The 2023-24 Indian Super League season has come to a halt and the AFC Asian Cup break would allow the ISL clubs to compete in the first-ever mid-season Super Cup campaign alongside five I-League sides as the coveted trophy would be up for grabs in Odisha.
Indian football fans would be treated with a double dose of the Indian football team participating in the continental extravaganza against the likes of Australia, Uzbekistan, and Syria while the ISL clubs will be taking part in a modified Super Cup which will allow all six registered overseas players to take the field at once with one of them should represent a country registered under the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
With a place in the newly formed ACL 2 Premilinary Stage up for grabs, all the teams will be fielding their best possible starting XIs making this a crucial tournament for all clubs involved in the 2024 Kalinga Super Cup.
Dates
The Indian Super Cup will be held in the month of January for the first time ever as the mid-ISL break will allow the new head coaches at various clubs to get acclimatized to the Indian conditions and competitiveness while the other clubs will be aiming to tighten the screws on their well-oiled machines.
The elongated 12-team ISL season has enforced the organisers to prepone the tournament to January as the heat of late April and May in several parts of the country wouldn’t allow the players to give their best for their respective clubs.
The qualifier match will be held on January 8 while the group matches will be played between January 9 and January 22. The two semi-finals will be played on 24th and 25th January respectively with the final to be held on 28th January.
Venues
The mega-event is set to take place at the revamped Kalinga Stadium
he Kalinga Stadium Main Pitch and Pitch 1 are set to host 27 matches over the space of 20 days as Odisha’s huge investment in infrastructure is finally paying off for the eastern state.
AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey made an announcement at the end of November about the host state and the new sponsors of the Indian Super Cup for the 2024 edition of the tournament.
He said, “As per the decision we took earlier, the annual Super Cup tournament will now be organised in a bigger and broader perspective. The tournament will now be known as the Kalinga Super Cup and will be played in Odisha in January 2024. This is a positive development for Indian domestic football. I am confident the Kalinga Super Cup will be a huge hit both in terms of organisation and spectator interest.”
Groups & Format Explainer
On 8th January, Rajasthan United and I-League’s newest entrant Inter Kashi will be going at loggerheads to decide the 16th participant of the prestigious tournament.
Apart from the 12 ISL teams, three I-League teams, Sreendi Deccan, Shillong Lajong, and Gokulam Kerala automatically qualified for the main draw due to their superior rankings in the 2023-24 I-League standings after the top two teams, Mohammedan and Real Kashmir decided to take a one-month break before giving it their all on the resumption of the league.
In the main draw of the tournament, the 16 participating teams will be divided into four groups consisting of three ISL teams and one I-League team each.
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| Mohun Bagan Super Giant | Kerala Blasters | Mumbai City | Goa |
| East Bengal | NorthEast United | Chennaiyin | Odisha |
| Hyderabad | Jamshedpur | Punjab | Bengaluru |
| Sreenidi Deccan | Shillong Lajong | Gokulam Kerala | Rajasthan United or Inter Kashi |
The four respective group toppers will be competing with each other in the semi-final before the final clash of the tournament where the kings of the Kalinga Super Cup will be crowned on the last Sunday of January 2024.
Star Attractions
The 2024 Indian Super Cup will be held over a space of 20 days as the likes of Roy Krishna, Carl McHugh, Dimitrios Diamantakos, Borja Herrera, Greg Stewart, Noah Sadaoui, Ahmed Jahouh, Jason Cummings, Milos Drincic, Javier Siviero, Dimitri Petratos, and Jorge Pereyra Diaz are the most notable overseas names taking part in the coveted cup competition.
Amey Ranawade, Arsh Singh, Ruivah Hormipam, Vinit Rai, Nishu Kumar, Puitea, Rowlin Borges, Bipin Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Halicharan Narzary, Kiyan Nassiri, Raynier Fernandes, Phurba Lachenpa, Nandhakumar Sekar, Jay Gupta, Mohammed Yasir, Asish Rai, and Prabir Das are some of the prominent domestic players who will be in action during the 2024 Super Cup competition.