2025–26 I-League 3

I-League 3
Season2025–26
Dates27 April – 24 May 2026[1]
ChampionsBanaras Baghpat[2] (1st title)
PromotedBanaras Baghpat
Raengdai[2]
Relegated18 clubs
Matches40
Goals114 (2.85 per match)
Top goalscorerNingombam Engson Singh (6 goals)
Biggest winNew Friends 0–9 Banaras Baghpat
(5 May 2026)
Highest scoringNew Friends 0–9 Banaras Baghpat
(5 May 2026)
Longest unbeaten runKLASA
Banaras Baghpat
(7 matches)
Longest losing runTechtro Swades United
(4 matches)

The 2025–26 I-League 3 was the 3rd season of the I-League 3 since its establishment in 2023 as the fourth tier of the Indian football league system.[3][4]

Club changes

The following clubs have changed division since the 2024–25 season:

# Club Path
Entered I-League 3
1 TRAU Relegation from I-League 2 Fall
2 KLASA
3–20 18 clubs Nomination from State leagues Rise
Exited I-League 3
1 Morning Star Promotion to I-League 2 Rise
2 MYJ–GMSC
3 Kupuraj Withdrew[5]
4–21 19 clubs Returned to State leagues Fall

Clubs

[6][7]

No. Club City State League Position
1 TRAU Imphal Manipur 2024–25 I-League 2 8th
2 KLASA Bishnupur Manipur 9th
3 Royal Rangers Delhi Delhi 2024–25 Delhi Premier League 3rd
4 BLG – The Diamond Rock Balaghat Madhya Pradesh 2024–25 Madhya Pradesh Premier League 2nd
5 Kuppuraj Pondicherry Pondicherry 2024 Pondicherry Men's League 1st (withdrew)
6 ARA Ahmedabad Gujarat 2024 Gujarat SFA Club Championship 1st
7 Sunrise Cuttack Odisha 2024 FAO League 1st
8 New Friends Dantewada Chhattisgarh 2024 Chhattisgarh State Men's Football League Championship 2nd
9 Zinc FA Udaipur Rajasthan 2024–25 R-League A Division 1st
10 Techtro Swades United Una Himachal Pradesh 2025 Himachal Football League 1st
11 Mawlai Shillong Meghalaya 2024 Meghalaya State League 1st
12 Agniputhra Bengaluru Karnataka 2024–25 BDFA Super Division 1st
13 Samaleswari Sambalpur Odisha 2025 FAO League 1st
14 Sikkim Brotherhood Gangtok Sikkim 2024 Sikkim Football League 2nd
15 Raengdai Noney Manipur 2024–25 Manipur Premier League 1st
16 Citadel Godavari Legends Rajahmundry Andhra Pradesh 2025 AP Super Cup 1st
17 CD Salgaocar Vasco Goa 2024–25 Goa Professional League 3rd
18 Mumbay Mumbai Maharashtra 2024–25 Maharashtra State Senior Men's Football League 1st
19 Chhaygaon Chhaygaon Assam 2024–25 Assam State Premier League 1st
20 Banaras Baghpat Baghpat Uttar Pradesh 2025 Uttar Pradesh Football Sangh League 1st

Venues

Stage Group City Stadium Capacity
Group stage A Imphal Khuman Lampak Main Stadium 38,285
B SAI Turf Ground TBC
C Balaghat Mulna Stadium 15,000
D Bengaluru Padukone–Dravid CSE Arena 1 250
Final round — Imphal Khuman Lampak Main Stadium 38,285
SAI Turf Ground TBC

Personnel

Club Head coach Captain
Agniputhra India Rajan Mani India Ahmed Faiz Khan
ARA India Salim Pathan India Moinuddin
Banaras Baghpat India Vivek Kumar India Subham Chetry
Chhaygaon India Akash Basu India Stephan Kyrsian
CD Salgaocar India Keenan Almeida India Denil Rebello
Diamond Rock India Raghu N. B. India Mohit Gudi
Godavari Legends India Shabbir Ali India Tikkam Dharaneswar Reddy
KLASA India Kamei Joy Rongmei India Sanaton Singh Salam
Mawlai India Herring Shangpliang India Damanbhalang Chyne
Mumbay EnglandBulgaria Georgi Kostadinov Raev India Bikramjit Singh
New Friends India Abhishek Malik India Sanjay Vishwakarma
Raengdai India Birbal Singh Kshetrimayum India Kamei Pantiga
Royal Rangers India Paritosh Sharma India Karmanya Bansal
Samaleswari NigeriaIndia Saheed Ramon India Salman Kalliyath
Sikkim Brotherhood India Gyaltshen Dorjee Moktan India Narayan Chettri
Sunrise India Niyaz Rehman Pullat India Unise K.
Techtro Swades India Akshay Sawant India Abhishek Calvin
TRAU India Saran Singh Thangjam India Chingkheinganba Thiyam
Zinc FA India Kiran Gopalakrishnan India Naro Hari Shrestha

