2014–15 Bharat FC season

Bharat FC
2014–15 season
Manager Stuart Watkiss
Stadium Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex
Home colours
Away colours
Third colours

The 2014–15 season will be Bharat FC's first season in the I-League and first season in existence.

Background

On 25 August 2014 it was announced that Kalyani Group had won the bidding rights to a new I-League team and that they would base the team in Pune, Maharashtra.[1] On 4 November 2014 it was announced that former Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Stuart Watkiss would be the first head coach of the teams history.[2] Then, six days later, on 10 November, it was announced that the team had signed their first player in New Zealand international Kris Bright.[3] On 15 November, Stanley Rozario was appointed as the assistant coach.[4] On 23 November, the team was officially unveiled as Bharat FC.[5]

Pre-season

The club started the season with two friendlies against Bombay Engineer Group, which they won 3–0 and the second one 5–0, courtesy two goals from Steven Dias and a goal each from Subhash Singh, Surojit Bose and Jayashelan Prasad.[6][7] In the last friendly before the season, Bharat FC played against Air India and managed a 2–2 draw with a goal each from Kris Bright and Gunashekar Vignesh.[8]

Matches

I-League

Table

Pos
Team
 Pld
 W
 D
 L
 GF
 GA
 GD
 Pts
Qualification or relegation
Head-to-head
1 Mohun Bagan (C) 20 11 6 3 33 16+17 39 Qualification to AFC Champions League qualifying play-off
2 Bengaluru FC 20 10 7 3 35 19+16 37 Qualification to AFC Cup group stage1
3 Royal Wahingdoh 20 8 6 6 27 270 30
4 East Bengal 20 8 5 7 30 28+2 292 PFC 2–3 KEB
KEB 1–2 PFC
5 Pune 20 8 5 7 24 26−2 292
6 Mumbai 20 5 9 6 22 27−5 243 MUM 3–1 SFC
SFC 2–1 MUM
7 Salgaocar 20 7 3 10 25 27−2 243
8 Sporting Goa 20 5 8 7 22 27−5 234 SCG 1–1 SLFC
SLFC 1–2 SCG
9 Shillong Lajong 20 6 5 9 34 29+5 234
10 Dempo (R) 20 3 10 7 15 26−11 19 Relegation to I-League 2nd Division
11 Bharat FC 20 4 6 10 13 28−15 185

Source: I-League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) play-off match
1 Bengaluru FC, as the winner of 2014–15 Federation Cup, qualified for the 2016 AFC Cup
2 East Bengal ahead on goal difference, head-to-head record being the same
3 Mumbal ahead on head-to-head goal difference; Mumbai–Salgaocar 3–0, Salgaocar–Mumbai 3–1
4 Sporting Goa ahead on head-to-head record; Sporting Goa–Shillong Lajong 1–1, Shillong Lajong–Sporting Goa 1–2
5 Bharat FC were not relegated as they had relegation immunity for two years.[9]
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.

First-team squad

As of 5 January 2015[10]

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

No. Position Player
India GK Arindam Bhattacharya
India GK Harshad Meher
India GK Shahinlal Meloly
England DF Bobby Hassell
India DF Bikramjeet Singh
India DF Dharmaraj Ravanan
India DF Gouramangi Singh
India DF Mehrajuddin Wadoo
India DF Nallappan Mohanraj
India DF Naorem James Singh
India DF Sabas Saleel
No. Position Player
India MF Adil Khan
India MF Dipendu Dowry
India MF Gunashekar Vignesh
India MF Jayashelan Prasad
India MF Lester Fernandez
India MF Simranjit Singh
New Zealand FW Kris Bright
India FW Manjit Singh
India FW Rajinder Kumar
India FW Subhash Singh
India FW Surojit Bose

Technical Staff

Position Name
Head Coach England Stuart Watkiss
Assistant Coach India Stanley Rozario
Fitness coach England Lindsay Davis[11]
Physiotherapist England Ian Farmery[12]

References

  1. ↑ Mazumdar, Rakhi. "Kalyani Group bags bid to launch team in I-league". Economic Times. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  2. ↑ "I-League: Kalyani Group appoints Stuart Watkiss as head coach". IBN Live. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Mitra, Atanu. "Kalyani Group rope in Kris Bright". Goal.com. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "Stanly Rozario to assist Watkiss at Kalyani Group’s football club". Goal.com. 15 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Kalyani Group names I-League team as 'Bharat FC'". 23 November 2014.
  6. ↑ "Bharat FC tackle Air India in final preseason friendly". bharatfc.com. 16 Jan 2015.
  7. ↑ "Bharat FC vs BEG - 5-0 - all goals". YouTube.
  8. ↑ "Bharat FC close preseason friendlies with 2-2 draw". 16 January 2015.
  9. ↑ "East Bengal - Bharat FC Preview: Lions' pride travel in search of first win of the season". 15 February 2015.
  10. ↑ "SQUAD". Bharat FC. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  11. ↑ https://twitter.com/ILeagueOfficial/status/544432940768174081
  12. ↑ https://twitter.com/BharatFC/status/545172296999002112
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