Chennaiyin FC

Chennaiyin FC
Full name Chennaiyin Football Club
Nickname(s) Marina Machans
Short name CFC
Founded August 28 2014 (August 28 2014)
Ground Marina Arena, Chennai
Capacity 27,877[1]
Owner Abhishek Bachchan
MS Dhoni
Vita Dani
Manager John Gregory
League Indian Super League
2017–18 Regular season: 2nd of 10
Finals: Champions
Website Club website

Chennaiyin FC is an Indian Super League football club based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The club was founded in August 2014 during the inaugural season of the Indian Super League. Chennaiyin are the reigning champions winning the 2017-18 Indian Super League season, and also having won it previously in 2015 season, making them as joint highest winners of the league along with Atletico de Kolkata.

The franchise is owned by Vita Dani, Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan and Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.[2] Its manager is former English Midfielder John Gregory. The team's name Chennaiyin FC means Chennai's football club in Tamil where the 'yin' suffix is similar to Apostrophe s in English.[3] The team's logo is the Dhrishti Bommai, a representation of chasing away negativity and preserving positivity in the Tamil culture.[4]

History

Origin

When the Indian Super League was founded in 2014, the city of Chennai was one of the nine proposed cities up for franchise bidding.[5] However, on 11 April 2014 it was reported that Chennai's main bidder, a consortium led by Sunil Gavaskar would drop out due to commitments with the Board of Control for Cricket in India.[6] Then, in August 2014, with two months before the 2014 ISL season, the Bangalore owners Sun Group dropped out due to disputes with the organizers.[7] Initially reports came out that the ISL organizers were looking for bidders for new owners for the Bangalore franchise before it was revealed that Ronnie Screwvala and actor Abhishek Bachchan would together bid for a Chennai team instead of a Bangalore franchise.[8]

Foundation

On 14 August 2014, it was reported that ISL officials were inspecting the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai for the proposed team.[9] Finally, the team was bid for by actor Abhishek Bachchan and Vita Dani. On 12 September 2014, Italian World Cup winner Marco Materazzi was hired as player-manager.[10] Then, on 6 October 2014, the Indian cricket captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the joint co-owner of the club. The club officially launched their jersey on 9 October 2014. They also announced that real estate developer Ozone Group would be their principal shirt sponsor for the season.[11]

Marco Materazzi era (2014–2016)

Marco Materazzi was the head coach of Chennaiyin FC from 2014 to 2016

On 15 October 2014, Chennaiyin won their first Indian Super League fixture with a 2–1 victory at FC Goa. The goals were scored by Balwant Singh, who became the first Indian player to score in the competition, and the former Brazil international Elano.[12] On 28 November 2014, the club brought Alessandro Nesta, who won the World Cup for Italy out of retirement.[13] The team finished its 14-game regular season in first place in the league. In the semi finals, the team lost the first leg 3-0 to Kerala Blasters. In the second leg, they managed to overturn the deficit by leading 3-0 in regular time. However, a 117th-minute goal by Stephen Pearson sent Kerala through to the finals.

For the Second Season of Indian Super League, they managed to retain six players namely, Balwant Singh, Jayesh Rane, Dhanachandra Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Harmanjot Khabra and Abhishek Das.[14] They also signed Godwin Franco and Mehrajuddin Wadoo. On the last day of the transfer window, Chennaiyin FC announced that they had managed to sign back Stiven Mendoza. The season started with the team losing the first two games. Though the team managed to score points by winning at Goa and Mumbai, they lost another three games on the trot. By the third week of November, Chennaiyin were placed last in the league table. But, the team won four consecutive games to qualify for the playoffs, finishing at 3rd place in the regular season. They won the second season of the ISL by beating FC Goa 3-2 in the finals.

