Super Cup 2023: All you need to know – Dates, Venues, Teams, Groups, and Format

The third edition of the Indian Super Cup is finally back after a much-awaited hiatus of four years. The inaugural season of the Indian Super Cup took place in 2018 and was won by Bengaluru as the Blues defeated East Bengal 4-1 in the final.

In the first season, Sunil Chettri emerged as the top-scorer of the season with six goals. Following him, Bengaluru’s Nicolás Ladislao Fedor Flores also known as Miku was the second-highest scorer with 5 goals. 

In 2019, Goa triumphed over Chennaiyin in the concluding match 2-1 at the Kalinga Stadium. The Gaurs’ triumph was powered by Ferran Corominas also known by his nickname, Coro’s heroics as he scored 5 goals. 

However, the tournament later got suspended because of the unfortunate COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The international fixtures of the Indian side were another reason for the suspension. 

The Indian football clubs will end their season with the second cup competition after they started their campaign with the Durand Cup. 

The Durand Cup tournament is the oldest existing club football tournament in Asia and the fifth-oldest national football competition in the world. This season’s tournament was triumphed by ISL runner-ups Bengaluru who defeated an in-form Mumbai City in the title-decider match.

Dates

The qualifying rounds of the Indian Super Cup were inaugurated on April 3. After five qualifying round matches, four I-league sides will advance to the group stage of the competition which will commence on April 8. 

Every team will play against their groupmates once and two matches will be played regularly. The semi-finals of the competition will take place on the 21st and 22nd of April. Hence, the final of the third edition of the Indian Super Cup will take place on April 25 at the EMS Stadium, located in Kozhikode, Kerala, India. 

Venue

The decided venues for the 2023 Super Cup are The EMS Stadium located in Kozhikode, Kerala, India, and Payyanad Stadium, which is also known as the Malappuram District Sports Complex Stadium which is located in Manjeri, Kerala, India. 

The EMS Stadium is among the best Indian stadiums, which holds a sheer degree of prestige. The stadium has been the home of the Indian team as well as the national team of Kerala for numerous years. Situated in Kozhikode, the corporation stadium has a total capacity of 53,000 spectators. 

Payyanad Stadium, owned by the government of Kerala is currently the home stadium of Gokulam Kerala and it has a capacity of 30,000 spectators. 

Teams

ATK Mohun Bagan won the 2022-23 Indian Super League defeating Bengaluru in the final

The Indian Super League is the league for the Premier clubs of India. Hence, all the clubs of the top-tier league get direct qualification to the Indian Super Cup 2023. 

The 2022-23 edition of the Indian Super League was clinched by ATK Mohun Bagan as they defeated Bengaluru in the final. The match reached its conclusion on penalties 4-3. On the other side, Mumbai City were the premiership champions.

The Mariners’ Dimitri Petratos scored 12 goals and became the top scorer for the side. He also provided seven assists, the highest for the team. Petratos also scored the first hat trick of the season against Kerala Blasters in the first leg. 

The 2022-23 season of the I-league was clinched by RoundGlass Punjab. Their poacher, Luka Majcen was the top scorer in the league with 16 goals. Rajasthan’s goalkeeper Kiran Chemjong kept the joint-highest clean sheets with Gokulam Kerela’s Shibinraj Kunniyil.

Furthermore, all the other sides from number 2 to 10 will play knockout games to get a spot in the cup. The bottom-placed Kenkre and Sudeva Delhi will not get a chance in the qualifying round. 

I-league’s second-placed team, Sreenidi Deccan will square off against NEROCA, who secured a place in the second round of qualification after defeating Rajasthan. 

Third-placed Gokulam Kerala will face eighth-place Mohammedan, who had a seemingly bad season. The third qualifier will be played between in-form TRAU and Aizwal while the last match between Churchill Brothers and Real Kashmir will tell us about the last berth. 

Real Kashmir and Gokulam Kerala have been in decent form in their last few matches while Aizawl and Sreenidi Deccan’s form is brooding. 

Format Explainer

Until its very last edition in 2019, the competition and a proper 16-team knockout structure. The top six teams from both leagues used to qualify directly for the group stage while the teams from number 7 to 10 used to play knockout games in order to secure a spot in further rounds. 

However, the format of the Indian Super Cup has totally changed in the new edition of the competition. All 11 sides from the Indian super league will qualify directly to the group stage of the cup competition along with the winners of the I-league, which is the second-tier league. 

This year, a total of 16 Indian clubs will participate in the cup competition, which will have a Round Robin format. Four groups of four teams each will be drawn after the qualifying round gets completed. 

Every team will play once against all three teams in their group. After three group-stage matches, the first-place team will qualify further for the semi-finals. 

In the semi-finals, group A winners will face the winners of Group C, while Group B leaders will square off against the first-placed side from Group D. 

Consequently, if Sunil Chettri’s Bengaluru and ATK Mohun Bagan win their respective groups, we’ll see a repeat of this year’s Indian Super League final in the first semi-final of the 2023 Super Cup.