Bagan most dominant; Bengaluru are defending champions
The Hero Federation Cup will kick-off on April 30, 2016 with eight top teams from the I-League being eligible to play in it.The teams as per the standings of the I-League (after completion of the final round) will be playing in the knock-out format on a home and away basis including the semifinals with the final match being slated to be played at a neutral venue.
THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The Federation Cup in the country has a rich legacy of its own which is unrivalled to any other football tourney organized at a major level in the country, barring the Santosh Trophy. This annual club knockout style tournament which had found its inception in 1977 is set for a welcome return from April 30, after being shunned for a year.
As unfortunate as it may be, the reasons given by the governing football body in the country, All India Football Federation, they decided to scrap the Fed Cup the previous year due to the congestion in the playing calendar with the I-League and Indian Super League occupying a large part of the calendar. But with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) mandate that a club must play 18 matches in the season, AIFF decided to revive the tournament this year.
The 2015-16 Indian Federation Cup will be the 37th edition of the Federation Cup, the main national football cup competition in India. The tournament will be held from April 30 to May 21. Top eight teams from 2015-16 I-League will participate in the tournament.
Bengaluru FC who won the title for the first time in the last edition in 2014, are looking strong contenders to defend their title. Mohun Bagan, one of the oldest footballing clubs in the country has the distinction of being the most successful club winning the title a record 13 times.
Incidentally, in the very first edition of the Fed Cup, in the finals played at Ernakulam (Kerala), in 1977, Indian Telephone Industries prevailed over Mohun Bagan with a hard-fought 1-0 win to go into record books as the first champion team of the club tourney which carved a niche for itself in years to come.
In the initial decade since its inception, Fed Cup witnessed the dominance of the Bengal Clubs, with East Bengal, Mohun Bagan or Mohammedan Sporting clinching the trophy on almost every occasion barring the first and third editions wherein Indian Telephone Industries (Bangalore) and Border Security Force (Jalandhar) emerged victors respectively.
Salgaocar SC was the first Goan club to make it to the finals which was mostly restricted to a Bengal derby until 1987, when the Vasco-based side, lost out in the finals to Mohun Bagan 2-0 at Cuttack. The late 80s saw the Goan club come to the fore when they won the next two editions against Border Security Force (1-0, Delhi) and Mohammedan Sporting (2-0, Coimbatore) respectively.
The start of the 1990s saw another State club emerge eventual Fed Cup winners with Kerala Police
downing defending champions, Salgaocar FC 2-1 at home (Thrissur). The following year, they
successfully defended their title defeating Mahindra & Mahindra 2-0, again on home soil (Kannur).
Mohun Bagan returned to title-winning ways in the next three years. While they defeated arch-rivals
East Bengal 2-0 in Calcutta in 1992, the year that followed they defended their title against Mahindra & Mahindra with a wafer thin 1-0 margin at Kozhikode. In 1994, with the Fed Cup making its first finals in Goa, at Nehru Stadium, Margao, Mohun Bagan after engaging in a goalless stale-mate against the local club, Salgaocar in regulation time, prevailed in the penalty shoot-out 3-0 to make it three-in-a-row.
After an eight-year gap, Salgaocar FC won the Fed Cup for the third time in 1997 against East Bengal in their backyard (Calcutta) with a hard-fought 2-1 win. The following year, the finals, also played in Calcutta, was a Bengal derby with Mohun Bagan overwhelming arch-rivals East Bengal 2-1.
In the years, 1999 and 2000 the Federation Cup was not held. With its return in 2001, Mohun Bagan
defended their title successfully against another emerging Goan side, Dempo SC at Chennai by a 2-0
score-line. Dempo SC was to win their first Fed Cup three years later in Bangalore, against a very strong Mohun Bagan side 2-0.
In the last ten editions of the prestigious club tourney, a Bengal club has won on half a dozen occasions with East Bengal clinching the title four times in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012 while Mohun Bagan bagged top honours in 2006 and 2008. On other occasions, Mahindra United (Mumbai) won in 2005, Goan sides, Salgaocar FC and Churchill Brothers won the title in 2011 and 2013, while Bengaluru FC (Karnataka) won the last edition.
The last few years, witnessed the Goan sides prove very competitive in the Federation Cup to its
competitors in Bengal. While Salgaocar SC clinched the title in 2011 outplaying East Bengal 3-1, the Bengal side came back strongly in the next edition to win the title with a hard-earned 3-2 win in the final against Dempo SC, another Goan club. In the 2013-14 edition, history was created with the Fed Cup witnessing its first Goan derby in the finals at Kochi with Churchill Brothers overpowering Sporting Clube de Goa 3-1. Current title holders, Bengaluru FC won against a spirited Dempo SC 2-1 in the 2014-15 edition finals played at Nehru Stadium, Margao (Goa) on January 11, 2015.
Matches during the Federation Cup were usually held at neutral venues around India. The final is also held in a neutral venue. From the 2015-16 season matches will be played as two legged (home and away) knockout format. Final will be at a neutral venue.
TOP WINNERS IN FEDERATION CUP
Mohun Bagan(13)
East Bengal (8)
Salgaocar (4)
Mahindra United (2)
Md Sporting (2)
JCT (2)
Kerala Police (2)
Dempo (1)
BSF (1)
Churchill Bros (1)
ITI Bangalore) (1)
*Figures in parenthesis indicate number of titles
