Chennai City FC
Chennai City Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, that competes in the I-League, one of the top flights of Football in India. The club was established in 1946 as Netaji Sports Club by five friends. The club spend its grand majority of history by competing in the local state and city tournaments but entered the national stage in 2016. On 11 December 2016, the team were awarded a direct-entry spot into the I-League for the 2016–17 season, and became I-League champions of the 2018-19 season.[1]
Full name | Chennai City Football Club | ||
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Nickname(s) | The Lions | ||
Founded | 1946; 73 years ago (as Nethaji Sports Club) | ||
Ground | Nehru Stadium, Coimbatore Nehru Stadium, Chennai (most games) | ||
Capacity | 30,000 40,000 | ||
League | I-League | ||
2018–19 | I-League,1st of 11 (champions) | ||
Website | Club website | ||
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History
The club was founded in 1946 as Netaji Sports Club by five friends, SV Kanagasabai, E Vadivelu, TR Govindarajan, PV Chellappa and K Ekambaram.[2] On 11 December 2016, the club was accepted as a direct entry club for 2016–17 I-League and became the second club from Tamil Nadu to play in the top division after Indian Bank team in National Football League.[3] On 6 February 2019 Chennai City FC had agreed for a partnership with FC Basel who now owns 26 percent of the club and would develop football in the state by building football schools for young talents.[4]
FC Basel will also have a player exchange program, including first team players, with CCFC and help the club with technical know how.[5][6]
On 9 March 2019, Chennai City FC beat former champions Minerva Punjab 3–1 to be crowned the 2018–19 I-League champions.[7] This marked the finish of a very successful season for the club, defying all expectations to win the league. Spanish-Uruguayan forward Pedro Manzi also scored a brace in this match, and was the joint top scorer of the league, scoring 21 league goals. This was Chennai City FC's first ever I-League title, and they represented India in the AFC Champions League.[8]
Chennai City FC also played in the Hero Super Cup during March–April 2019, and lost in the semi-finals to eventual champions FC Goa.[9] However, they did manage to win 2–1 against ISL champions Bengaluru FC in the quarter finals.[10]
Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors
Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
---|---|---|
2016—2017 | Classic Polo | Baako |
2017—2018 | Counter Sports | — |
2018—19 | Penalty | |
2019—present | Nivia | TVS Group |
Stadium
The club plays its home games at Nehru Stadium in Coimbatore. Constructed in 1971, it is currently used mostly for football matches and has a capacity of 30,000. Prior to 2017–2018 season, the club played their home matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Chennai. The club decided to play their continental matches from Ahmedabad.
Players
First-team squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Current technical staff
Position | Name |
---|---|
Head coach | Satyasagara |
Assistant Coach | |
Team Manager | Ashok Kumar |
Goalkeeping Coach | V P Sathiesh Kumar |
Sports Physiotherapist | Ragunath Manogaran |
Video Analyst | Aravind Chandrasekaran |
Continental record
Season | Competition | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | AFC Champions League | Preliminary round 1 | Al-Riffa | 0–1 | ||
2020 | AFC Cup | Group E | Maziya S&RC | 2–2 | – | Cancelled |
TC Sports | – | – | ||||
Bashundhara Kings | – | – |
Team records
I-League
Season | Div. | Tms. | Pos. | Attendance/G | Federation Cup/Super Cup | Durand Cup | AFC Champions League | AFC Cup |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016–17 | I-League | 10 | 8 | 2,949 | Group stage | DNP | DNP | DNP |
2017–18 | I-League | 10 | 8 | 8,194 | Qualification round | DNP | DNP | DNP |
2018–19 | I-League | 11 | 1 | 6,138 | Semi-finals | Group stage | DNP | DNP |
2019–20 | I-League | 11 | 7 | 7,825 | DNP | Group Stage | Preliminary round 1 | Group Stage |
2020–21 | I-League | 11 | - | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP |
- Key
- Tms. = Number of teams
- Pos. = Position in league
- Attendance/G = Average league attendance
Overall
- As of 14 January 2017
Season | I-League | Asia | Top Scorer | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | Position | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Player | Goals | |
2016–17 | 18 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 15 | 29 | 17 | 8 | – | – | – | – | – | – | Charles | 4 |
2017–18 | 18 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 15 | 24 | 19 | 8 | – | – | – | – | – | – | Joachim | 5 |
2018–19 | 18 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 48 | 28 | 43 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | Manzi | 21 |
2019-20 | 15 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Yusa | 5 |
Head coach
- As of 26 October 2020
Name | Nationality | From | To | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Win% |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Robin Charles Raja | India | 13 December 2016 | 8 February 2017 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 11 | 14.29 |
V. Soundararajan | India | 9 January 2017 | 14 March 2018 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 15 | 19 | 23.08 |
Akbar Nawas | Singapore | 15 March 2018 | 26 October 2020 | 38 | 20 | 9 | 9 | 68 | 49 | 52.63 |
Team
- Highest transfer fee received – €125,000 plus sell-on clause from Albirex Niigata for Pedro Manzi, 2020
References
- Vasudevan, Shyam (30 November 2019). "I-League: Despite changes, teams gear up for new season". Sportstar. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
- "From Senior Division to I-League: The Chennai City FC story". 11 December 2016.
- "I-League Update: Chennai City FC and Minerva Punjab FC to play in the coming season". 11 December 2016.
- "CHENNAI CITY FC ROPE IN FC BASEL HOLDING AG AS STAKEHOLDERS". aiff.com. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- "Federer's home club Basel to invest 20m euros in CCFC – Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- "Der FCB und sein Bollywood-Farmteam – Basel steigt bei Chennai City ein". watson.ch (in German). Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- "Chennai City FC win I-League 2018-19 title, East Bengal finish second". indiatoday.in. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
- "Chennai City FC set to play continental games from Ahmedabad next season". Goal.com. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- "FC Goa enter Super Cup final with 3-0 win over Chennai City". www.newindianexpress.com. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
- "Chennai City knock out champions Bengaluru FC from Super Cup". indianexpress.com. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
- "India - Chennai City FC - Results, fixtures, squad, statistics, photos, videos and news - Soccerway". us.soccerway.com. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
- "Chennai City FC - Soccer - Team Profile - Results, fixtures, squad, statistics - Global Sports Archive". globalsportsarchive.com. Retrieved 24 January 2021.