Title: Indian Women's League Content: The Indian Women's League is the top level in the women's professional football league system in India. The first season started in Cuttack in October 2016. The league is run by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). == History == Since 1991, the top women's football tournament in India has been the Indian Women's Football Championship. The tournament served as a female version of the Santosh Trophy, with states competing against each other. There had never been a national football league for women; however, leagues were started by state associations for women. The first women's state football league was set up in 1976 in Manipur. The Indian Football Association of West Bengal founded the Calcutta Women's League in 1993. Leagues were also started in Mumbai and Goa in 1998 and 1999. In 2014, after the success of the India women's team, mainly in the SAFF Women's Championship, a push to start a women's football league, mainly along the lines of the successful Indian Super League, started. Clubs such as Pune and Bengaluru FC had interest in joining a women's league. It was around this time that the All India Football Federation started plans to create the ISL-style league for women. On 21 April 2016, over a year after the AIFF made plans for a women's football league, the AIFF President, Praful Patel, said that a women's football league would start in October 2016 with six teams to be decided, with the goal to expand to eight teams by 2017. Just over two months later, on 5 July 2016, the AIFF organized a meeting to discuss the India women's national team and discuss the proposed women's football league. Five Indian Super League sides (Delhi Dynamos, Chennaiyin FC, Kerala Blasters, FC Pune City, Atletico de Kolkata) and three I-League teams (Bengaluru FC, Aizawl FC, Mumbai FC) attended the meeting. It was declared that the league would feature the eight teams in the league and two other spots would be decided through a pre-qualification round. On 14 October, the AIFF declared that the preliminary rounds for the Women's League would begin on 17 October 2016 in which ten teams would split into two groups of five teams each, with the winner from each group qualifying for the national finals. == Seasons == === Season 1 (2016–17) === On 24 January 2017, AIFF began the first ever women's professional league with six teams. The participating teams – FC Alakhpura (Haryana), Jeppiaar Institute of Technology FC (Puducherry), Aizawl FC (Women) (Mizoram), FC Pune City (women) (Maharashtra), Rising Student's Club (Odisha) and Eastern Sporting Union (Manipur) played each other in a round-robin format with the top four teams going to the semifinals. All matches of the two-week Indian Women's League (IWL) were played at Delhi's Ambedkar Stadium with the first match played on Saturday, January 28. === Season 2 (2017–18) === The final round of the season was played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Shillong. Rising Student's Club from Odisha were crowned champions after beating Eastern Sporting Union. === Season 3 (2018–19) === The Indian Women's League season 3 main round started on 5 May 2019. All matches to be played in Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana, Punjab. The 2018–19 IWL will have 12 teams, divided into two groups. The teams will play each other once and the top two teams will compete in the semi- final.Sethu FC crowned unbeaten champions === Season 4 (2019–20) === Indian Women's League season 4 main round started on 24 January 2020. All matches were played in Bangalore Football Stadium, Bengaluru, Karnataka. The 2019–20 IWL had 12 teams, divided into two groups. The teams played each other once and the top two teams competed in the semi-final. Gokulam Kerala were crowned champions after beating KRYPHSA F.C. 3–2 in the final.  == Related pages == * Sport in India