A new day is here for Indian football, as the gateway of Indian women’s football is ready for the curtain-raiser with the announcement of the Indian Women’s League (IWL) 2026-27 season by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), which also revealed the starting date of the competition.

The Indian Women’s League (IWL) 2026-27 season are all set to return in full swing from November 13, with eight clubs competing for the coveted title across Kolkata, Jamshedpur, and Bengaluru, as this time many major changes also emerged and grabbed the spotlight, which might encourage the growth of women’s football in the country.

Eight teams to compete for the title while East Bengal look to retain

A total of eight teams are ready to lock horns for the Indian Women’s League 2026-27 title as from the previous 2025-26 season, six teams are competing for the trophy (East Bengal FC, Sethu FC, Gokulam Kerala FC, Nita Football Academy, Kickstart FC and BBFS Garhwal United FC), and apart from six teams from the last season, two new teams, including HOPS (House of Power Soccer Football Club) and Juba Sangha FC from Delhi, got promoted to the top tier from IWL 2.

The IWL games are ready to play under a phase system where fans can see that three separate phases will engage with three different venues, which will host the games, for better engagement, the opening match week will run until the 5th December, 2026 at the Kalyani Stadium. On the other hand, Jamshedpur hosts the second (10th December to 29th December), while Bengaluru concludes the league.

East Bengal FC are the defending champions of the IWL as the Moshal Girls, after bowing out of the AWCL 2026-27 season’s group stage, will look forward to accomplishing the hat-trick of titles, and head coach Anthony Andrews will surely maintain his focus on this matter.

The Red & Gold side will kick off the fresh season on 13th November, 2026, when they will face a steady opponent from the South Indian region, Gokulam Kerala FC, at the Kalyani Stadium, Kolkata, from 19:00 IST.

New title sponsor & commercial partnership with Capri Sports

Recently, the All India Football Federation and Capri Sports signed a landmark 15-year deal in Indian women’s football to manage the commercial development, marketing, broadcast engagement, and growth of the Indian Women’s League (IWL) and IWL 2.

Under the partnership, Capri Sports will lead the commercial development and marketing of the country’s top two tiers of women’s club football, working closely with the AIFF and participating clubs to build audiences, increase the visibility of clubs and players, attract brands and investment, and strengthen broadcast and digital engagement.

IWL 2026–27 Fixtures Table

Telecast Details

As revealed by Khel Now earlier, the IWL 2026-27 season will be broadcast live on YouTube free of cost, which will surely gain more attention from Indian football fans to support women’s football in recent times because the genre of this brand of football has grown massively in this country and has also seen more projection than men’s football.

The top two divisions of men’s football in India are also streamed digitally on YouTube free of cost, and this has resulted in an exponential spike in viewership, pulling in millions of views.

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