Churchill Brothers

1988–2009: Foundation and early years

Churchill Brothers FC was founded in 1988 as Varca Sports Club. After one season it was renamed Brothers Sporting Club. The club was subsequently bought by politician Churchill Alemao and renamed Churchill Brothers Football Club; it finished as runners-up of the National Football League three times, in 1996–97, 1999–2000 and 2001–02.

Churchill Brothers represented India in the 1997–98 Asian Club Championship, but were eliminated in the first round by the Vietnamese side Dong Thap, losing 2–1 on aggregate. In 1998 the club signed Bassim Yonan, the first Iraqi footballer to play in India. The Scottish manager Danny McLennan coached the team in the 1999–2000 season.

Churchill Brothers won the Durand Cup in 2007 and the 2008–09 I-League, followed by the Durand Cup again in 2009 and the IFA Shield in the same year. In 2008 the Nigerian World Cup player Emeka Ezeugo was appointed head coach. The club had earlier been runners-up in the inaugural 2007–08 I-League.

The I-League title qualified Churchill Brothers for the 2010 AFC Champions League qualifiers, from which they dropped into the 2010 AFC Cup. They won both group matches against Al-Hilal Al-Sahili, finished second in the group and advanced to the knockout stage, where they lost 2–1 to Al-Qadsia at the Mohammed Al-Hamad Stadium.

2010–2019: Second title and relegation battles

Vincent Subramaniam of Singapore managed the club for part of the 2010–11 I-League season. Croatian Drago Mamić took over for the remainder of the campaign and led the side to the IFA Shield.

On 9 June 2011, the club appointed the former Portugal national football team assistant Manuel Gomes as head coach. In October 2011 the team won the 2011 Durand Cup, a third title in the competition, beating Prayag United 5–4 on penalties. Gomes resigned on 15 February 2012 and the former coach Carlos Roberto Pereira returned on a caretaker basis.

Mariano Dias was appointed head coach on 13 July 2012 and in his first season guided the club to the 2012–13 I-League title, its second national championship.

Churchill Brothers won the 2013–14 Federation Cup, but after finishing 12th with 25 points from 24 matches in the 2013–14 I-League the club was excluded from the competition for failing to meet the Asian Football Confederation's club licensing criteria.

In November 2017 the Ukrainian Mykola Shevchenko was appointed head coach. His first match, on 2 December 2017 against Shillong Lajong, ended in defeat, and he was dismissed shortly afterwards. The club then brought in Joseph Afusi of Nigeria as technical director, but was relegated at the end of the 2017–18 season with 17 points from 18 matches. The club's place was later reinstated by the AIFF following a successful appeal.

The Romanian Petre Gigiu was appointed head coach in August 2018. The club finished fourth in the 2018–19 I-League with 34 points.

2020–2025: I-League runners-up and title dispute

In September 2020 Churchill Brothers appointed the Spaniard Fernando Santiago Varela as head coach. Under Varela the club finished as runners-up of the 2020–21 I-League with 29 points; although Churchill won their final match against RoundGlass Punjab, Gokulam Kerala FC took the title on head-to-head record.

Ahead of the 2021–22 I-League the club signed its first Guinean player, Sekou Sylla, and Petre Gigiu returned as head coach. The team finished fourth. Later that year the club reached the final of the Baji Rout Cup in Odisha, losing to Rajasthan United. Churchill finished sixth in both the 2022–23 and 2023–24 seasons and also took part in the 2023 Indian Super Cup and the 2024 Bhausaheb Bandodkar Memorial Trophy. In October 2024 the Cypriot Dimitris Dimitriou was appointed head coach.

2024–25 title dispute

Churchill Brothers provisionally finished top of the 2024–25 I-League table with 40 points. The title, however, remained unresolved because of a protest by second-placed Inter Kashi, who claimed three points from a fixture against Namdhari SC in which an ineligible player had allegedly been fielded. On 13 April 2025 Churchill Brothers withdrew from the Super Cup in protest at the delay.

On 19 April 2025 the AIFF Appeals Committee declared Churchill Brothers champions of the 2024–25 I-League, a ruling that also carried promotion to the Indian Super League. Inter Kashi appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which overturned the AIFF decision on 18 July 2025 and crowned Inter Kashi champions, leaving Churchill Brothers as runners-up.

2025–26: Absence from national competition

Following the CAS ruling, Inter Kashi were promoted to the ISL in place of Churchill Brothers. The Goan club challenged the AIFF before the Delhi High Court and separately sought admission to the ISL as an additional team. On 12 February 2026, two days before the 2025–26 Indian Super League season began, the AIFF Executive Committee rejected Churchill Brothers' application, with only one of its 22 members voting in the club's favour.

At the same meeting the AIFF approved the rebranding of the I-League as the Indian Football League (IFL), together with a governance structure giving the participating clubs a 60 per cent stake in the competition. Churchill Brothers did not enter the 2025–26 IFL, which began on 27 February 2026 with ten teams, and consequently played in no national competition that season; the AIFF subsequently demoted the club to I-League 2 for non-participation.