The 1996–97 National Football League, also known as the Philips National League for sponsorship reasons, was the inaugural season of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. The tournament began on 17 December 1996 and concluded on 16 March 1997. Before the commencement, the

All India Football Federation The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the national governing body of football in India. It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to Asian Football Confederation. It is affiliated to Ministry o ...

maintained that it would be a semi-professional tournament for the first two years.

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

India was the main sponsor for the tournament and a total prize money of 1.5

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

was announced; 35

lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ex ...

to the winner. Twelve teams took part in the competition, which was played in two

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

stages: a preliminary group stage featuring two groups of six teams each played in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

, and a main stage featuring the top four from each group played after a gap of three weeks following the first.

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

were the favorites to win the competition by virtue of their victories in the

Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...

and the Calcutta League earlier that season. However, in a closely fought second stage mostly between

JCT Mills Jagatjit Cotton & Textile Football Club (formerly known as JCT Mills FC; abbreviated as both JCT FC, or simply JCT) was an Indian professional football club based in Phagwara, Punjab. Founded in 1971, the club was sponsored by Jagatjit Cotton ...

and

Churchill Brothers Churchill Brothers FC Goa, or simply known as Churchill Brothers, is an Indian professional football club based in Margao, Goa, that competes in the I-League, alongside Goa Professional League. Founded in 1988 in Margao, the club usually part ...

, the former sealed the title on the final day with a win over Dempo, courtesy a hat trick by Bhaichung Bhutia. Air India's

Godfrey Pereira Godfrey Pereira is a former Indian footballer who was last the head coach for Air India FC in the I-League. Coaching career Air India On 3 July 2012, it was announced that Pereira had become coach of Air India FC after Santosh Kashyap joine ...

was named the best player of the league and JCT Mills'

Sukhwinder Singh Sukhwinder Singh (born 18 July 1971) is an internationally acclaimed Indian playback singer who primarily sings Bollywood songs. He is famous internationally for singing " Jai Ho" from the film ''Slumdog Millionaire'' which won an Academy Awa ...

, the best manager. JCT Mills also won the Fairplay Trophy, which carried a purse of 2.5 lakh. The bottom two clubs in each group would not take part in the next edition, although

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment ...

would play the following season.

Overview

The first match of the inaugural season of the National Football League kicked off at around 5:45 p.m. (

IST Ist or IST may refer to: Information Science and Technology * Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology * Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan * Graduate School ...

), an hour after the scheduled time, on 17 December 1996 between

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

and Mohammedan Sporting at the Salt Lake Stadium in

. It was inaugurated by then India's Prime Minister

H. D. Deve Gowda Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda (; born 18 May 1933 in) is an Indian politician from the state of Karnataka. He served as the 11th prime minister of India from 1 June 1996 to 21 April 1997. He was previously the 14th Chief Minister of Karn ...

. East Bengal defeated Mohammedan Sporting 2–1 with Raman Vijayan scoring a brace for his team; the first goal coming in the 10th minute.

Teams

Stadia and locations

Group stage

*Top four advance to the Championship stage. *

Group A

Group B

Championship stage

Season statistics

Hat-tricks

⁵ Player scored five goals :Note: (H) – Home; (A) – Away

1996-97 Season Roll of Honour

References

External links

Philips National League
at

Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:1996-97 Indian National Football League National Football League (India) seasons 1996–97 in Indian football

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...