Chennai City F.C.

Chennai City Football Club is an Indian football club based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The club has compete as a member of the I-League, under license from All India Football Federation (AIFF). The club was established in 1946 as Netaji Sports Club by five friends. The club has spend the grand majority of its history 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 the following season.

Chennai City FC
Full nameChennai City Football Club
Nickname(s)The Lions
Founded1946; 73 years ago (as Nethaji Sports Club)
GroundNehru Stadium, Coimbatore
Nehru Stadium, Chennai (most games)
Capacity30,000
40,000
OwnersRohit Ramesh and Family 69% and
R Krishnakumar (5%)
FC Basel (26%)
CoachAkbar Nawas
LeagueI-League
2018–19I-League, 1st (champions)
WebsiteClub website

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.[1] 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.[2] 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

FC Basel will also have a player exchange program, including first team players, with CCFC and help the club with technical know how.[3][4]

On 9 March 2019, Chennai City FC beat former champions Minerva Punjab 3–1 to be crowned the 2018–19 I-League champions. 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 will now represent India in the AFC Champions League.

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. However, they did manage to win 2–1 against ISL champions Bengaluru FC in the quarter finals.

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.

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors
Period Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsor
2016—2017 Classic Polo Baako
2017—2018 Counter Sports —
2018—19 Penalty
2019—present Uhlsport Nippon Paint

Players

First-team squad
As of 3 March 2020.[5]

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

No. Position Player
2 DF Bijay Chhetri
3 DF Tarif Akhand (on loan from Hyderabad)
6 FW Mashoor Shereef
8 MF Ahmed Sahib Hasan Abdul Cader
9 DF Vijay T
12 MF Charles Anandraj
13 GK Kabir Thaufiq
15 MF Vijay Nagappan
16 MF Vineeth Kumar Murugan
17 MF Pravitto Raju
18 DF Ajith Kumar
No. Position Player
20 MF Jockson Dhas
21 MF Lenin Mithran Mithralayam Shanmugan
22 DF Sriram Boopathi
23 MF Shem Marton
24 DF Ranjeet Pandre
26 MF Syed Suhail Pasha
28 DF Pradison Mariyadasan
32 MF Lijo Francis
35 DF Jishnu Balakrishnan
36 DF Varun Mathur
49 MF Rohit Mirza
50 GK Shahinlal Meloly

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
No. Position Player

Current technical staff
Position Name
Head coach Akbar Nawas[6]
Assistant Coach Satyasagara[6]
Team Manager Ashok Kumar
Goalkeeping Coach V P Sathiesh Kumar
Sports Physiotherapist Dr.Ragunath Manogaran
Video Analyst Aravind Chandrasekaran

Honours

I-League

Contiental 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
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 TBD TBD
2019–20 I-League 11 TBD TBD Group Stage TBD TBD
Key
  • Tms. = Number of teams
  • Pos. = Position in league
  • Attendance/G = Average league attendance

Overall records
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

Head Coach's Record
As of 8 February 2017
NameNationalityFromToPWDLGFGAWin%
Robin Charles Raja  India 13 December 2016 8 February 2017 7 1 1 5 3 11 014.29
V. Soundararajan  India 9 January 2017 14 March 2018 13 3 4 6 15 19 023.08
Akbar Nawas  Singapore 15 March 2018 Present 23 15 4 4 48 28 065.22

Team Record

References
  1. "From Senior Division to I-League: The Chennai City FC story". 11 December 2016.
  2. "I-League Update: Chennai City FC and Minerva Punjab FC to play in the coming season". 11 December 2016.
  3. "Federer's home club Basel to invest 20m euros in CCFC – Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  4. "Der FCB und sein Bollywood-Farmteam – Basel steigt bei Chennai City ein". watson.ch (in German). Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  5. "CHENNAI CITY FC: Squad". Soccerway. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  6. "Chennai City FC appoint Nawas as coach, Barcelona's Villa named assistant". timesofindia.com. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
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