India football: In I-League, Bangalore could rain on Mohun Bagan and East Bengal’s revival

Dileep Premachandran details the down-the-stretch finish in the I-League, where outsiders Bangalore are crashing the revival party of Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.

Bangalore striker Sunil Chhetri, left, kicks the ball past Mohun Bagan's Raju Gaikwad, right, during an India national team training session in Dubai. Mike Young / The National

The playing standards may not be anything to scream from the rooftops about, but Indian football’s I-League is poised for the kind of denouement that most competitions dream of. Eclipsed in the past couple of years by the cash-rich and franchise-based Indian Super League (ISL), the I-League is still home to the country’s most historic clubs.

This is only the 20th year that India have had a national league, and Kolkata’s Mohun Bagan, established in 1889 – the year Preston North End won the first English championship – have won it four times.

For nearly a century, their rivalry with East Bengal, three-time winners, has been the central narrative of Indian football.

Until Bagan won the I-League last season, the two giants had gone through a decade-long drought. Bagan had not won the title since 2002, while you have to go back to 2004 for East Bengal’s last success. This season, both seemed poised to resume their rivalry at the summit of Indian club football.

But there is a rank outsider in the mix.

Bangalore United, coached by Ashley Westwood – a graduate of the Manchester United Academy – came into being only in 2013, and won the title at the first time of asking.

After finishing second last season, Bangalore appear to have timed their charge to perfection, even as the two Kolkata giants have fallen away.

Bagan lead the table with 27 points, but have won just one of their last five. Their final game, in two weeks, is against Bangalore, who could have sealed the title by then.

The key match is on Sunday when Westwood’s side, featuring Sunil Chhetri, the pre-eminent Indian striker of his generation, entertain East Bengal, who have taken just seven points from their last five games.

With Bangalore on 26 points, and East Bengal on 24, victory for the home side would almost certainly wrap up the title, given that their next game is against Salgaocar, two-time champions who now prop up the table.

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