The seventh season of the Indian Premier League (ISL) is perhaps the most anticipated version of the Premier League. Sports around the world, including India, were suspended in March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak. The 2019-20 Indian Premier League Final was held behind closed doors in Goa. With sporting activities not resuming in the country since the outbreak of the virus, ISL will take responsibility for managing a league of this magnitude with perfection amid virus fear.

Schedule

ISL's seventh season has already been delayed. Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), league organizers have selected the window between November 21, 2021, and March 21, 2021, as a possible deadline for hosting the league. The seventh edition will be played behind closed doors in Goa due to the current Coronavirus pandemic. Most of the teams begin training in Goa when the foreigners arrive in the state for the season. The matches will be played at the Fätorda Stadium. Bambolim Stadium; And Tilak Medan in Goa.

Players are required to go into quarantine periods of between 7 and 14 days with 3 coronavirus tests before starting training with the team upon arrival at Bio Bubble in Goa. East Bengal FC and Chennaiyin FC are the only two teams yet to reach the stadiums.

Matches

ISL 2020-21 is scheduled to start in the third week of November. It will be the second football event to resume in India after the I-League 2020-21 Qualifiers. ISL is expected to run parallel to the I-League, which is also expected to resume in December at Bio-Bubble in Kolkata. The 2020-21 Indian Premier League matches have not been announced.

ISL will see some renewed rivalries as Mohun Bagan (now merged with ATK Mohun Bagan FC) and East Bengal FC will face the Bengaluru FC team at ISL after the I-League split in 2017. Games between Kerala Blasters FC and East are also likely to Bengal FC team turns into contests because both groups of fans are already sharing their pre-season pranks on social media.

ISL 2020-21 will see the first new derby in Kolkata when old rivals Mohun Bagan and East Bengal meet in a renewed showdown in the Kolkata Derby as ATK Mohun Bagan FC and SC East Bengal.

Teams

Odisha FC and Hyderabad FC will play the second season of the Indian Premier League in the 2020-21 season. Odisha FC has been renamed Delhi Dynamos FC after changing to Bhubaneshwar, Odisha from National Capital. Hyderabad FC was formed after FC Pune City was closed.

ATK merged with I-League's Mohun Bagan to form a combined entity ATK Mohun Bagan FC, while East Bengal entered the league as the eleventh team after joining its Shree Cements investors. The Reds and Golds are expected to play the league as SC East Bengal.

Bengaluru FC and Jamshedpur FC will play their fourth season in ISL. The original ISL teams such as FC Goa, Mumbai City FC, Chennaiyin FC, Kerala Blasters FC, and NorthEast United will play their seventh season in the Indian Premier League.

Players

The Indian Premier League has seen a collective exit from the Premier League. The teams brought in players like Adam Law Founder, Braden Inman, Scott Neville, Gary Hopper, James Donachie, and Stephen Taylor from the A-League. Players like Cy Goddard, Anthony Pilkington, Luis Machado, Costa Nhamoinesu, Facundo Pereyra, Peter Hartley, Igor Angulo, Esmael Goncalves, and Cleiton Silva are other big names who have come to do business in the Indian Premier League.

Follow this space as we keep you updated with all the updates of the seventh season of the Indian Premier League.