The 2022-23 Indian Super League will kick off on October 7, 2022, the league announced on Thursday.

The 11-team league will run from October to February and will have 117 matches. The league stage will be followed by the knockout phase which will see a new playoff format to be held in March.

The league also announced that all matches will only be played between Thursday and Sunday to bring the league in line with other global leagues.

The top two teams at the end of the league stage will qualify for the semifinals. Teams finishing between third and sixth will play a single-leg playoff to determine the other two semifinalists. The winner of each two-legged semifinal will face-off for the ISL trophy in the final.

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The 2022-23 season will see matches being played across the country in front of fans for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020.

Jamshedpur FC are the current holders of the ISL League Shield while Hyderabad FC are the defending champions of the ISL.

The first match of the league will see last season’s runner-up Kerala Blasters host East Bengal FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi with the final match of the league to be played between the Blasters and Hyderabad in Kochi on February 26, 2023.