JCT F.C.

Jagatjit Cotton & Textile Football Club, often abbreviated as JCT FC, founded in 1971, was an Indian professional football club based in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. They were sponsored by Jagatjit Cotton and Textile Mills under the leadership of Samir Thapar and played in the National Football League which was later renamed I-League, and Punjab State Super League. The club was disbanded in 2011.[1]

JCT F.C.
Full nameJagatjit Cotton & Textile Mills FC
Nickname(s)The Millmen
Founded1971
Dissolved2011 (2011)
GroundGuru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana
Capacity22,000
ChairmanSamir Thapar
LeagueNational Football League
(later, I-League)
WebsiteClub website

JCT have won many prestigious tournaments and brought laurels to the State of Punjab. They won the inaugural edition of the National Football League in 1996.

History

Jagatjit Cotton, Sahil Bagga and Textile Mills constituted the football club in March 1971. However, the club got recognition from 1974 onwards when several players joined the club from the Leader Club of Jalandhar. Included among these players was Inder Singh, who had captained the Indian national team in previous years and won the Arjuna Award in 1969. The Leader Club, started by Lala Dwarka Das Sehgal had played a major role in popularizing football in Northern India in the 1960s and 1970s. Though the Leader Club is no more, JCT Mills have since taken the mantle and become the biggest and most successful football club in this part of India.[2]

JCT Limited has been involved in the Punjab Football Association (PFA) for the last three decades. JCT won the inaugural NFL title in the 1996–1997 season. In January 2007, the JCT management decided to change the club name from JCT Mills FC to JCT FC.

In 2007, JCT announced an association with the English club Wolverhampton Wanderers, as part of the Wolverhampton-India Project launched at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.[3] In 2011, two members from the Wolves Academy Staff visited the club with an intention "to start special training programmes".[4] However, a few months later, in June, the club announced of its disbanding. In a statement, the club said, "Today football teams worldwide have become self-sustaining enterprises for which high exposure is needed to build viewership and spectators in the stadium. JCT won the inaugural national league in 1996, where there was high quality TV exposure and widespread public interest. But since then the league has had negligible exposure and the teams have been going almost unnoticed." It added, "JCT Limited, being a corporate, needs to justify to its stakeholders the effort vs visibility of the football team."[1]

In 2014, reports said that the club was planning on a return to professional football through I-League 2nd Division the following season. However, it failed to materialize.[5]

Affiliated companies
  • India on Track

Performance in AFC competitions
  • Asian Club Championship: 1 appearance
1997: Second Round

Achievements

In last 3 decades of its existence, the JCT is the first Indian team outside Kolkata to win the IFA Shield. Apart from this, the JCT Club won many prestigious tournaments. They also won the opening edition of the National Football League in 1996. JCT Club has also been the winner of the Asian Club Championship and finished 3rd in the 2007–2008 season of the newly formed I-League. The club was an eight-time winner of the Punjab Football League and five-time winner of the Durand Cup. The success and the constant good performance of the club is attributed to its owner, the Thapars who apart from being business moguls, have been in constant effort to enhance the bar of their club at all the levels.[6]

1996/97
1976, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1996
1995, 1996
1996
  • Punjab Football League: 10
1987, 1990/91, 1991, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2015
  • Gurdarshan Memorial Cup: 10
1982, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2001, 2002
  • Sait Nagjee Cup: 4
1976, 1979, 1985, 1995
  • Madura Coats Trophy:
1978
  • Scissors Cup:
1995
  • Rovers Cup:
1997
  • Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh Memorial Trophy:
2002
  • Principal Harbhajan Singh Memorial Football Trophy:
2005

Academy

Even though JCT FC senior side is disbanded the Academy side of JCT FC is still running and still developing young footballers. The JCT FC Academy made its mark during the 2011 I-League U19 Academy league which JCT FC Academy won.

Academy honours

References
  1. "JCT decide to disband football club". Indo-Asian News Service. 20 June 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  2. Menon, Ravi (18 March 1997). "JCT Mills -- the success story so far". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 21 April 1997. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  3. "JCT tie up with the Wolves". The Times of India. 8 August 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  4. "Wolverhampton experts land up at JCT". The Times of India. 28 March 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  5. Das, Shankar (2 August 2014). "JCT to revive their senior football team; plan to play in 2015 I-League second division". Sportskeeda. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  6. "JCT Mills – JCT Mills Indian Football Club – JCT Mills Club Football India". iloveindia.com. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
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