2025 IFA Shield

2025 IFA Shield
২০২৫ আইএফএ শিল্ড
Tournament details
CountryIndia
Dates8–18 October
Teams6
Defending championsReal Kashmir
Final positions
ChampionsMohun Bagan (21st title)
Runners-upEast Bengal
Tournament statistics
Matches played7
Goals scored20 (2.86 per match)
Attendance65,880 (9,411 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)Jamie Maclaren
Hamid Ahadad (2 goals)
← 2021
2026 →

The 2025 IFA Shield is the 125th edition of the IFA Shield hosted by the Indian Football Association. The tournament was planned to held in March 2025 but was pushed to October due to clash of fixtures from I-League and Indian Super League.

The tournament will feature domestic teams from the Indian Super League and I-League. At first, international invitees like Paro FC (Bhutan) were invited but later the plan was withdrawn.[1][2][3]

Defending champions Real Kashmir were also invited to take part, but they denied. On 3 October, 6 participants were confirmed by IFA.

Teams

[edit]

Here is the list of confirmed teams:[4][5]

Club Location
Indian Super League teams
East Bengal Kolkata, West Bengal
Mohun Bagan
I-League teams
Gokulam Kerala Kozhikode, Kerala
Namdhari Sri Bhaini Sahib, Punjab
Sreenidi Deccan Hyderabad, Telangana
I-League 2 team
United SC Kalyani, West Bengal

Venues

[edit]

Format

[edit]

6 teams will be divided into two groups of 3 teams. After a group stage consisting of single round-robin matches, top teams from each group will qualify for final.[5]

Rules

[edit]
  • Each team can register 6 foreign players.[4]
  • 4 foreign players can play on the field at a time, and 2 can be used as substitutes.

Tiebreakers

[edit]

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings.

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
  8. Drawing of lots.

Group stage

[edit]

Group A

[edit]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification EAB NAM SDC
1 East Bengal 2 2 0 0 6 0 +6 6 Advance to the Final 2–0 4–0
2 Namdhari 2 1 0 1 3 2 +1 3 3–0
3 Sreenidi Deccan 2 0 0 2 0 7 −7 0
Source: IFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
East Bengal4–0Sreenidi Deccan
AIFF
I-League
PDF Report
Attendance: 8,000
Referee: Dipu Roy
Man of the Match: Saúl Crespo (East Bengal)

Sreenidi Deccan0–3Namdhari
AIFF
I-League
PDF Report
Attendance: 150
Referee: Tanumoy Sarkar
Man of the Match: Moro Lamine (Namdhari)
  1. ^ At first the venue was announced as Kalyani Stadium, but IFA later changed it to Kishore Bharati Krirangan.[6]

Namdhari0–2East Bengal
AIFF
I-League
PDF Report
Attendance: 2,659
Referee: Rohan Das Gupta
Man of the Match: Mohammed Rashid (East Bengal)

Group B

[edit]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification MBG USC GOK
1 Mohun Bagan 2 2 0 0 7 1 +6 6 Advance to the Final 2–0 5–1
2 United SC 2 1 0 1 1 2 −1 3 1–0
3 Gokulam Kerala 2 0 0 2 1 6 −5 0
Source: IFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
Gokulam Kerala1–5Mohun Bagan
AIFF
I-League
PDF Report
Attendance: 1,400
Referee: Surojit Das
Man of the Match: Jamie Maclaren (Mohun Bagan)

United SC1–0Gokulam Kerala
  • Amit Basak 54'
AIFF
I-League
PDF Report
Attendance: 768
Referee: Pratik Mondal
Man of the Match: Amit Basak (United SC)

Mohun Bagan2–0United SC
AIFF
I-League
PDF Report
Attendance: 2,667
Referee: Mithun Kumar Kundu
Man of the Match: Robson (Mohun Bagan)

Final

[edit]

The group toppers will qualify for the final directly. The match is going to be held on 18 October 2025 at Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan.