For the Third Season, of Indian Super League, they managed to retain six players namely, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Jayesh Rane, Dhanachandra Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Harmanjot Khabra, Thoi Singh and Abhishek Das.[15] Chennai signed John Arne Riise as the marquee player for the season. The season kicked off with a draw against Kolkata. Winning just three games through the season, the team finished in seventh place, just one point more than the last placed FC Goa. After a dismal season, it was announced on March 6 that Marco Materazzi and Chennaiyin parted ways on mutual consent.[16][17]

John Gregory era (2017–present)

John Gregory led the team to ISL title in his first season

On 3 July 2017, the club announced the appointment of former Aston Villa Manager John Gregory as the head coach for the 2017-18 season.[18] He took charge in September and the club traveled to Thailand for pre-season. Chennaiyin lost Gregory's first league game as head coach on 19 November against FC Goa. The team won its next three matches against Northeast United FC, FC Pune City and ATK. Mumbai City FC brought Chennaiyin FC's winning run to an end with a battling 1-0 win at home inside the Mumbai Football Arena.[19] The blues then travelled to Sree Kanteerava Stadium where they beat Bengaluru FC 2-1 in a tightly contested match.[20] Chennaiyin FC were held to a 1-1 draw when they faced Kerala Blasters at home in their next game. In spite of the draw, The Blues went top of the table with 13 points after 7 games.[21] The team went on to win the finals against Bangalore on their home ground and became the champions for the second time.[22]

Stadium and attendance

Nehru Stadium, the home of Chennaiyin FC

Chennayin FC play their home matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai nicknamed the Marina Arena. The stadium is located at Sydenhams Road, Park Town behind the Chennai Central suburban Railway station and Ripon Building. The stadium is named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister and earlier hosted cricket Test Matches between 1956 and 1965.[23]

Chennayin FC has considerable support base with average attendance over 20,000 over the first three seasons.[24][25] Most recently,the team declared the stadium’s L1 stand of block H as an away stand.

SeasonAttendance
201422,095
201522,767
201622,139
2017–1815,538
2018–19-


Current Roster

No. Position Player Nation
1 Goalkeeper Karanjit Singh  India
33 Goalkeeper Sanjiban Ghosh  India
39 Goalkeeper Nikhil Bernard  India
14 Defender Iñigo Calderón  Spain
26 Defender Laldinliana Renthlei  India
35 Defender Hendry Antonay  India
13 Defender Eli Sabiá  Brazil
27 Defender Maílson Alves  Brazil
25 Defender Zohmingliana Ralte  India
18 Defender Jerry Lalrinzuala  India
3 Defender Tondonba Singh  India
17 Midfielder Dhanpal Ganesh  India
28 Midfielder Germanpreet Singh  India
16 Midfielder Sinivasan Pandiyan  India
15 Midfielder Anirudh Thapa  India
19 Midfielder Raphael Augusto  Brazil
10 Midfielder Andrea Orlandi  Spain
34 Midfielder Zonunmawia  India
30 Midfielder Francis Fernandes  India
11 Midfielder Thoi Singh  India
24 Midfielder Isaac Vanmalsawma  India
49 Midfielder Bedashwor Singh  India
7 Midfielder Gregory Nelson  Netherlands
12 Forward Jeje Lalpekhlua  India
20 Forward Mohammed Rafi  India
8 Forward Carlos Salom  Palestine


Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
— India DF Prosenjit Chakroborty (to Mohammedan)
— India DF Deepak Tangri (to Indian Arrows)
No. Position Player
— India MF Abhijit Sarkar (to Indian Arrows)
— India FW Rahim Ali (to Indian Arrows)

Technical staff

As of 06 Aug 2018
Position Name
Head Coach England John Gregory
Assistant Coach and Youth Development Coach England Paul Groves
Assistant Coach India Syed Sabir Pasha
Sports Scientist England Niall Clark
Chief Technical Officer India Amoy Ghoshal

Notable former players

Name Country
Marco Materazzi ItalyItaly
Mikaël Silvestre FranceFrance
Alessandro Nesta ItalyItaly
Elano BrazilBrazil
John Arne Riise NorwayNorway
Bernard Mendy FranceFrance
Bojan Djordjic SwedenSweden
Jean-Eudes Maurice HaitiHaiti
Stiven Mendoza ColombiaColombia
Eric Djemba Djemba CameroonCameroon
Manuele Blasi ItalyItaly
Duwayne Kerr JamaicaJamaica
Fikru EthiopiaEthiopia
Apoula Edel ArmeniaArmenia
Rene Mihelič SloveniaSlovenia
Henrique Sereno PortugalPortugal