Group stage

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification SUN RAE MAW ARA SIK
1 Sunrise 4 3 0 1 10 5 +5 9 Advanced to Final round 3–1 2–3 4–1
2 Raengdai (H) 4 2 1 1 6 3 +3 7 0–1 3–0
3 Mawlai 4 1 2 1 6 6 0 5 1–1 3–1
4 ARA FC 4 1 1 2 6 9 −3 4 1–1
5 Sikkim Brotherhood 4 1 0 3 6 11 −5 3 1–2 3–2
Source: IFL
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) goal difference; 4) goals scored; 5) goal difference vs. qualified club 6) toss of coin
(H) Hosts

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification TRA SAM ZIN SAL MUM
1 TRAU (H) 4 3 1 0 7 3 +4 10 Advanced to Final round 2–0 2–2
2 Samaleswari 4 2 0 2 6 5 +1 6 0–1 1–3
3 Zinc FA 4 1 2 1 7 6 +1 5 1–2 2–2
4 CD Salgaocar 4 1 1 2 2 4 −2 4 0–1 1–1 1–0
5 Mumbay 4 0 2 2 5 9 −4 2 1–4
Source: IFL
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) goal difference; 4) goals scored; 5) goal difference vs. qualified club 6) toss of coin
(H) Hosts

Group C

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification KLA CHA DIA GOD KUP
1 KLASA 3 3 0 0 5 1 +4 9 Advanced to Final round 3 May
2 Chhaygaon 3 2 0 1 6 1 +5 6 0–1 4–0
3 Diamond Rock (H) 3 1 0 2 3 6 −3 3 1–2 2–0
4 Godavari Legends 3 0 0 3 0 6 −6 0 0–2 0–2 29 Apr
5 Kuppuraj 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Withdrew 27 Apr 5 May
Source: IFL
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) goal difference; 4) goals scored; 5) goal difference vs. qualified club 6) toss of coin
(H) Hosts

Group D

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification BAG AGN NEW ROY TEC
1 Banaras Baghpat 4 3 1 0 15 3 +12 10 Advanced to Final round 0–0 3–1
2 Agniputhra (H) 4 2 1 1 5 2 +3 7 2–0 3–0
3 New Friends 4 2 0 2 5 12 −7 6 0–9 3–1 2–0
4 Royal Rangers 4 2 0 2 7 7 0 6 2–3 2–0
5 Techtro Swades 4 0 0 4 2 10 −8 0 1–2
Source: IFL
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) goal difference; 4) goals scored; 5) goal difference vs. qualified club 6) toss of coin
(H) Hosts

Ranking of second-placed clubs

Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 C Chhaygaon 3 2 0 1 6 1 +5 6 Advanced to Final round
2 A Raengdai 3 1 1 1 4 2 +2 4
3 D Agniputhra 3 1 1 1 2 2 0 4
4 B Samaleswari 3 1 0 2 2 3 −1 3
Source: IFL
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored
(Note: In groups with 5 teams, results of matches played with the last ranked teams are excluded)

Final round

The top clubs from each group, and the two best second-placed, progress to the final round, conducted in a centralised single round-robin format. The top two clubs at the end of the final round earn promotion to the 2026–27 I-League 2.[8]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion BAG RAE SUN KLA TRA CHA
1 Banaras Baghpat (C, P) 5 3 1 1 8 4 +4 10 Promotion to I-League 2 3–1 4–2
2 Raengdai (P, H) 5 3 1 1 9 6 +3 10 2–0 4–2
3 Sunrise 5 2 3 0 9 2 +7 9 1–0 1–1 0–0 0–0
4 KLASA (H) 5 1 3 1 4 3 +1 6 0–0 0–1 1–1
5 TRAU (H) 5 0 3 2 3 6 −3 3 0–1 2–2
6 Chhaygaon 5 0 1 4 8 20 −12 1 1–7 1–3
Source: IFL
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) drawing of lots
(C) Champions; (H) Hosts; (P) Promoted

