Three time Delhi Champion prestigious Garhwal Heroes Football Club to play Hero Second Division I League Matches

Prestigious Garhwal Heroes Football Club has been privileged to play the 2nd Division I League matches as the only football team from Delhi. It may be recalled that the All India Football Association had invited a minimum of two football teams from every state association who had to qualify the criteria of registration.

However, only eight football teams have qualified for registration whereas many teams had applied for registration in the I league but couldn’t qualify including the last year’s topmost team. However, the Garhwal Heroes Football Club proved to be the only outstanding team to qualify from Delhi after fulfilling the necessary registration criteria of the All India Football Federation.

As a sequel to this initial success the Garhwal Heroes are set for their first match against Lone star Kashmir FC on 1st February 2020, Saturday at Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Katra, Jammu in Hero 2nd Division I-League, 2020 (2019-2020). Lone Star has lost its first match against Rajasthan FC. Lonestar Kashmir has been granted a special exemption to participate by the league committee after they could not fulfill the licensing criteria due to reasons beyond their control.

I-League 2nd Division is the second-highest division overall in the Indian Football League system. It is known as Hero 2nd division I-League for sponsorship reasons and was introduced for the 2008 season which was previously known as National Football 2nd division I-league. The preliminary round will be played on the basis of home and away matches. The home matches for Garhwal Heroes will be played at Dr. Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi and these matches are scheduled on 5th February 2020 against ATK (Reserve), 9th February 2020 against Jamshedpur FC (Reserve), 16th February 2020 against Rajasthan, 26th February 2020 against Lonestar Kashmir FC and 30th March against Punjab FC (Reserve).

The away matches of Garhwal Heroes are scheduled on 1st February 2020 against Lonestar Kashmir FC (Katra), 24st February 2020 against Rajasthan (Jhodpur), 6th March 2020 against Jamshedpur FC (Jamshedpur), 10th March 2020 against ATK (Kolkata) and 15th March 2020 against Punjab FC (Chandigarh). Although the number of participating teams has increased from 16 to 17, the majority of them are reserve teams after many clubs failed to clear the licensing process. In the previous edition, there were 10 standalone outfits whereas the number has gone down to eight now. Hindustan FC, South United, Ozone FC, Fateh Hyderabad, Chhinga Veng, Rainbow AC have failed to make the cut this time after making an appearance last season. It must be noted that Ozone FC was one of the finalists last year.

Meanwhile, six teams including reserve teams of four teams are slated to make their debut. They are as follows: FC Bengaluru United, Rajasthan FC, Indian Arrows (reserves), Punjab FC (reserves), Hyderabad FC (reserves) and Mumbai City FC (reserves). A total of 17 teams are set to take part in this edition of the Hero 2nd Division League, which is organized by the AIFF, out of which, nine are reserves sides of Hero I-League or Hero ISL clubs. The teams have been divided into three groups, with Group A and C consisting of six teams each, while Group B has five. The teams finishing at the top of each group are set to proceed into the Final Round, while the second-placed team out of Group A and C with the highest number of points will also join them in the Final Round, which will be played in a single leg round-robin format, with the top team gaining promotion to the Hero I-League. The reserves sides of the Hero ISL and Hero I-League teams, however, will not be eligible to qualify for the Final Round.

In case they finish in one of the qualification spots in any particular group, the next best-placed non-reserves team in the group will progress to the Final Round. Tiddim Road Athletic Union (TRAU) FC is the current Champion.
All the fans, supporters and well-wisher of Garhwal Heroes invited to witness it’s home and away matches in numbers to support, cheer-up and boost the morale of the players, team, management and support staff of the club.

The groupings are as follows:

Group A
ATK Reserves
Lonestar Kashmir
Jamshedpur FC Reserves
Punjab FC Reserves
Garhwal FC
Rajasthan FC

Group B
Bhawanipore FC
Hyderabad FC Reserves
Chennaiyin FC Reserves
Bengaluru FC Reserves
Mohammedan SC

Group C
ARA FC
FC Goa Reserves
Kerala Blasters FC Reserves
FC Bengaluru United
Mumbai City FC Reserves
FC Kerala.

It may be recalled that Garhwal Heroes are the current Delhi Champions and have been recognized as the best men football team of Delhi.