Team records

Seasons

As of 17 March 2018
Year ISL Regular season Finals Top Scorer(s)
P W D L GF GA Pts Pos. Player(s) Goals
2014 14 6 5 3 24 20 23 1st Semi-finals Brazil Elano 8
2015 14 7 1 6 25 15 22 3rd Champions Colombia Stiven Mendoza 13
2016 14 3 6 5 20 25 15 7th DNQ Nigeria Dudu Omagbemi 5
2017–18 18 9 5 4 23 19 32 2nd Champions India Jeje Lalpekhlua 9
2018–19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TBD TBD

Head coach's record

As of 17 March 2018
NameNationalityFromToPWDLWin%
Marco Materazzi  Italy 2014 2016 47 19 12 16 040.43
John Gregory  England 2017 Present 22 11 6 5 050.00

Kit Manufacturers and Shirt Sponsors

Period Kit Manufacturer Shirt Sponsor
2014–2016 TYKA Ozone Group
2016–2017 Puma TVS Tyres
2017–present Performax Apollo Tyres

Honours

Domestic

Indian Super League

Champions (2): 2015, 2017–18

References

  1. ↑ "Stadiums in India". World Stadiums.
  2. ↑ "Dhoni becomes ISL team Chennaiyin FC co-owner". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "Chennayin logo revealed". Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  4. ↑ Sudarshan, N. (5 October 2014). "Chennaiyin Football gets Italian seasoning". The Hindu. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Business giants join forces to launch Indian Super League". Goal.com. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  6. ↑ "Chennai unlikely to have an ISL team". Times of India. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  7. ↑ Mergulhao, Marcus. "Now, Sun Group opts out of Indian Super League". Times of India. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  8. ↑ Suchindran, Aravind. "Screwvala, Abhishek may bid for Chennai franchise". Times of India. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  9. ↑ Mergulhao, Marcus. "ISL: Draft for overseas players on August 21". Times of India. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  10. ↑ Suchindran, Aravind (12 September 2014). "Marco Materazzi to manage Chennai Titans". The Times of India. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  11. ↑ "Official Jersey released". Times Of India. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  12. ↑ Raj, Rohan (15 October 2014). "ISL: Record-breaking Chennaiyin FC romp to 2-1 win over FC Goa". India Today. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  13. ↑ Davies, Jack (28 November 2014). "Alessandro Nesta comes out of retirement to join Indian Super League side Chennaiyin". Goal.com. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  14. ↑ "Retain Players of Chenniyin FC in ISL 2". Footballlens. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  15. ↑ "Quartet return from loan for ISL 2016". Chennaiyin Football Club. 1 June 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  16. ↑ Sports, Reporter (6 March 2017). "Materazzi leaves Chennaiyin". The Hindu. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  17. ↑ Sports, Reporter (6 March 2017). "Materazzi and Chennaiyin part ways". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  18. ↑ "Chennaiyin FC appoint Englishman John Gregory as Head Coach". Chennaiyin FC. 3 July 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  19. ↑ "ISL 2017, Match 22: Mumbai City FC vs Chennaiyin FC, 5 Talking Points". 10 December 2017.
  20. ↑ "ISL, Bengaluru FC vs Chennaiyin FC, full score: BEN 1-2 CHE". hindustantimes.com. 17 December 2017.
  21. ↑ "Chennaiyin FC, Kerala Blasters draw 1-1 after thriller in Chennai: As it happened". The Indian Express. 22 December 2017.
  22. ↑ "Chennaiyin FC conquer fortress Bengaluru to lift ISL 4 title". The Indian Express. 18 March 2018.
  23. ↑ "Nehru Stadium: Test Matches". ESPN Cricinfo. 17 June 2011. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  24. ↑ "Chennai to bleed blue again, this football season - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
  25. ↑ "Supermachans show their loyalty through a flashmob". dtNext.in. 2016-10-02. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
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