Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed. (December 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The 2009–10 I-League season began on 1 October 2009 with Mahindra United hosting defending champions Churchill Brothers in Mumbai.^[1] The season marked the addition of four new teams, with Lajong, Pune, Salgaocar and Viva Kerala were confirmed to participate in the I-League. With the inception of these four clubs, many club transfers have been undergone within India, and around the world. The length of the regular season will be longer than in previous years, with 26 rounds rather than 22.

Rule changes

India became the latest member association to adopt AFC's 3+1 rule which will allow clubs to recruit one player of Asian origin in addition to their regular quota of three foreigners.^{[citation needed]}

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) executive committee decided to embrace the new AFC rule which encourages the mobility of talented Asian players and provides a fillip to the regional game.^[2]

AFC Campaign

Two of the I-League teams were playing in the 2010 AFC Cup. This had caused some delays in scheduling. East Bengal lost all its round robin matches and was out of the tournament, but Churchill Brothers were at Knockout stage.

Stadia and locations

Goa

Kolkata

Mumbai

Pune

Phagwara

Shillong

Kozhikode

class=notpageimage|

Locations of teams in the 2009–10 I-League

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Mahindra United	Derrick Pereira	Resigned[3]	David Booth[4]		Pre season
Mumbai	David Booth	Resigned[5]	Khalid Jamil[6]	20 June 2009	Pre season
Shillong Lajong	Herring Shangpliang	Sacked[7]	Stanley Rozario	1 June 2009	Pre season
Salgaocar	Peter Vales	Promoted to technical director[8]	Tim Hankinson	12 July 2009	Pre season
Sporting Goa	Clifford Chukwuma	Lacked qualifications[9][10]	Roy Barreto		Pre season
Churchill Brothers	Zoran Đorđević	Contract Expired[11]	Carlos Roberto Pereira da Silva	3 July 2009	Pre season
Pune	Stewart Hall	Contract Expired
East Bengal	Subhash Bhowmick	Resigned[12]	Philippe De Ridder		12
Sporting Goa	Roy Barreto	Resigned[13]	Vishwas Goankar	14 December 2009.[13]	14
Air India	Bimal Ghosh	Resigned[14]	Yusuf Ansari	8 January 2010.[14]	12
Mohun Bagan	Karim Bencherifa	Sacked[15]	Satyajit Chatterjee		7
Salgaocar	Tim Hankinson	Sacked[15]	Karim Bencherifa
Mohun Bagan	Satyajit Chatterjee	Resignation[16]	Biswajit Bhattacharjee	1 April 2010	5

League table

Fixtures and results