Punjab FC
RoundGlass Punjab Football Club (formerly known as Minerva Punjab FC) is an Indian professional football club based in Mohali, Punjab. The club competes in the I-League, one of the two coexisting premier football leagues in Indian football system. Minerva Punjab FC, since inception in 2013 have won the I-League title once, the Punjab State Super Football League title twice, and were also the runners-up of the I-League 2nd Division. They were the champions of I-League in the 2017–18 season.
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| Full name | RoundGlass Punjab Football Club | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Warriors | |||
| Short name | RPFC | |||
| Founded | 2005 (as Minerva Academy F.C.) | |||
| Ground | Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana | |||
| Capacity | 30,000 | |||
| Owner | RoundGlass Sports[1] | |||
| Manager | Curtis Fleming | |||
| League | I-League | |||
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The club is owned by a Mohali-based firm RoundGlass Sports. Earlier, RoundGlass had a collaboration with Mr.Ranjit Bajaj which was recently broken. RoundGlass has now taken full charge of the club. Punjab plays their I-League home matches at the Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana. On October 30, 2019, the club was renamed as Punjab Football Club and 2019–20 I-League was their first season as Punjab F.C.[2]
History
As Minerva Punjab FC
The team was established in 2005 as Minerva Academy and has a football and cricket club. Initially, the team took part in its first major tournament at the national level i.e. I-League 2nd Division and were the runners up for the season. They lost to five-time I-League champions Dempo SC in the Final. They were promoted to I-League after an impressive stint at the 2nd Division. They finished their first-ever I-League season at the second last position. They also played the 2016 Durand Cup. They came last in the group stage and hence couldn't qualify for the semi-finals.
Next season, surprising everyone, they won the I-League title, which was their first league win ever in the top division. They became the first ones from North India to win the league since 1996. This title made the team qualify for their first-ever Asian stint. The club qualified for Group Stage of the 2019 AFC Cup along with Indian Super League side Chennaiyin and the Preliminary Round 2. However, they lost to the Iranian side Saipa in the preliminary round of the 2019 AFC Champions League and therefore couldn't make it to the play-offs. But, in their AFC Cup stint, they impressed with their unbeaten run of five games until the last group fixture, which they lost against Abahani Limited Dhaka. Minerva were also placed in the Round of 16 bracket of the 2018 Indian Super Cup in which they lost to Jamshedpur 4–5 on penalties.
In the 2018-19 I-League, the club managed to win four of their twenty fixtures and finished ninth in the league table. They were placed in the 2019 Indian Super Cup qualifying round but they refused to play in the tournament protesting against the uncertainty of I-League clubs' future in Indian football. Thereafter, they were also not invited to play the 2019 Durand Cup, which was disappointing for the Punjabi side.
Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors
| Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
|---|---|---|
| 2015—2017 | T10 Sports | None |
| 2017—2019 | Astro | Apollo Tyres |
| 2019—2020 | Spartan | |
| 2020–Present | T10 Sports | RoundGlass |
Stadium
The team plays at the Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana, Punjab, which has a capacity of 15,000 spectators. The club shifted the base to other locations for their Asian stint. During the 2019 AFC Cup group stage, Minerva played two of its home games at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati, and one of the three home games at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
Support and rivalry
Supporters
A club recognised fan club by the name The Warriors has been in support since 2018. The Guru Nanak Stadium has seen an average attendance of 12,000.
Current squad
- As of 1 January 2021[5]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Records
Seasons
| Season | Div. | Tms. | Pos. | Attendance/G | Federation Cup/Super Cup | Durand Cup | AFC Champions League | AFC Cup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| As Minerva Punjab F.C. | ||||||||
| 2015–16 | IL2D | 10 | 2 | – | DNP | |||
| 2016–17 | IL | 10 | 9 | 2,757 | DNP | Group Stage | DNP | |
| 2017–18 | IL | 10 | 1 | 5,736 | Round of 16 | DNP | Preliminary Round 2 | Group Stage |
| 2018–19 | IL | 11 | 9 | 5,624 | DNP | |||
| As Punjab F.C. | ||||||||
| 2019–20 | IL | 11 | 3 | 3,945 | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP |
| 2020–21 | IL | 11 | – | – | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP |
- Key
- Tms. = Number of teams
- Pos. = Position in league
- Attendance/G = Average league attendance
Seasons by season
- As of 2 November 2017
| Year | I-League | Federation Cup |
AFC Champions League | Top Scorer(s) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Div | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | Pos. | Player(s) | Goals | |||||
| As Minerva Punjab F.C. | |||||||||||||||
| 2015–16 | IL2 | 18 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 30 | 14 | 37 | 2nd | DNP | DNP |  Kareem Omolaja |
4 | ||
| 2016–17 | IL | 18 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 17 | 33 | 13 | 9th | Loveday Enyinnaya; Kareem Omolaja |
3 | ||||
| 2017–18 | IL | 18 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 24 | 16 | 35 | 1st |  Chencho Gyeltshen |
7 | ||||
| 2018–19 | IL | 20 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 19 | 18 | 9th |  Lancine Touré Philip Njoku  William Opoku |
2 | ||||
| As Punjab F.C. | |||||||||||||||
| 2019–20 | IL | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | ||
- DNP − Did not play
Head coach's record
updated as of now
| Name | Nationality | From | To | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surinder Singh |  India |
2015 | 2017 | 36 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 47 | 47 | 36.11 |
| Khogen Singh | India |
2017 | 2018 | 19 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 24 | 16 | 57.89 |
| Paul Munster |  Northern Ireland |
2018 | 2019 | 16 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 15 | 18.75 |
| Sachin Badadhe | India |
2019 | 2019 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 50.00 |
| Yan Law | India |
2019 | 2020 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 40.00 |
| Curtis Fleming |  Ireland |
2020 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
Team management
- As of 15 June 2020.
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Technical Director |  Nikolaos Topoliatis[6] |
| Head Coach | Curtis Fleming[7] |
| Assistant Coach | Floyd Pinto |
| Physiotherapist | Avinash Jaiswal |
Reserves and Youth
Continental record
| Season | Competition | Round | Club | Home | Away | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | AFC Champions League | Preliminary round 2 |  Saipa |
4–0 | Eliminated | |
| 2019 | AFC Cup | Group E | Chennaiyin |
1–1 | 0–0 | 3rd of 4 (Group Stage) |
 Abahani Limited Dhaka |
0–1 | 2–2 | ||||
 Manang Marshyangdi Club |
2–2 | 1–1 | ||||
References
- "Something never done before in I-League! Ranjit Bajaj sets history with sale of Punjab FC". Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- "Something never done before in I-League! Ranjit Bajaj sets history with sale of Punjab FC | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- "Minerva Punjab renamed as Punjab Football Club". Sportstar. The Hindu. 30 October 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- "I-League Club Minerva Punjab FC Renamed as Punjab Football Club". News18. PTI. 30 October 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- "Squad". Soccerway. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- "Punjab FC rope in Nikolaos Topoliatis as new technical director | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
- "Former Middlesbrough manager Curtis Fleming set to take charge at Punjab FC | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Retrieved 15 June 2020.