Bharat FC (also known as Kalyani Bharat FC) was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team based in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

that competed in the

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

, then top tier of

Indian football league system The Indian football league system is the league structure of football club competitions in India. The highest level of men's club football competition in India is the Indian Super League. Indian Women's League, founded in 2016, is the highest l ...

. The team was founded on 26 August 2014 by Kalyani Group as a direct-entry team into the I-League, making them the second direct-entry side in league history after

Bengaluru FC Bengaluru Football Club () is an Indian professional football club based in Bangalore, Karnataka. The club competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. The club was established on 20 July 2013, and began its first ...

. The name of the team, as well as their home stadium, the

Balewadi Sports Complex The Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex is a sports complex located in Pune, India. The complex is situated about 15 km from Pune downtown and 5 km from Hinjawadi. This complex was the venue for the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, Kh ...

, were officially announced on 23 November 2014. But after a disappointing season in I-League the club withdrew and was eventually dissolved.

History

In 2013, in a bid to increase the popularity of the

– India's top football league – 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 ...

approved the addition of teams into the league via bidding for a direct-entry slot. The first two teams to be allowed into the I-League via direct-entry were

and Mumbai Tigers but only

played in the 2013–14 season. Despite the failure of Mumbai Tigers, Bengaluru FC proved to be an amazing success for the I-League as the

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

club managed to bring in full-houses to all their matches as well as even win the league in their very first season. This thus made the AIFF announce that they would be accepting bids for new direct-entry teams for the 2014–15 season. On 26 August 2014, after the AIFF reviewed the bidders, they announced that Kalyani Group had won the right to start a direct-entry club for the 2014–15 season. After winning the bid for the team, in November 2014, Kalyani Group signed their first ever head coach for the football team in former

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

player

Stuart Watkiss Stuart Watkiss (born 8 May 1966) is an English football coach and former professional player who is the assistant coach of Indian Super League club Jamshedpur. As a player, he was a defender and notably played in the Football League with Wolv ...

. They also appointed

Stanley Rozario Henry Stanley Rozario (born 22 April 1960) is an Indian professional Manager (association football), manager and former Association football, footballer. He was most recently the head coach of I-League club Aizawl FC, Aizawl. He managed top clu ...

as assistant coach. Kalyani Group then signed their first ever player on 10 November 2014 when

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

international Kris Bright signed for the club, who also represented

at the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

. After making their first signings, the Kalyani Group officially announced the name of the club on 23 November 2014 as Bharat FC. The club started the season with two friendlies against

Bombay Engineer Group The Bombay Engineer Group, or the ''Bombay Sappers'' as they are informally known, are a regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The Bombay Sappers draw their origin from the erstwhile Bombay Presidency army of the British Raj ...

, which they won 3–0, and the second one 5–0, courtesy two goals from Steven Dias and a goal each from

Subhash Singh Singam Subhash Singh (born 1989) is an Indian professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), winger for indian club Sagolband United. Youth career Subhash had to choose between football or weigh ...

Surojit Bose Surojit Bose (born 19 December 1986) is an Indian footballer from Kolkata who currently plays for Mumbai Tigers. He has previously played for Mahindra United in the I-League, and for Bengal in the Santosh Trophy. Before joining Mahindra Unite ...

and

Jayashelan Prasad Jayashelan Prasad (born 26 May 1988) is an Indian footballer who last played for Bharat FC. Career Pune Jayashelan joined Pune F.C. during 2008. He was selected to play for the Pune FC senior team during the II-Division I-League campaign in 20 ...

. In the last friendly before the season, Bharat FC played against

Air India Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the sa ...

and managed a 2–2 draw with a goal each from Kris Bright and

Gunashekar Vignesh Gunashekar Vignesh (born 30 September 1988) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bengaluru United in the I-League 2nd Division. Career Born in Karnataka, Bangalore, Vignesh began his career with I-League club Pun ...

