in semifinals stage in this season.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Expansion

On 11 May 2017, it was announced by the Indian Super League organizers that they would be inviting bids for new teams to join the league for the upcoming season. The bids would be for ten cities, namely

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka in Odia language, Odia ), is the former capital, deputy capital and the 2nd largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. It is also the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised f ...

Durgapur Durgapur (), is an industrial hub and a planned urban agglomeration in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is stands on the northern bank of the Damodar river and located in Paschim Bardhaman district. Durgapur is a major centre for producin ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

Ranchi Ranchi (; ) is the capital city and also the largest district by population of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern ...

Siliguri Siliguri (, ; ), also known as Shiliguri, is a major Tier ii cities in india, tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms the twin cities, Twin Cities with the neighbouring city of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling district, Darjeel ...

and

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

. It was also clarified that if Kolkata were to win at least one bid for a team, the new "Kolkata" side would have to play away from the city for two seasons. On 25 May 2017, it was announced that bidding for new teams had ended and that the league's appointed external validator would look over the bids. It was also announced that

, the two-time champion of the

I-League The I-League is the men's second professional football division of the Indian football league system behind the Indian Super League. Administered by the All India Football Federation, it is currently contested by 13 clubs. It operates as a s ...

, India's top-tier professional

league, had submitted a bid. Two weeks later, on 12 June, it was officially announced that

(for

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

) and

Tata Group The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate group of companies headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest business conglomerate, with products and services in over 160 countries, and operations in 100 c ...

(for

) had won the bids for the new teams.

Personnel and sponsorship

Managerial changes

Roster changes

Overseas players

Unlike during the first three seasons of the Indian Super League, the 2017–18 season saw the maximum number of foreign players per team reduced to eight from 11. Also unlike the previous three seasons, the maximum number of foreigners allowed on the pitch at the same time was reduced to five from six.

Regular season

Results

Playoffs

Bracket

Semi-finals

Final

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

Top Indian scorers

Hat-tricks

Assists

Cleansheets

Discipline

* Most yellow cards (club): 47 ** Chennaiyin * Most red cards (club): 4 ** Delhi Dynamos * Most yellow cards (player): 9 ** Dhanpal Ganesh (Chennaiyin) * Most red cards (player): 2 ** Pratik Chowdhary (Delhi Dynamos)

Average home attendances

Awards

*Source
Indian Super League website

Hero of the Match

Emerging Player of the Match

Fans' Player of the Month

Fans' Team of the Season

End-of-season awards

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2017-18 Indian Super League season Indian Super League seasons 1

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...