Match

[edit]
Mohun Bagan1–1 (a.e.t.)East Bengal
AIFF
I-League
PDF Report
Penalties
5–4
Attendance: 50,236
Referee: Venkatesh Ramachadran
Man of the Match: Naorem Mahesh (East Bengal)
Mohun Bagan
East Bengal
GK 1 India Vishal Kaith
DF 15 India Subhasish Bose
DF 5 Scotland Tom Aldred
DF 55 India Mehtab Singh
MF 17 India Liston Colaco
DF 21 Spain Alberto Rodríguez
MF 45 India Apuia
MF 11 India Manvir Singh
MF 6 India Anirudh Thapa
FW 35 Australia Jason Cummings
FW 29 Australia Jamie Maclaren
Substitutes:
DF 27 India Abhishek Singh
DF 32 India Dippendu Biswas
DF 44 India Asish Rai
MF 10 Brazil Robson Robinho
MF 22 India Deepak Tangri
MF 9 Australia Dimitri Petratos
MF 11 India Manvir Singh
GK 24 India Zahid Hussain
MF 16 India Abhishek Suryavanshi
FW 72 India Suhail Bhat
Head coach:
Spain Jose Francisco Molina
GK 13 India Prabhsukhan Gill
DF 5 India Lalchungnunga
DF 4 India Anwar Ali
DF 12 India Mohammad Rakip
DF 6 Argentina Kevin Sibille
MF 74 Palestine Mohammed Rashid
MF 21 Spain Saúl Crespo
FW 15 India Naorem Mahesh
FW 17 Morocco Hamid Ahadad
FW 29 India Bipin Singh
FW 10 India Edmund Lalrindika
Substitutes:
GK 24 India Debjit Majumder
MF 23 India Souvik Chakrabarti
MF 25 India Jeakson Singh
DF 16 India Martand Raina
MF 8 Brazil Miguel Figueira
FW 9 Japan Hiroshi Ibusuki
FW 82 India PV Vishnu
FW 14 India Lalhlansanga
DF 27 India Jay Gupta
FW 84 India Sayan Banerjee
Head coach:
Spain Oscar Bruzon

Player of the Match

Match rules

  • 90 minutes.
  • 30 minutes of extra time if necessary.
  • Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.
  • Ten named substitutes.
  • Maximum of five substitutions.

Statistics

[edit]

Goalscorers

[edit]
As of 18 October 2025
Rank Player Club Goals
1 Morocco Hamid Ahadad East Bengal 2
Australia Jamie Maclaren Mohun Bagan
2 India Jay Gupta East Bengal 1
India Jeakson Singh
Palestine Mohammed Rashid
India PV Vishnu
Spain Saúl Crespo
Spain Alberto Rodríguez Mohun Bagan
India Apuia
Australia Dimi Petratos
Australia Jason Cummings
Brazil Robson Robinho
India Bhupinder Singh Namdhari
Brazil Guilherme Gomes
Ghana Lamine Moro
India Amit Basak United SC
Own Goal(s) 2
Total 18

Clean sheets

[edit]
As of 18 October 2025
Rank Player Club Clean Sheets
1 India Debjit Majumder East Bengal 1
India Niraj Kumar Singh Namdhari
India Prabhsukhan Singh Gill East Bengal
India Suraj Ali United SC
India Syed Zahid Hussain Mohun Bagan

Prize money

[edit]
Place Prize money ()
Champions ₹5 lakh
Runners-up ₹3 lakh

Broadcasting

[edit]

All matches were broadcast on a virtual platform of Shrachi Sports Entertainment Network (SSEN) app.[7] No television broadcasting was done.

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Paro FC. "𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 We are proud to announce our official confirmation to participate in the prestigious 𝑰𝑭𝑨 𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅, taking place from 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 12 𝒕𝒐 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 25, 2025". Facebook.
  2. ^ "Kanchenjunga Stadium uncertain for the IFA Shield; Bhutan's Paro FC confirms participation". Parallel Sports Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Retrieved 2025-02-17.
  3. ^ "আইএফএ শিল্ডে অংশ নিচ্ছে ভুটান লিগ চ্যাম্পিয়ন, অনিশ্চিত বাংলাদেশী ক্লাব" (in Bengali). Retrieved 2025-02-17.
  4. ^ a b "আইএফএ শিল্ডে খেলবে কেরলের দলও, কটা বিদেশি খেলাতে পারবে টিমগুলো?". Sangbad Pratidin (in Bengali). Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  5. ^ a b "ঘোষিত হল আইএফএ শিল্ডের সূচি, কবে কবে খেলা রয়েছে ইস্টবেঙ্গল ও মোহনবাগানের, ফাইনাল কবে?". Anandabazar Patrika (in Bengali). Retrieved 2025-10-04.
  6. ^ "Venue change notice". Instagram (SSEN). Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  7. ^ "THE LEGACY RETURNS". Instagram (SSEN). Retrieved 2025-10-05.