Hindustan Aeronautics Limited SC

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Sporting Club, often abbreviated as HAL or HASC, was an institutional Indian football club based in Bangalore. It was named after the company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The club competed in the top tier of Karnataka football — the Bangalore A Division and from 2001, the Bangalore Super Division. One of the top clubs from Karnataka, they have also competed in the National Football League till 2007, and subsequently the I-League, then top tier of Indian football league system.

In 2014, following a poor performance in the 2013–14 season, the club announced of "temporary shutting down... activities".

History

Formation and journey

Originally founded in the 1990s and soon became affiliated with ''Bangalore District Football Association'' (BDFA), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Sports Club began their journey through participating in the Bangalore A Division league, in which they emerged champions in 2000. Before getting revived in 2006, they clinched the Bangalore Super Division titles in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005.

2006–2010

After finishing third in the NFL Second Division in 2006, HASC were promoted to the Premier Division. Although only the top two teams from the Second Division gain promotion, Tata Football Academy who finished first in the standings were not able to form a professional team for the Premier Division. Therefore, HASC were promoted to the 11th NFL Premier Division along with runners up Churchill Brothers.

In 2010, the club emerged as the runners-up of the 2010 I-League 2nd Division after the end of final round, hosted in Bengaluru. With 16 points in 7 matches, HAL finished on 2nd as ONGC FC clinched title.

2010–2014

HASC qualified for 2010–11 I-League season after finishing second in the 2010 I-League 2nd Division. They were the second South Indian team in I-League after Viva Kerala. In the last match of the season they defeated defending champions Dempo 4–2 to starve off relegation to I-League 2nd Division, with Xavier Vijay Kumar scoring two goals. HAL later clinched the 2012–13 Bengaluru Super Division title.

In the 2013–14 edition of the Bangalore Super Division, HASC finished eighth among nine teams. This prompted the club to shut down their activities "temporarily" in December 2014. The coach H. Chnadrashekhar said, "We will not field a team temporarily (in the Cups and the league) and to that effect HASC's management had sent a letter to BDFA secretary ST Bhoopal." Reports of the club resuming operations and fielding their team emerged after they held selection trials in 2019.

Crest

The HASC crest was different from the crest its parent company. For instance the Hindustan Company logo has a picture of the earth with a plane going around and has the word HAL written as well as the Hindi way of writing HAL while the HASC just has a crest with the word HAL in green letters.

Home ground

HASC used the Bangalore Football Stadium as its home ground for domestic and regional league matches since 2006, which previously had a capacity of 45,000 spectators. Built in 1967, the stadium has Artificial turf and currently has a capacity of 8,400.

Ownership and finances

The ownership of HASC has been from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The company HAL were not so influential when running the club at first, as shown from their poor record before the 2010 I-League 2nd Division season in which the club achieved promotion.

Notable former players

''For all current and former notable players of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited with a Wikipedia article, see: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C. players''.

Other department

Field hockey

The club has its hockey team, that competed in Beighton Cup (one of the oldest field hockey tournaments in the world). Then known as ''Hindustan Aircraft'', they lifted the trophy in 1951, and finished as runners-up in 1952.

Honours
*Beighton Cup
**Champions (1): 1951
**Runners-up (1): 1952
*Aga Khan Gold Cup
**Runners-up (1): 1949

Honours

League

* National Football League II
**Champions (1): 2000–01
**Third place (1): 2005–06
* I-League 2nd Division
**Runners-up (1): 2010
* Bangalore Super Division
**Champions (7): 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2012–13
**Runners-up (1): 2011–12
* Bangalore B Division
**Champions (1): 2020–21

Cup

* Sait Nagjee Football Tournament
**Champions (3): 1952, 1953, 1954
*Puttiah Memorial Trophy
**Champions (6): 1977, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008

See also

* List of football clubs in India

References

Further reading

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*{{Cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QbUFaAEACAAJ, title=History of Indian Football: Upto 2009–10, first=Nirmal, last=Nath, year=2011, publisher=Readers Service, isbn=9788187891963, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220722172604/https://books.google.co.in/books/about/History_of_Indian_Football.html?id=QbUFaAEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y, archive-date=22 July 2022

External links

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited SC
at WorldFootball.net
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited SC
at Soccerway

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited SC
at Global Sports Archive

I-League clubs
Football clubs in Bangalore
Works association football clubs in India
2006 establishments in Karnataka
Association football clubs established in 2006
Association football clubs established in the 1940s