2014–15 I-League

The

2014–15 I-League The 2014–15 I-League (known as the ''Hero I-League'' for sponsorship reasons) was the eighth season of the I-League, the Indian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 2007. The season began on 17 Januar ...

was their first and only top flight season, they ever competed. For their maiden season, ''The Lions'' signed experienced foreigners like Englishman

Bobby Hassell Robert John Francis Hassell (born 4 June 1980) is an English former footballer who played for Mansfield Town, Barnsley and Bharat FC in I-League as a defender. He is currently an Academy Manager at Barnsley. Career Mansfield Born in Derby, D ...

, New Zealander Kris Bright. They rope in Beninese

Romuald Boco Romuald Boco (born 8 July 1985) is a footballer who last played as a midfielder for Leyton Orient. Born in France, he has represented Benin at full international level. Club career Accrington Stanley Born in Bernay, Eure, Boco signed for Accrin ...

as Marquee player, who earned 50 caps for his country. Palestinian Omar Jarun was also signed in March 2015 for an 18-month deal completing the club's Asian player quota. In their first ever league match, the debutants held

Dempo SC Dempo Sports Club, or simply known as Dempo, is an Indian professional football club based in Panjim, Goa, that competes in the Goa Professional League. The club is owned and sponsored by the Dempo Mining Corporation Limited. Popularly known ...

to a goalless draw. Later they defeated giants

Mohun Bagan AC 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 ...

by 1–0. On 27 January 2015, Bright scored the first goal for his club, netting a 14th-minute goal against Royal Wahingdoh but they lost the game by 1–2. Kris Bright emerged as the top goalscorer for Bharat with 6 goals in the league. Bharat FC has competed in 20 matches in the league season and managed to win only 3 matches alongside 10 draws and 7 defeats. Thus the club finished at the bottom of the league table with 18 points, behind

. But they were not relegated as they had relegation immunity for two years.

Colours and kits

During the club's first ever kit launch event on 2 January 2015, it was announced that the club's colours would be based on the team's motto, ''"Together, Forever and Triumphant"'', which are

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

, and

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

. The home kit was coloured in dark blue which stands for the "Peoples Football" while the away kit is predominantly red. The club's third kit was coloured completely white with the colours blue and red running horizontally across the shirt. The red denotes "passion and vitality" while blue stands for "truth and loyalty".

Ownership

Bharat FC was formed through an initiative by Kalyani Group, a privately held industrial group, headquartered in

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 ...

, that is focused in four primary sectors, viz. Engineering Steel, Automotive & Non-Automotive Components, Renewable Energy & Infrastructure and Specialty Chemicals. Amit Kalyani was the club's first and only managing director.

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

Stadium

When Bharat FC's name was announced, the

was also announced as the first ever stadium to be used by the club. The stadium has a capacity of 12,000. The team has stated their intention to eventually construct their own football stadium with

Manjri Manjari is a village 4 km from Hadapsar, India, which is a suburban area around Pune. Manjari railway station is one of the Pune Suburban Railway Pune Suburban Railway, (Marathi language, Marathi: पुणे उपनगरीय र� ...

being the initial looked at location for the stadium. During the 2015 season, the team had their training group located in

Disfunction

The team was officially launched in November 2014, but despite investing heavily, Bharat FC just managed to gain only 18 points from 20 games in the

season, finishing at the bottom. The return on investment being abysmal, the club didn’t see

as an economically viable investment anymore. With minimal activity ahead of their second season and several staff, including CEO Suvrat Thatte, resigning, the

-based club only played one season in the I-League.

Team records

Overall records

Head Coach's Record

Technical staffs

Notable former players

''For all former notable Bharat FC players with a Wikipedia article, see:

Bharat FC players Bharat, or Bharath, may refer to: * Bharat (term), the name for India in various Indian languages ** Bharata Khanda, the Sanskrit name for the Indian subcontinent (or South Asia) * Bharata, the name of several legendary figures or groups: ** Bha ...

''.