The Indian Super League will be expanded to 10 teams this season with the organisers announcing two more franchises after a bidding process, with Bengaluru FC set to play in the three-year-old ISL by leaving I-League.
The ISL announced that Tata Steel Limited & JSW Group won the bids for the two new teams. The teams will be based in Jamshedpur and Bengaluru.
JSW Group, which owns Bengaluru FC through its subsidiary JSW Sports, won the right to participate in ISL from Bengaluru.
Tata Steel Ltd, which has won the bid to participate from Jamshedpur, is the pioneering Indian corporate to have provided national football with perennial pool of young footballers since 1987 through its Jamshedpur based facility -- Tata Football Academy.
The announcement of the increase in the number of teams in the ISL from eight to 10 came amid uncertainty and discontent among I-League clubs regarding the domestic football structure chalked out by the All India Football Federation.
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