Attendances

Group stage

Match No. Group A Match No. Group B
Fixture Attendance Fixture Attendance
1 Raengdai–ARA FC 750 1 TRAU–Mumbay 250
2 Mawlai–Sikkim Brotherhood 150 2 Samaleswari–Zinc FA 100
3 Sunrise–Mawlai 100 3 CD Salgaocar–Samaleswari 100
4 Sikkim Brotherhood–ARA FC 200 4 Zinc FA–Mumbay 80
5 Sikkim Brotherhood–Raengdai 800 5 Zinc FA–TRAU 250
6 Sunrise–ARA FC 200 6 CD Salgaocar–Mumbay 40
7 ARA FC–Mawlai 150 7 Mumbay–Samaleswari 50
8 Raengdai–Sunrise 4,250 8 TRAU–CD Salgaocar 300
9 Sunrise–Sikkim Brotherhood 150 9 CD Salgaocar–Zinc FA 40
10 Mawlai–Raengdai 2,150 10 Samaleswari–TRAU 400
Group A Total 8,900 Group B Total 1,610
Match No. Group C Match No. Group D
Fixture Attendance Fixture Attendance
1 Diamond Rock–Godavari Legends 150 1 Agniputhra–Techtro Swades 300
2 Chhaygaon–KLASA 150 2 Royal Rangers–Banaras Baghpat 350
3 KLASA–Diamond Rock 150 3 New Friends–Royal Rangers 275
4 Chhaygaon–Godavari Legends 150 4 Banaras Baghpat–Techtro Swades 150
5 KLASA–Godavari Legends 150 5 Banaras Baghpat–Agniputhra 275
6 Diamond Rock–Chhaygaon 150 6 New Friends–Techtro Swades 275
7 Techtro Swades–Royal Rangers 100
8 Agniputhra–New Friends 2,753
9 New Friends–Banaras Baghpat 125
10 Royal Rangers–Agniputhra 150
Group C Total 900 Group D Total 4,753

Playoffs

Match No. Final Round
Fixture Attendance
1 KLASA–Banaras Baghpat 250
2 Sunrise–TRAU 250
3 Raengdai–Chhaygaon 3,462
4 Chhaygaon–KLASA 285
5 Sunrise–Raengdai 1,548
6 TRAU–Banaras Baghpat 250
7 Chhaygaon–Sunrise 250
8 Banaras Baghpat–Raengdai 895
9 KLASA–TRAU 1,034
10 Sunrise–KLASA 1,000
11 Raengdai–TRAU 2,768
12 Banaras Baghpat–Chhaygaon 120
13 TRAU–Chhaygaon 126
14 KLASA–Raengdai 2,387
15 Sunrise–Banaras Baghpat 450
Final Round Total 15,069

Legend:   Highest   Lowest
Updated to game(s) played on 24 May 2026
Source:

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://www.the-aiff.com/calendar?event=67&month=0&year=2026
  2. 1 2 "Baghpat FC crowned I-League 3 2025-26 champions, earn promotion to I-League 2 along with FC Raengdai". www.the-aiff.com. Retrieved 2026-06-06.
  3. ↑ "I-League 3". www.the-aiff.com. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
  4. ↑ "I-League 3 2025-26 to begin on April 27". www.the-aiff.com. Retrieved 2026-04-17.
  5. ↑ "Chhaygaon - Update: Our opening I-League 3 fixture stands cancelled as Kuppuraj FC withdraws. We regroup, refocus, and get ready for the next battle. 👊 | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2026-04-29.
  6. ↑ "Mawlai SC set to participate in I-League 3 this month!". thesportsroom.in. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
  7. ↑ "FC RAENGDAI, TRAU FC and KLASA FC Set to Compete in AIFF I-League 3". ukhrultimes.com. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
  8. ↑ "I-League 3 2025-26 to begin on April 27". www.the-aiff.com. Retrieved 2026-04-17.
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