India

JCT FC

IndiaFundação: 1971

História

Jagatjit Cotton & Textile Football Club (formerly known as JCT Mills FC; abbreviated as JCT FC, or simply JCT) is an Indian football academy based in Phagwara, Punjab. Founded in 1971, the club was sponsored by Jagatjit Cotton and Textile Mills under the leadership of Samir Thapar and participated in the National Football League which was later rebranded as I-League. The club currently participates in Punjab State Super Football League after disbanding their senior squad in 2011.

Nicknamed "The Millmen", JCT have won many tournaments and brought laurels to the State of Punjab. They won the inaugural edition of the National Football League in 1996. They were one of the benchmark teams in North Punjab along with Border Security Force and Punjab Police, winning prestigious state level tournaments. They were the first team from India to sign a foreign coach and the first team outside of Calcutta to win the IFA Shield, the second oldest football tournament in India. JCT's corporate team also took part in All India Public Sector tournaments.

In 2011, JCT emerged as the sixth-ranked Indian team, and 957th universally, in the international ranking of clubs during the first ten years of the 21st century (2001–2010), issued by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.

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Jagatjit Cotton, Sahil Bagga and Textile Mills constituted the football club in March 1971. However, the club got recognition from 1974 onwards when several players joined the club from the Leaders Club of Jalandhar. Included among these players was Inder Singh, who had captained the India national team in previous years, won the Arjuna Award in 1969, and managed the club until 2001. The Leader Club, started by Lala Dwarka Das Sehgal had played a major role in popularizing football in Northern India in the 1960s and 1970s. After the end of Leaders Club era, JCT Mills have since taken the mantle and become the biggest and most successful football club in this part of India. In 1983, British coach Bob Bootland took charge of JCT and guided the team winning the Durand Cup same year.

JCT Limited had been involved in the Punjab Football Association (PFA) for the three decades. On 1 July 1992, the club appointed former Indian international Sukhwinder Singh, who previously played for the club, as chief coach; He served as deputy general manager and joint secretary as well. In 1995, they clinched Scissors Cup title, defeating Malaysia Premier League side Perlis F.A. 1–0. In 1996, they emerged champions in the Federation Cup, defeating East Bengal 5–3 through penalties. JCT won the inaugural NFL title in the 1996–97 season. In that season, they clinched the prestigious IFA Shield title, defeating Iraqi Premier League side Al-Karkh SC by 1–0. In January 2007, the JCT management decided to change the club name from JCT Mills FC to JCT FC.

In 2007, JCT announced an association with the English club Wolverhampton Wanderers, as part of the Wolverhampton-India Project launched at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. In the inaugural season of I-League, JCT achieved third place, with 33 points.

In 2011, two members from the Wolves Academy members visited the club with an intention "to start special training programmes". However, a few months later, in June, the club announced of its disbanding. In a statement, the club said, "Today football teams worldwide have become self-sustaining enterprises for which high exposure is needed to build viewership and spectators in the stadium. JCT won the inaugural national league in 1996, where there was high quality TV exposure and widespread public interest. But since then the league has had negligible exposure and the teams have been going almost unnoticed." It added, "JCT Limited, being a corporate, needs to justify to its stakeholders the effort vs visibility of the football team."

In 2014, reports said that the club was planning on a return to professional football through I-League 2nd Division the following season; however, it failed to materialize. Though the official club body maintained JCT's football-centric activities and academies, and trials until 2015, alongside acquiring services of Spanish UEFA A license holder coach Juan Jose Royan Balco.

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