# 2023 CFL Premier Division

The 2023 CFL Premier Division is the 125th overall season of the Calcutta Football League – highest state-level football divisions of West Bengal. The 2023 edition saw two top tiers merged, with 26 teams participating in the tournament for the first time since its inception.

## Format

The 2023 CFL Premier Division merged the top two tiers, Premier A and B, to form an expanded 26-team competition. Two groups of thirteen teams were divided ,with each team playing every other in the group once. The top three teams proceeded to the Super Six round, where they vied for the championship with the points from group stage being carried over. Each group's bottom four teams enter the relegation round. As per the rules set by AIFF, this year, no foreign players will be participating in the league.

## Venues

* Amal Datta Krirangan, Dum Dum
* Aryan Town Club Ground, Durgapur
* Bankimanjali Stadium, Naihati
* Bidhannagar Municipal Sports Complex
* Canning Stadium, Canning
* East Bengal-Aryan Ground, Kolkata
* Eastern Ground, Chinsurah
* Kalyani Stadium, Kalyani
* Kishore Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata
* Mohammedan Sporting Ground, Kolkata
* Mohun Bagan-Calcutta FC Ground, Kolkata
* Netaji Sports Complex, Kamalgazi
* Rabindra Sarobar Stadium, Kolkata
* Rishi Aurobindo Maidan, Konnagar
* Royal Park Stadium, Barrackpore
* Sailen Manna Stadium, Howrah
* Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata
* Vidyasagar Krirangan, Barasat
* Vivekananda Stadium, Khardah

## Teams

The 26 teams were divided into two groups based on a draw held on 5 June 2023.
| Group A | Group A | Group A | Group B | Group B | Group B |
| Team | Head coach | Captain | Team | Head coach | Captain |
| Army Red | L Antony Ramesh | Suresh Meitei | Aryan | Rajdeep Nandy | Laltu Mondal |
| Calcutta FC | Jamshid Nassiri | Surojit Das | Bhawanipore | Ranjan Chaudhuri | Jiten Murmu |
| Dalhousie AC | Mridul Banerjee | Karan Gomes | BSS | Subrata Biswas | Surajit Seal |
| Diamond Harbour FC | Kibu Vicuna | Abhishek Das | Calcutta Customs | Biswajit Bhattacharya | Amit Chakraborty |
| FCI (East Zone) | Arun Saha | Dhananjoy Adhikari | East Bengal | Bino George | Subhendu Mandi |
| Kalighat MS | Patam Bahadur Thapa | Madan Mandi | Eastern Railway | Prasanta Chakraborty | Sumit Orao |
| Mohammedan Sporting | Mehrajuddin Wadoo | Samad Ali Mallick | George Telegraph | Goutam Ghosh | Sourish Lodh Chowdhury |
| Mohun Bagan SG | Bastab Roy | Sumit Rathi | Kidderpore | Sayantan Das Roy | Gurmeet Singh |
| Pathachakra | Rajarshi Ghosh | Ankan Bhattacharjee | Police AC | Supriya Dasgupta | Suraj Bahadur Gurung |
| Peerless | Hemanta Dora | Amit Tudu | Railway | Kaushik Paul | Monish Majumder |
| Southern Samity | Ranjan Bhattacharjee | Debayan Hazra | Rainbow | Aditya Chatterjee | Debayan Saha |
| Tollygunge Agragami | Arindam Deb | Sujoy Mondal | Wari | Micky Fernandes | Swarup Sarkar |
| United | Steven Herbots | Sanjib Mondal | West Bengal Police FC | Ashok Chakraborty | Subrata Biswas |

## First stage
### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Mohammedan SC | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 33 | 9 | +24 | 29 | Qualified for the Super Six round |
| 2 | Diamond Harbour FC | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 26 | 5 | +21 | 29 | Qualified for the Super Six round |
| 3 | Mohun Bagan SG | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 30 | 13 | +17 | 24 | Qualified for the Super Six round |
| 4 | Kalighat MS | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 8 | +13 | 24 | |
| 5 | Army Red | 12 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 18 | 11 | +7 | 21 | |
| 6 | Peerless SC | 12 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 22 | 9 | +13 | 20 | |
| 7 | United SC | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 25 | 8 | +17 | 19 | |
| 8 | Southern Samity | 12 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 14 | 17 | −3 | 15 | |
| 9 | Tollygunge Agragami FC | 12 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 28 | −19 | 8 | |
| 10 | Pathachakra | 12 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 13 | 28 | −15 | 7 | Relegation round |
| 11 | Calcutta FC | 12 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 38 | −30 | 7 | Relegation round |
| 12 | FCI (East Zone) | 12 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 32 | −24 | 6 | Relegation round |
| 13 | Dalhousie AC | 12 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 29 | −21 | 4 | Relegation round |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | East Bengal | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 29 | 6 | +23 | 30 | Qualified for the Super Six round |
| 2 | Bhawanipore | 12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 23 | 8 | +15 | 27 | Qualified for the Super Six round |
| 3 | Kidderpore | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 16 | 11 | +5 | 25 | Qualified for the Super Six round |
| 4 | Aryan | 12 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 28 | 12 | +16 | 24 | |
| 5 | Calcutta Customs | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 19 | |
| 6 | ASOS Rainbow | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 11 | 10 | +1 | 17 | |
| 7 | Wari | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 16 | 23 | −7 | 16 | |
| 8 | Railway FC | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 21 | −9 | 12 | |
| 9 | BSS | 12 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 14 | −2 | 11 | |
| 10 | George Telegraph | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 19 | −8 | 11 | Relegation round |
| 11 | Eastern Railway | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 16 | 26 | −10 | 11 | Relegation round |
| 12 | Police AC | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 22 | −12 | 10 | Relegation round |
| 13 | West Bengal Police | 12 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 24 | −12 | 8 | Relegation round |

## Super Six

The top three teams from both groups qualified for the Super Six round with the points from group stage being carried over.

