Indian football is slowly slowly is on the rise. Since the introduction of the Indian Super League, Indian football has seen a massive gain in viewership and match attendance. And not only that, we are also seeing much better quality players coming through every season.
However, even though the Indian football is on rise, there is something that has not changed yet. With the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the governing body of Indian football, giving all the importance to the Indian Super League and because of their mismanagement, a lot football clubs have shut down their operation in the past.
After all those dramas of 2000 to 2010 and early 2011 to 2017, the All India Football Federation, is now taking all the leagues and clubs seriously and as a reason of that, we are seeing more clubs emerging into the scenes of Indian Football.
However, during those mismanagement days, we have seen a lot of top quality clubs shut down their football operation, stating that the All India Football Federation is not professional and biased towards money only.
Indian Football Club: Dissolved Clubs in Indian Footbal
Today, Indian Football News will take a look at some of top Indian football clubs that have stopped their football operation. The list includes the clubs that doesn't participate in any national league or state leagues as of writing this.
Football Club Kochin (FC Kochin)
The first major name in this list is the Kochi, Kerala based football club FC Kochin. The football club was founded in 1997 and dissolved in 2004.
A group of Non Resident Indians (NRI) consortium led to the development of the football club in 1997 with the aim of promoting modern football. The club was formed after the 1st season of the India's first national league, the National Football League (NFL).
The club witnessed a strong start having won the Kerala State Football League consecutively in 1998 and 1999 and once finished runners up in 2004.
But the club's biggest success would be winning the Durand Cup in their debut season in 1997. They finished runners up in the IFA Shield in the very same year. India's one of the best I.M Vijayan play for the team in two different stints, first in 1997-1998 season and then from 1999 till 2001.
The club dissolved in 2004 due to a lot of reasons. The club's performance went down considerably after a financial issue caused a lot of star players to leave the club and at the end, they were relegated to second division in 2001-02 season. After a 2 years of attempt to get back to the top division, the club disbanded in 2004.
Fransa-Pax Football Club ( Pax of Nagoa)
The second club in this list is Nagoa, Goa based club Fransa-Pax Football Club, popularly known as Pax of Nagoa.
The reason behind the shut down of the Goan team Fransa-Pax Football Club was a very controversial one. Fransa-Pax Football Club were promoted to the first division as the champions of 2nd Division.
The whole of the controversy took place during the 2005-06 season. Fransa-Pax Football Club came into the season after finishing 5th in 2004-05 season. The controversy began when the schedules were announced. Fransa-Pax Football Club found out that in their last 8 matches of the league, 7 of them are away matches.
The club owners took this as a conspiracy against them to get them relegated. The controversy got more heated during a match against a star-studded Mahindra United, which Mahindra win 2-1, with both Mahindra goals coming from Penalties. Fransa-Pax Football Club manager and some of the players got into heated argument with the referee of the match, they accused that the referee handed both penalties to Mahindra to pickup the win.
In their next match against Air India FC, the club refused to field the team and after a number of meeting between AIFF and Fransa-Pax Football Club owner, the AIFF decided to replay the match, however, Air India rejected and was given 3 points according to FIFA rule. After all that, Fransa-Pax Football Club was dissolved on 23rd March, 2006.
Mahindra United FC
Mahindra United FC is one of the most dominant team to have played in Indian Football. They were considered the Manchester United of Indian Football.
Mahindra United was formed by the Mahindra Group in 1962 and dissolved in 2010 after the end of 2009-10 season of I-League. The club was based in Mumbai and is the most successful club from Mumbai.
In their more than 40 years history, the club has numerous trophies. They won the National Football League once, Durand Cup 3 times, Federation Cup and IFA Trophy twice and Rovers Cup once.
READ MORE: Is Indian Super League a success for Indian Football ?
The club disbanded in 2010 without citing any proper reason, but however it is believed that financial aspect played a huge role in the shutting down.
JCT FC
Based out of Punjab, Jagatjit Cotton and Textile Mills founded the club in 1972. The club was active in Indian Football for about 50 years from it's inception.
JCT FC has gone through a glorious 50 years of football. The club has lifted number of trophies that includes 1 National Football League and 9 Punjab State League.
They have also won Durand Cup 5 times, the Federation Cup twice and IFA Shield and Rovers Cup once. The club had Wolverhampton Wanderers FC as their senior affiliate. The club disbanded in 2011 stating financial reason and television broadcast and reach of the game.
Pune FC
Pune FC was founded in 2007 and disbanded in 2016. But in their short history, they had gained a lot of honours, such as finishing 3rd in their debut in the I-League. But their best came in the 2012-13 season when they finished runners-up.
The club use to have a 'Maha Derby' with Mumbai FC. Pune FC disbanded its operation in 2016 while their academy was acquired by Indian Super League side FC Pune City.
Mumbai FC
Mumbai FC started its operation at the same time as their 'Maha Derby' rival Pune FC, in 2007. However, Mumbai FC reached into the I-League before Pune FC.
Mumbai FC's most notable honour includes the I-League 2nd Division champion in 2008. Mumbai FC disbanded in 2017 after they were relegated to 2nd division.
ATK Football Club (ATKFC)
ATK Football Club is most successful club in the Indian Super League having won the ISL 3 times in its 6 years history. The club was the first franchise of Indian Super League and was co-owned by businessman Sanjiv Goenka, Harshavardhan Neotia, Utsav Parekh and Indian cricket team captain Saurav Ganguly's joint venture Kolkata Games and Sports Private Limited (KGSPL) and La Liga giants Atletico Madrid. Due to that, they were initially known as Atletico de Kolkata.
The club won the Indian Super League 3 times that includes the inaugural edition of the ISL, 2016 and 2019-20 edition. They won the 2019-20 edition as ATKFC after KGSPL bought the Atletico Madrid share of the club.
ATK FC disbanded not because of financial reason. ATK FC owner KGSPL decided to buy 80 percent share of the Mohun Bagan Athletic Club's football entity and merged ATK FC with the football entity to form ATK Mohun Bagan FC, which competes in the Indian Super League.
The list of Indian football club: dissolved club in Indian Football includes the clubs that doesn't play in any national or state league. However, we have seen many clubs stopped playing football in the national level and still plays in their domestic state league.
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