List of Indian football champions

Fatorda Stadium, home of five-time champions Dempo

The Indian football champions are the winners of the highest league in Indian football, which is currently the I-League.

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

Champions

National Football League

Year	Champions (number of titles)	Runners-up	Third place
1996–97[1]	JCT (1)	Churchill Brothers	East Bengal
1997–98	Mohun Bagan (1)	East Bengal	Salgaocar
1998–99	Salgaocar (1)	East Bengal	Churchill Brothers
1999–2000	Mohun Bagan (2)	Churchill Brothers	Salgaocar
2000–01	East Bengal (1)	Mohun Bagan	Churchill Brothers
2001–02	Mohun Bagan (3)	Churchill Brothers	Vasco
2002–03	East Bengal (2)	Salgaocar	Vasco
2003–04	East Bengal (3)	Dempo	Mahindra United
2004–05	Dempo (1)	Sporting Goa	East Bengal
2005–06	Mahindra United (1)	East Bengal	Mohun Bagan
2006–07	Dempo (2)	JCT	Mahindra United

I-League

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

Total Wins

Seven clubs have been Indian champions. Clubs in italics are no longer active.

Club	Winners	Runners-Up	Winning Seasons	Runners-Up Seasons
Dempo	5	1	2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012	2004
Mohun Bagan	4	3	1998, 2000, 2002, 2015	2001, 2009, 2016
East Bengal	3	6	2001, 2003, 2004	1998, 1999, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2014
Churchill Brothers	2	5	2009, 2013	1997, 2000, 2002, 2008, 2010
Bengaluru	2	1	2014, 2016	2015
Salgaocar	2	1	1999, 2011	2003
JCT	1	1	1997	2007
Mahindra United	1	0	2006	—
Pune	0	1	—	2013

References

1. Chaudhuri, Arunava; Jönsson, Mikael; Bobrowsky, Josef (6 December 2006). "India 1996/97". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 1 June 2012.

External links

• RSSSF.com - India - List of National Champions