List of Indian football champions

The Indian football champions are the winners of the highest league in Indian men's football system. Currently, two parallel league system exists, namely Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League.

Indian Football League System (1st tier)
National Football League (1996–2007)
I-League (2007–2017)
I-League & Indian Super League (2017–present)
Country
India
Founded
1996
Number of teams
10 (2019–20 ISL)
11 (2019–20 I-League)
Current champions

ATK (2019-20 ISL)
Mohun Bagan (2019–20 I-League)

Most successful club
Dempo & Mohun Bagan (5 titles)
Fatorda Stadium, home of five-time champions Dempo

Though Indian football tournaments dates back to the eighteenth century, a proper league system was established in 1996 with the commencement of National Football League (NFL). Since its inception in the 1996–97 season, the champions of the NFL were considered as the national champions. However, after the 2006–07 season of the NFL the league was rebranded as the I-League. Since 2007–08 season, the I-League champions were considered the national champions before 2017–18 season, when the ISL recognised by AFC and became a premier league of the country parallely to the existing I-League. The ISL regular season premiers represents India in the AFC Champions League group stage, and the I-League champion represents India in the AFC Cup group stage. However, the winners of the ISL play-offs are considered as the ISL champions since its inception in 2014.

There are 11 clubs who have won either the National Football League or the I-League and 3 clubs who have won the Indian Super League since the league became the joint top division in India. JCT were the first club to have won any championship, winning the 1996–97 NFL. Mohun Bagan and Dempo are the most successful clubs, winning championships five times each. Mohun Bagan won the NFL thrice and the I-League twice, whereas, Dempo won the NFL twice and the I-League thrice. Bengaluru are the only club who have won both the I-League and the ISL at least once. They won the I-League twice and the ISL once.

History

The first Indian football league, the National Football League (commonly known as the NFL) was an association football league competition in India which was organised into three divisions. The Premier Division of the league was first introduced in 1996, though the country already had a long history in the sport thanks to the likes of the IFA Shield and the Federation Cup. The league though is now transformed into the I-League and continues with that name. The change was supposed to bring more popularity to Indian Football. The first league season of I-League consisted of eight teams from the NFL plus two promoted teams from the former Division Two.

The 1996–97 Indian National Football League was the first season of the NFL and ended with JCT Mills FC being crowned champions. The NFL era though saw Kolkata clubs East Bengal and Mohun Bagan had the most championships with three respectively. The I-League era is different though as most of the champions of the league have come from Goa.

Currently the team with the most championships in I-League is Dempo who have won three championships in the league. They are also the team with the joint most championships overall (3 in I-League + 2 in NFL = 5 titles overall).

In 2014, a franchise based football league named Indian Super League has started. In its first three seasons it was running without recognition from AFC. Before 2017-18 season, ISL get recognition from Asian Football Confederation (AFC). In July 2017, it was proposed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) that the Indian Super League champion be granted a spot in the AFC Cup, Asia's second-tier club competition.[1] On 25 July 2017, the AFC approved the AIFF's proposal. Thus, from the 2017–18 season, the Indian Super League champions were allowed to participate in the AFC Cup from the qualification stages of the competition.[1] Meanwhile, India's spot in the AFC Champions League, Asia's top club competition, was still kept by the I-League,[1] thus two leagues were parallelly running in the country. In October 2019, a roadmap for development of league in India was proposed. All stakeholders accepted the proposal where it was announced that ISL champions would now be entitled to the AFC Champions League, starting from 2021 edition and the I-League champion will get to play the AFC Cup.[2]

Champions

National Football League (1996–2007)
Year Champions
(number of titles)		 Runners-Up Third Place
1996–97 JCT Churchill Brothers East Bengal
1997–98 Mohun Bagan (1/5) East Bengal Salgaocar
1998–99 Salgaocar (1/2) East Bengal Churchill Brothers
1999–00 Mohun Bagan (2/5) Churchill Brothers Salgaocar
2000–01 East Bengal (1/3) Mohun Bagan Churchill Brothers
2001–02 Mohun Bagan (3/5) Churchill Brothers Vasco
2002–03 East Bengal (2/3) Salgaocar Vasco
2003–04 East Bengal (3/3) Dempo Mahindra United
2004–05 Dempo (1/5) Sporting Goa East Bengal
2005–06 Mahindra United East Bengal Mohun Bagan
2006–07 Dempo (2/5) JCT Mahindra United

I-League (2007–2017)
Year Champions
(number of titles)		 Runners-Up Third Place
2007–08 Dempo (3/5) Churchill Brothers JCT
2008–09 Churchill Brothers (1/2) Mohun Bagan Sporting Goa
2009–10 Dempo (4/5) Churchill Brothers Pune
2010–11 Salgaocar (2/2) East Bengal Dempo
2011–12 Dempo (5/5) East Bengal Churchill Brothers
2012–13 Churchill Brothers (2/2) Pune East Bengal
2013–14 Bengaluru (1/3) East Bengal Salgaocar
2014–15 Mohun Bagan (4/5) Bengaluru Royal Wahingdoh
2015–16 Bengaluru (2/3) Mohun Bagan East Bengal
2016–17 Aizawl Mohun Bagan East Bengal

I-League and Indian Super League (2017–present)

Since 2017–18 season, both the I-League and the new Indian Super League shared top flight status in Indian football. Even though ISL began in 2014, it was given the top division status from 2017-18.

