The 2023 CFL Premier Division is the 125th overall season of the Calcutta Football League – highest state-level football divisions of West Bengal. The 2023 edition saw two top tiers merged, with 26 teams participating in the tournament for the first time since its inception.
Format The 2023 CFL Premier Division merged the top two tiers, Premier A and B, to form an expanded 26-team competition. Two groups of thirteen teams were divided, with each team playing every other in the group once. The top three teams proceeded to the Super Six round, where they vied for the championship with the points from group stage being carried over. Each group's bottom four teams enter the relegation round. As per the rules set by AIFF, this year, no foreign players will be participating in the league.
Venues Amal Datta Krirangan, Dum Dum Aryan Town Club Ground, Durgapur Bankimanjali Stadium, Naihati Bidhannagar Municipal Sports Complex Canning Stadium, Canning East Bengal-Aryan Ground, Kolkata Eastern Ground, Chinsurah Kalyani Stadium, Kalyani Kishore Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata Mohammedan Sporting Ground, Kolkata Mohun Bagan-Calcutta FC Ground, Kolkata Netaji Sports Complex, Kamalgazi Rabindra Sarobar Stadium, Kolkata Rishi Aurobindo Maidan, Konnagar Royal Park Stadium, Barrackpore Sailen Manna Stadium, Howrah Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata Vidyasagar Krirangan, Barasat Vivekananda Stadium, Khardah
Teams The 26 teams were divided into two groups based on a draw held on 5 June 2023.
Group A Group B Team Head coach Captain Team Head coach CaptainArmy Red L Antony Ramesh Suresh MeiteiAryan Rajdeep Nandy Laltu MondalCalcutta FC Jamshid Nassiri Surojit DasBhawanipore Ranjan Chaudhuri Jiten MurmuDalhousie AC Mridul Banerjee Karan GomesBSS Subrata Biswas Surajit SealDiamond Harbour FC Kibu Vicuna Abhishek DasCalcutta Customs Biswajit Bhattacharya Amit ChakrabortyFCI (East Zone) Arun Saha Dhananjoy AdhikariEast Bengal Bino George Subhendu MandiKalighat MS Patam Bahadur Thapa Madan MandiEastern Railway Prasanta Chakraborty Sumit OraoMohammedan Sporting Mehrajuddin Wadoo Samad Ali MallickGeorge Telegraph Goutam Ghosh Sourish Lodh ChowdhuryMohun Bagan SG Bastab Roy Sumit RathiKidderpore Sayantan Das Roy Gurmeet SinghPathachakra Rajarshi Ghosh Ankan BhattacharjeePolice AC Supriya Dasgupta Suraj Bahadur GurungPeerless Hemanta Dora Amit TuduRailway Kaushik Paul Monish MajumderSouthern Samity Ranjan Bhattacharjee Debayan HazraRainbow Aditya Chatterjee Debayan SahaTollygunge Agragami Arindam Deb Sujoy MondalWari Micky Fernandes Swarup SarkarUnited Steven Herbots Sanjib MondalWest Bengal Police FC Ashok Chakraborty Subrata Biswas
First stage
Group A
Group B
Super Six The top three teams from both groups qualified for the Super Six round with the points from group stage being carried over.
Standings
Fixtures
* = Walkover
Relegation Round Points table
Fixtures
* = Walkover
Season statistics Top scorers
RankPlayerClubGoals1 David LalhlansangaMohammedan SC212 Rahul PaswanDiamond Harbour FC12 Sahil Harijan Pathachakra 4 Sagar Kumar KhamaruEastern Railway95 Suhail Ahmad BhatMohun Bagan SG8 Jiten Murmu Bhawanipore7 Muhammed Ashiq ShoukathaliKidderpore78 Anubrata Maity Pathachakra 6 Dipesh MurmuUnited Mandeep Singh MultaniWari Liton ShilArmy Red Aman C. K. East Bengal FC Jesin TK East Bengal FC Achinta Ghosh Aryan FC Vishnu P.V.East Bengal FC
Hat-tricks Note: In the result, the score of the player's team is mentioned before. PlayerForAgainst ResultDate Saikat SarkarAryanPolice AC4–1 David LalhlansangaMohammedan SCCalcutta FC7–0 Beneston Piecton BarrettoMohammedan SCCalcutta FC7–0 Lalrinliana HnamteMohun Bagan SGTollygunge Agragami5–1 Suhail Ahmad BhatMohun Bagan SGDalhousie5–2 Dipesh MurmuUnitedCalcutta FC8–0 Liton ShilArmy RedSouthern Samity3–2 Md Amirul AryanKidderpore SC4–0 Jesin TK East BengalGeorge Telegraph SC4–0 Vishnu PV East BengalKidderpore SC10–1 Mahitosh Roy East BengalKidderpore SC10–1
References