### Standings

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Mohammedan (C) | 17 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 44 | 11 | +33 | 44 | Champions |
| 2 | East Bengal | 17 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 50 | 10 | +40 | 42 | |
| 3 | Diamond Harbour (Q) | 16 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 32 | 12 | +20 | 33 | Eligible for 2024–25 I-League 3 |
| 4 | Bhawanipore | 16 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 26 | 18 | +8 | 28 | Eligible for 2024–25 I-League 3 |
| 5 | Mohun Bagan SG | 15 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 33 | 19 | +14 | 25 | |
| 6 | Kidderpore | 15 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 17 | 29 | −12 | 25 | |
* ↑ If the top teams are already playing in national leagues, then the next highest ranked team(s) would be eligible for I-League 3.
* ↑ Mohun Bagan Super Giant was deducted 2 points for not fielding a team against East Bengal on 30 November 2023.

### Fixtures

| Team 1 \ Team 2 | BHA | DHB | EAB | KID | MOH | MBG |
| Bhawanipore | — | 2–2 | 0–3* | DNP | 1–2 | 0–3* |
| Diamond Harbour | | — | 1–4 | 3–0 | 0–2 | DNP |
| East Bengal | | | — | 10–1 | 1–2 | 3–0* |
| Kidderpore | | | | — | 0–5 | DNP |
| Mohammedan | | | | | — | 2–0 |
| Mohun Bagan SG | | | | | | — |
* * = Walkover

## Relegation Round
### Points table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Pathachakra | 19 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 30 | 36 | −6 | 23 | |
| 2 | George Telegraph | 19 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 32 | 27 | +5 | 22 | |
| 3 | Police A.C. | 19 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 22 | 33 | −11 | 22 | |
| 4 | Eastern Railway | 19 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 23 | 33 | −10 | 20 | |
| 5 | Dalhousie AC | 19 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 17 | 36 | −19 | 16 | Relegated to the First Division |
| 6 | FCI | 19 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 52 | −36 | 13 | Relegated to the First Division |
| 7 | WB Police | 19 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 18 | 39 | −21 | 12 | Relegated to the First Division |
| 8 | Calcutta FC | 19 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 16 | 50 | −34 | 11 | Relegated to the First Division |

### Fixtures

| Team 1 \ Team 2 | CFC | DAL | EAR | FCI | GET | PTC | PAC | WBP |
| Calcutta FC | — | 1–2 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 2–4 | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| Dalhousie AC | | — | 2–3 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 1–0 |
| Eastern Railway | | | — | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 |
| FCI | | | | — | 1–10 | 2–4 | 1–3 | 3–2 |
| George Telegraph | | | | | — | 2–3 | 0–1 | 5–0 |
| Pathachakra | | | | | | — | 5–0 | 1–0 |
| Police A.C. | | | | | | | — | 5–2 |
| WB Police | | | | | | | | — |
* * = Walkover

## Season statistics
### Top scorers

    As of 30th December 2023
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | David Lalhlansanga | Mohammedan SC | 21 |
| 2 | Rahul Paswan | Diamond Harbour FC | 12 |
| 2 | Sahil Harijan | Pathachakra | 12 |
| 4 | Sagar Kumar Khamaru | Eastern Railway | 9 |
| 5 | Suhail Ahmad Bhat | Mohun Bagan SG | 8 |
| 5 | Jiten Murmu | Bhawanipore | 8 |
| 7 | Muhammed Ashiq Shoukathali | Kidderpore | 7 |
| 8 | Anubrata Maity | Pathachakra | 6 |
| 8 | Dipesh Murmu | United | 6 |
| 8 | Mandeep Singh Multani | Wari | 6 |
| 8 | Liton Shil | Army Red | 6 |
| 8 | Aman C. K. | East Bengal FC | 6 |
| 8 | Jesin TK | East Bengal FC | 6 |
| 8 | Achinta Ghosh | Aryan FC | 6 |
| 8 | Vishnu P.V. | East Bengal FC | 6 |

### Hat-tricks

Note: In the result, the score of the player's team is mentioned before.
| Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
| Saikat Sarkar | Aryan | Police AC | 4–1 | 1 July 2023 |
| David Lalhlansanga | Mohammedan SC | Calcutta FC | 7–0 | 12 July 2023 |
| Beneston Piecton Barretto | Mohammedan SC | Calcutta FC | 7–0 | 12 July 2023 |
| Lalrinliana Hnamte | Mohun Bagan SG | Tollygunge Agragami | 5–1 | 12 July 2023 |
| Suhail Ahmad Bhat | Mohun Bagan SG | Dalhousie | 5–2 | 16 July 2023 |
| Dipesh Murmu | United | Calcutta FC | 8–0 | 25 July 2023 |
| Liton Shil | Army Red | Southern Samity | 3–2 | 25 July 2023 |
| Md Amirul | Aryan | Kidderpore SC | 4–0 | 26 July 2023 |
| Jesin TK | East Bengal | George Telegraph SC | 4–0 | 7 September 2023 |
| Vishnu PV | East Bengal | Kidderpore SC | 10–1 | 26 September 2023 |
| Mahitosh Roy | East Bengal | Kidderpore SC | 10–1 | 26 September 2023 |