Chennaiyin FC

Chennaiyin F.C. is a professional football club based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. They compete in the Indian Super League one of the top tier of Indian football.The club was founded in August 2014 during the inaugural season of the Indian Super League.

Chennaiyin F.C.
Full nameChennaiyin Football Club
Founded28 August 2014 (2014-08-28)
GroundJawaharlal Nehru Stadium , Chennai
Capacity19,484 (ISL) [1]
OwnerAbhishek Bachchan
MS Dhoni
Vita Dani
Managervacant
2019-20Regular season: 4th of 10
Play-offs: runner-up
WebsiteClub website

The franchise is owned by Vita Dani, Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan and Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.[2] The team's name Chennaiyin FC means Chennai's football club in Tamil where the 'yin' suffix is similar to a possessive '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] 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] On 6 October 2014, former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the joint co-owner of the club. The club officially launched their jersey on 9 October 2014 but had changed their home jersey's pattern in the 2018–19 Indian Super League season.

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.[11] On 28 November 2014, the club brought Alessandro Nesta, who won the World Cup for Italy out of retirement.[12] 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 overturned 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 retained six players: Balwant Singh, Jayesh Rane, Dhanachandra Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Harmanjot Khabra and Abhishek Das.[13] They also signed Godwin Franco and Mehrajuddin Wadoo. On the last day of the transfer window, Chennaiyin FC announced that they had signed 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. However, 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 retained six players: Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Jayesh Rane, Dhanachandra Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Harmanjot Khabra, Thoi Singh and Abhishek Das.[14] Chennai signed John Arne Riise as the marquee player for the season. The season kicked off with a draw against Kolkata. Winning only 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 6 March that Marco Materazzi and Chennaiyin parted ways on mutual consent.[15][16]

John Gregory (2017–2019)
John Gregory led the team to ISL title in his first season
Lineup against Bengaluru FC in 2017-18 Indian Super League Final

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.[17] 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.[18] The blues then travelled to Sree Kanteerava Stadium where they beat Bengaluru FC 2–1 in a tightly contested match.[19] 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 seven games.[20] The team went on to win the finals against Bangalore on their home ground and became the champions for the second time.[21] Chennaiyin FC finished as runner-ups in AIFF Super Cup 2019 where they lost to FC Goa 2–1. Following Indian Super League glory in 2017–18, Chennaiyin became the first Indian club, representing the ISL, to play in the AFC Cup, as they drew 0–0 with Colombo FC in Sri Lanka on 6 March 2019. A week later, they won the second leg 1–0 in Chennai to progress to the 2019 AFC Cup group stage. Chennayin FC is the first ISL club to reach in Group stage of AFC Cup 2019 i.e. in Group E. They played a tie of 0–0 to Minerva Punjab FC on 3 April 2019 and won 2–0 to Nepalese club Manang Marshyangdi Club on 17 April 2019 whereby Maílson Alves and Chris Herd also accompanied by win against Abahani Limited Dhaka by 1–0 and goal scorer was Anirudh Thapa 30 April 2019. On 19 June 2019 Chennaiyin FC faced a draw of 1–1 against Minerva Punjab F.C. where Mohammed Rafi secured a goal in the last minute of game. On John Gregory's 65th birthday the club announced that the coach's contract was renewed which and it will expire soon after the 2019–20 Indian Super League season . After losing the AFC Cup the club then made some shocking decisions by releasing their captain, Mailson Alves and Raphael Augusto as a preparation for the 2019–20 Indian Super League season. They also released some of the Indian players in their team which includes C.K. Vineeth, Mohammed Rafi, Halicharan Narzary, Isaac Vanmalsawma. They then signed Nerijus Valskis, Lucian Goian, Dragoș Firțulescu , André Schembri , Masih Saighani and Rafael Crivellaro to strengthen their squad. On 30 November 2019 John Gregory resigned from his post as Head Coach even though Owner Ms Vita Dani tried in vain to get him to stay. Under his guidance Chennai won their second Indian Super League trophy.

Owen Coyle (2019–2020)
Lineup against ATK in 2019-20 Indian Super League Final

Owen took the command of the club on 4 December 2019.[22] Under his guidance Chennaiyin faced 1–1 draw against Jamshedpur, won 3–1 against Kerala Blasters and lost a dramatic game 4–3 to Goa in the initial days of Coyle.[23][24][25] They lost to Odisha on 6 January 2020 and won a game against Hyderabad by 3–1.[26][27]

The Coyle era catapulted Chennaiyin FC to 4th from Bottom of the table(9th), thus earing them qualification for the playoffs.[28] He went on to guide Chennaiyin FC to the 2020 ISL final after beating FC Goa 6–5 on aggregate over the two legs of the semifinals.[29][30]

Chennaiyin were beaten 3-1 by ATK with the game played behind closed doors, due to the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic in India.[31] Nerijus Valskis, who scored in the final for Chennaiyin, topped golden boot tally consequently, he was awarded ISL golden boot.[32]

Stadium and attendance
Main article: Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (Chennai)
Nehru Stadium, the home of Chennaiyin FC

Chennaiyin 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.[33]

Chennaiyin FC has considerable support base with average attendance of over 10,000 over the first three seasons.[34][35] Chennaiyin F.C have two fan clubs namely Supermachans and B Stand Blues. Most recently, the team declared the stadium's L1 stand of block H as an away stand.

SeasonAttendance
201422,095
201522,767
201622,139
2017–1812,000
2018–1915,000
2019–2014,500

Players
For a list of all former and current Chennaiyin FC players, see List of Chennaiyin FC players.

Current squad[36]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK  IND Vishal Kaith
7 MF  IND Lallianzuala Chhangte
8 DF  IND Edwin Sydney Vanspaul
10 MF  BRA Rafael Crivellaro (Captain)
11 MF  IND Thoi Singh
12 FW  IND Jeje Lalpekhlua ( Vice-Captain)
13 DF  BRA Eli Sabiá
No. Pos. Nation Player
15 MF  IND Anirudh Thapa
16 MF  IND Sinivasan Pandiyan
17 MF  IND Dhanpal Ganesh
18 DF  IND Jerry Lalrinzuala
24 FW  IND Rahim Ali
25 DF  IND Zohmingliana Ralte
28 MF  IND Germanpreet Singh
42 GK  IND Samik Mitra
99 FW  IND Aman Chetri

Technical staff
As of 3 February 2020
Position Name
Head Coach TBA
Assistant Coach TBA
Assistant Coach and Head of Medicine and Performance Konstantinos Rostantis[37]
Assistant Coach Syed Sabir Pasha[38]
Goalkeeping Coach TBA
Reserve and Academy coach Santosh Kashyap[39]

Team Manager

 Shantanu Banerjee[40]

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

Winners (2):
Runners-up (1):

Cups
Runner-ups (1) : 2019

Asian
Group stage (1): 2019

Continental record
Season Competition Round Club Home Away Aggregate
2019 AFC Cup Play-off round Colombo 1–0[41] 0–0[42] 1–0
Group E Minerva Punjab 0–0 1–1 2nd
Manang Marshyangdi Club 2–0 2–3
Abahani Limited Dhaka 1–0 3–2
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gollark: GNU/Nobody is apparently a Muslim, if you're curious.
gollark: We were looking at using a derivative of RFC 1149, but currently it just uses a static archive of compiled osmarks.tk code on the USB stick.
gollark: no.
gollark: It must be very boring.

References
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  36. "SQUAD".
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