Mumbai District Football Association

The Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA), which is a non-profit organization, was established in 1983 and is the official District body for development, conduct and organization of football in the city of Mumbai and its suburbs. The MDFA is affiliated with the Western India Football Association (WIFA), a state Association of Maharashtra. From a small beginning having only 57 football playing clubs affiliated to it, the Association now caters to and conducts football activity for more than 450 clubs and 10000 players. With football fever gripping Mumbai, which is one of the largest football playing District of India, the number of teams are likely to increase even more. Mumbai, erstwhile Bombay, had always been a center of football on the western coast of India from British days. The Western India Football Association, the association controlling football for the entire western region during those days conducted the Harwood Football League for the teams in this region and the prestigious Rovers Cup, an all India tournament,[2] which has come as a legacy to MDFA is still being held by our association and is over hundred years old.

The MDFA is managed by the Executive Council consisting of a President, Chairman, 4 Vice Presidents, Hon. General Secretary, Hon. Treasurer, 4 Assistant Secretaries and 15 Committee Members. In addition to these, six members whose services would be beneficial to the Association, are also co-opted on the Executive Committee. The term of the Executive Council is four years.

Current Panel: Aditya Thackeray (President), Dr Vijay Patil (Chairman), Vice Presidents: Sudhakar Rane, Souter Vaz, Suzzane Chowdhury, Anil Parab, Hon. General Secretary: Udayan Banerjee, Assistant Secretaries: Anoop Dubey, Henry Picardo, C.K Shetty and Salim Ansari, Treasurer: Shodhana Shetty, Executive Committee members: Digamber Kandarkar, John Almeida, Jacinto D’Silva, Vilas Rane, Suresh Banjan, Anthony Rodrigues, Nasir Hussain, Conrad Pereira, Darryl D’Souza, Krishna Pawle, Ryan Menezes, Firmin D'Souza, Ajit Sawant, Farhan Butt, Salvador D'Souza and Ganesh Madkar.

Mumbai though lacking in infra-structure for the game of Football has produced a number of Olympians and International players of high repute, who have proudly represented our country with excellence. Double Olympian S. S. Narayan, who represented India in 1956 and 1960 Olympics, is currently the Vice-President of MDFA. Olympian Late Parab played barefoot when India won the game against England. Late Neville D’Souza is the only Indian who scored a hat-trick in the Olympics. Olympians Sanjeeva Uchil and Fortunato Franco who also hail from Mumbai have also contributed significantly for India. Many international players have been produced from District of Mumbai directly under the aegis of MDFA. They are Mario Gracious, Bandya Kakade, Derek D'Souza, Ranjit Thapa, Amar Bahadur, Yusuf Ansari, Godfrey Pereira, Khalid Jamil, Henry Menezes, Akhil Ansari, Bernard Pereira, Arthur Pereira, Santosh Kashyap, Steven Dias and Abhishek Yadav to name a few.

MDFA conducts their events on the following grounds in Mumbai.