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 gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

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

All India Football Federation All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the governing body of football, futsal and beach soccer in India. It is a member of FIFA, and is affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation and South Asian Football Federation. It is affiliated wit ...

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

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

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

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

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. F ...

to the winner. Twelve teams took part in the competition, which was played in two round robin stages: a preliminary group stage featuring two groups of six teams each played in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies 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 bound by 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 East Bengal (; ''Purbô Bangla/Purbôbongo'') was the eastern province of the Dominion of Pakistan, which covered the territory of modern-day Bangladesh. It consisted of the eastern portion of the Bengal region, and existed from 1947 until 195 ...

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

Calcutta League The Calcutta Football League (CFL) is a ladder-based football competition in the Indian state of West Bengal, organised by the Indian Football Association (WB) as part of the state leagues. It is the oldest football league in Asia. The CFL ...

earlier that season. However, in a closely fought second stage mostly between JCT Mills and

Churchill Brothers Churchill Brothers Futebol Clube de Goa (simply known as Churchill Brothers) is an Indian professional football club based in Margao, Goa, that competes in the Indian Super League, alongside the Goa Professional League (reserves). Founded in 1 ...

, the former sealed the title on the final day with a win over

Dempo Dempo Mining Corporation Limited is a prominent mining company from the western Indian state of Goa. The mineral business was founded by Vasantrao S. Dempo in 1941, along with his younger brother Vaikuntrao Dempo. Vasantrao was the founding c ...

, courtesy a hat trick by

Bhaichung Bhutia Bhaichung Bhutia (born 15 December 1976), also spelled as Baichung Bhutia, is an Indian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Bhutia is considered as the torchbearer of Indian football in the international arena. He is often ...

. Air India's Godfrey Pereira was named the best player of the league and JCT Mills'

Sukhwinder Singh Sukhwinder Singh (born 18 July 1971) is an Indian playback singer who primarily sings Bollywood songs. He sang " Jai Ho" in the film '' Slumdog Millionaire'', for which he won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Televisi ...

, 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 Super Giant, commonly referred to as Mohun Bagan, is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, it is one of the oldest football clubs in Asia. The club competes in the Indian Super League, ...

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 #REDIRECT Ist {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

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

and Mohammedan Sporting at the

Salt Lake Stadium The Salt Lake Stadium, officially known as Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK), is a multi-purpose stadium, used mostly for football matches, located in Salt Lake City, Greater Kolkata, with a capacity of 68,000 spectators. Named after S ...

. It was inaugurated by then India's Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda. East Bengal defeated Mohammedan Sporting 2–1 with

Raman Vijayan Raman Vijayan (born 4 June 1973) is a football coach, former Indian football player, founder of Noble Football Academy And RamanVijayan Soccer School. Who currently assistant coach of Indian Super League club Chennaiyin FC. Raman is one of two ...

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 organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

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

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...