India's biggest football league comes back with season 3 and more fans than ever. More goals, too?

It's usually the third season of any new sports event that makes or breaks it. The first season has novelty value, and the second attracts the outliers' interest. By the time the third year rolls around, the big question is whether there's a committed following – among fans, sponsors and players, in that order.

So it is with the IMG-Reliance owned Indian Super League (ISL), whose season three kicks off on October 1. The showpiece equivalent of the IPL with city-based franchisee teams and fan bases created overnight is entering that crucial third year.

With an average attendance of 27,111 per match in season two, and an average of three goals per game, it is fair to say that ISL 2 surpassed the achievements of the inaugural season. With marquee players and managers like Uruguay's Diego Forlan (Mumbai City FC) and England's Steve Coppell (Kerala Blasters FC) making their way to India this time, it can only get better. Six of the eight clubs have changed their managers this time around.

This may also be the last season of the ISL in its original format with eight teams, as the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has mooted a proposal for the league to be converted into India’s primary league competition, replacing the I League and allowing two teams from that competition to join those in the ISL.

Clubs with a point to prove

With Delhi Dynamos qualifying for their first semi-final last season, just three clubs – Pune City, Mumbai City and NorthEast United – are yet to show what they're capable of.

Pune started well last season with four wins from their first six games to top with 12 points at that stage, only to fall away dramatically and end the season in seventh position with five losses out of their last eight games. They have appointed Antonio Lopez Habas head coach, after he masterminded Atletico de Kolkata’s title win in the first season.

Mumbai City had a tumultuous campaign last year. After Nicolas Anelka’s in-fighting with the team raised many an eyebrow, the team has opted for veteran Alexandre Guimaraes, who led Costa Rica in the 2002 and 2006 World Cup, as coach.

NorthEast United, having missed out on semi-final qualification by a whisker, promptly re-signed last season’s top scorer Nicolas Velez of Argentina. The John Abraham-owned team has also taken on several talented Indian youngsters – Jerry Mawihmingthanga, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Shouvik Ghosh, Sumit Passi and Rowllin Borges among them.

Kerala Blasters, who finished dead last in 2015 after the high of the runners-up position in 2014, became the first club to sack a manager mid-way through a campaign when they parted ways with Englishman Peter Taylor. Steve Coppell, who managed Reading in the English Premier League, has started life at the club by retaining key foreign players Antonio German and Josu Currias.

Clubs to watch out for

Chennaiyin FC, who won six of their last seven matches to notch up a superb title win i 2015, albeit amidst some controversy, will start strong favourites. Marco Materazzi, managing in his third ISL season with the Super Machans will look to stamp his brand of physical, pragmatic football on the game once again.

He has lost last season’s top goal-scorer, 13-goal hero John Stiven Mendoza, who has opted to ply his trade at Major League Soccer (MLS) side New York City these days. The brilliance of the Brazilian Elano will also be missed at the Marina Arena. However, the club has stuck to the theme of continuity with a total of 15 players – four foreign and 11 Indian – retained for this season. Last season, Chennaiyin were the only team to have retained as many as four foreigners.

Zico, the only other coach to enter his third season with the same ISL club, continues his project at FC Goa hoping to go one better than his side’s runner-up finish in 2015. His Goa side, one of the most talented in the competition, put up decent shows in pre-season friendlies in Brazil.

Lucio, the World Cup and Champions League winning defender, is once again the marquee for this season, and returns to the club along with last season’s top scorer for the club, Reinaldo, and influential Spanish midfielder Jofre. Midfielders Mandar Rao Desai and Romeo Fernandes have also been retained, while Indian internationals Robin Singh and Denzil Franco have been drafted in.

The future of the league

When the ISL was started in 2014, the point was to create a tournament different from that of the I-League, which would draw larger crowds and attract sponsorship, and be self-sustainable in the longer run.

The drawback was that the I-League would remain India’s official league, while the ISL would remain a glamorous exhibition tournament. This also meant that the ISL clubs would not be able to take part in tournaments by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) – the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup – which made the prospects unappetising for sponsors and club-owners.

The AIFF's proposed league structure involves all the eight ISL clubs and two from the I-League playing in the top level of a three-tier structure. To safeguard the huge investments made by the franchisee owners, the new format proposes a ‘no-promotion, no-relegation’ policy.

It might not be the best scenario for Indian football but this augurs well for the ISL and the clubs which – if they can retain their foreign players for a longer duration – can try to make a mark in Asian competitions.

All these factors will contribute to the exciting spectacle that will be ISL 3. An exciting competition will provide renewed enthusiasm for next year’s revamped league, but a dull one may prove to be a dampener on urban India’s new-found enthusiasm for football.