I-League
Year Champions
(number of titles)		 Runners-up Third place Leading goalscorer(s) Goals Ref.
2017–18 Minerva Punjab NEROCA Mohun Bagan Aser Pierrick Dipanda (Mohun Bagan) 13 [3][4]
2018–19 Chennai City East Bengal Real Kashmir Pedro Manzi (Chennai City)
Willis Plaza (Churchill Brothers)		 21 [5]
2019–20 Mohun Bagan (5/5) Not awarded [lower-alpha 1] Aser Pierrick Dipanda (Punjab) 12 [6][7]

Indian Super League
Year Champions
(number of titles)		 Runners-up Regular season
winners [lower-alpha 2]		 Runners-up Leading goalscorer(s) Goals Ref.
2017–18 Chennaiyin [lower-alpha 3] Bengaluru — Coro (Goa) 18 [8][9]
2018–19 Bengaluru (3/3) Goa — Coro (Goa) 16 [10][11]
2019–20 ATK [lower-alpha 3] Chennaiyin Goa ATK Roy Krishna (ATK)
Nerijus Valskis (Chennaiyin)
Bartholomew Ogbeche (Kerala Blasters)		 15 [12][13]
Notes
  1. Matches after 14 March 2020 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mohun Bagan were declared the champions having huge point difference between the second placed club and no runners-up were announced as remaining clubs were very closely placed in the points table.[6]
  2. The ISL regular season winners are considered as the premier of the league since 2019–20 season, presented with a League Winners Shield and represent India at the AFC Champions League since 2021.
  3. The ISL began in 2014 and the league was not recognized officially by the AFC before 2017–18 season. Following this it had also became one of the top league in India along with the existing I-League. ATK won the 2014 and 2016 seasons while Chennaiyin won the 2015 season before the league became a top league.

Total titles won
Keys
indicates defunct football club
#indicates the club is active in the Indian Super League
indicates the club is active in the I-League
denotes the club never won any title but was runners-up atleast once
List of clubs with number of championships
RankClubChampionshipsRunners-UpWinning SeasonsRunners-Up Seasons
1 Mohun Bagan 5 4 1997–98, 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2014–15, 2019–20 2000–01, 2008–09, 2015–16, 2016–17
2 Dempo 5 1 2004–05, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2011–12 2003–04
3 East Bengal 3 7 2000–01, 2002–03, 2003–04 1997–98, 1998–99, 2005–06, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
4 Bengaluru # 3 2 2013–14, 2015–16, 2018–19 2014–15, 2017-18
5 Churchill Brothers 2 5 2008–09, 2012–13 1996–97, 1999–00, 2001–02, 2007–08, 2009–10
6 Salgaocar 2 1 1998–99, 2010–11 2002–03
7 JCT 1 1 1996–97 2006–07
Chennaiyin # 2017–18 2019–20
9 Mahindra United 1 0 2005–06 —
Aizawl 2016–17 —
Punjab 2017–18 —
Chennai City 2018–19 —
ATK 2019–20 —

Titles won by club (%)

  Mohun Bagan – 5 (19%)
  Dempo – 5 (19%)
  East Bengal – 3 (11%)
  Bengaluru – 3 (11%)
  Churchill – 2 (7%)
  Salgaocar – 2 (7%)
  Others – 7 (26%)

By state/region
State Championships Clubs
Goa 9 Dempo (5), Churchill Brothers (2), Salgaocar (2)
West Bengal 9 Mohun Bagan (5), East Bengal (3), ATK (1)
Karnataka 3 Bengaluru (3)
Punjab 2 JCT (1), Punjab (1)
Tamil Nadu 2 Chennaiyin (1), Chennai City (1)
Maharashtra 1 Mahindra United (1)
Northeast India 1 Aizawl (1)
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References
  1. "ISL gets official recognition from AFC, becomes second national football league". FirstPost. 28 June 2017. Archived from the original on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  2. "India clubs agree to work together on league roadmap". AFC. 14 October 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  3. "2017-18 I-League: Minerva Punjab FC crowned champions". India Today. 8 March 2018. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  4. Bhattacharya, Arka (13 March 2018). "I-League team of the season: Michael Soosairaj, Chencho Gyeltshen, Dipanda Dicka make the cut". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  5. "Chennai City Crowned I-League 2018-19 Champions After Win Against Minerva Punjab". Press Trust of India (PTI). NDTV. 9 March 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  6. Sharma, Amitabha Das (21 April 2020). "No relegation, no individual prize money in I-League 2019-20". Sportstar. The Hindu. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  7. "Indian I-League Scoring Stats - 2019-20". ESPN. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  8. Vasudevan, Shyam (17 March 2018). "ISL 2017-18: Alves brace helps Chennaiyin FC clinch second title". Sportstar. The Hindu. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  9. "Top scorer in ISL 2017-18". NDTV Sports. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  10. "Bengaluru FC lifts ISL title after Rahul Bheke winner - As it happened". Sportstar. The Hindu. 17 March 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020.
  11. "Top scorer in ISL 2018-19". NDTV Sports. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  12. "ATK wins record third ISL title, beats Chennaiyin in final". Sportstar. The Hindu. 14 March 2020. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  13. "Top scorer in ISL 2019-20". NDTV Sports. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
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