2021 I-League qualifiers

As per AIFF, ten teams will be selected to participate in I-League 2nd Division qualifiers, through State leagues. Only one team among the nominated two teams from each state will be selected.^[3]

1. State association can nominate up to two teams based on the conducted qualifying tournament in most recent season.
2. Nominated teams shall meet AIFF financial requirements and be liable to complete club licensing criteria.^[5]

The following teams were nominated by state associations:^[6]

1. Vizag FC (Andhra Pradesh)
2. Oil India FC, Elevenstar Club (Assam)
3. Shirsh Bihar United FC (Bihar)
4. Indian Heroes Daman and Diu FC, Young Hearts FC (Daman and Diu)
5. Sports Hostel Cuttack (Odisha)
6. Delhi FC, Garhwal FC (Delhi)
7. Vasco SC (Goa)
8. Gandhinagar FC, ARA FC (Gujarat)
9. Techtro Swades United FC, Shimla FC (Himachal Pradesh)
10. Peerless SC, Bhawanipore FC (West Bengal)
11. Hyderya Sports FC, Downtown Heroes FC (Jammu and Kashmir)
12. Kerala United FC, BASCO Othukkungal (Kerala)
13. FC Bengaluru United, Kickstart FC (Karnataka)
14. Madan Maharaj FC (Madhya Pradesh)
15. Ryntih FC (Meghalaya)
16. Rajasthan United FC, Zinc Football (Rajasthan)
17. Corbett FC (Uttarakhand)
18. PIFA Sports FC, Kenkre FC (Maharashtra)

Corbett

Delhi

Madan Maharaj

Rajasthan United

ARA

Kenkre

Bengaluru United

Kerala United

Ryntih

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Locations of I-League Qualifiers 2021 teams

29 teams were nominated by 18 state associations. Only twelve teams fulfilled the AIFF criteria, and ten teams were accepted for the season.^[7] Later AIFF decided to withdraw Hyderya Sports FC, runners up of Jammu & Kashmir Professional League, after finding the bank guarantee submitted by them to be not genuine.^[8]

Each club could register up to three foreign players in their squad. One of the foreign players had to be from an AFC member nation.

Team	Player 1	Player 2	AFC player
ARA	Hamidou Dieye[9]	Bala Dahir	Vladislav Nuriev
Corbett	Rogelio Juárez	John Chidi
Delhi	Sérgio Barboza[10]	Willis Plaza[11]
Bengaluru United	Luka Majcen[12]	Pedro Manzi[12]
Kenkre	Zacharie Mbenda
Kerala United	Gabriel Lima Silva[13]	Francis Nwankwo
Madan Maharaj	Loveday Enyinnaya	William Twala
Rajasthan United	Akeem Abioye
Ryntih

The ten participating teams have been divided into two groups of five. They will face each other once in the first league leg.

Teams finishing at the top two group positions will proceed to the Final round, where they will play against each other once in a round-robin format. The team that finishes top after the end of 26 matches, will earn promotion to the Hero I-League 2021–22 season.

26 matches are set to be played in the entire tournament, with 20 of them being in the group stage, while six matches will be played in the Final round.^[14]

The total number of teams was reduced to nine, after Hyderya Sports FC was found to have produced fake bank guarantee documents.^[15][16]

• I-League
• AIFF