The Indian Super League started in 2014 with eight teams and expanded to a 10-team league with the addition of Bengaluru FC and Jamshedpur FC ahead of the 2017-18 season.
The now-defunct FC Pune City were replaced by newly-formed Hyderabad FC and Delhi Dynamos rebranded themselves as Odisha FC, keeping the number of participants same in the 2019-20 season.
I-League champions Mohun Bagan and ATK merged to form a new entity ATK Mohun Bagan but that still did not increase the number of teams in the league.