Indian Arrows

Indian Arrows

Full name	Indian Arrows Football Team [1]
Founded	2010;14 years ago (2010) (as AIFF XI)
Dissolved	21 September 2022;16 months ago (2022-09-21)
Ground	Kalinga Stadium
Capacity	15,000
Owner	All India Football Federation
League	I-League
2021–22	I-League, 10th of 13
Home colours Away colours

Indian Arrows (formerly known as Pailan Arrows) was an Indian developmental football club that competed in the I-League. ^{[2] [3]} The club was formed by the All India Football Federation in 2010, with a main goal of nurturing young Indian football talents. ^[4]

After disbanding in 2013, the project was revived as Indian Arrows in 2017. In September 2022, the technical committee of All India Football Federation decided to discontinue the participation of the Indian Arrows in the I-League because of the difficulty in fulfilling the AFC licensing criteria. Instead, the funding was decided to invest in the youth competitions such as Reliance Foundation Development League. ^[5]

History

AIFF XI (2010–2011)

2010–11 season

The club was founded as the AIFF XI in 2010 under the recommendation of then India head coach Bob Houghton and All India Football Federation president Praful Patel after Bob noticed that almost all the India U19 and India U23 players were on the bench during the I-League season and were never getting any game time. ^[6] The club was originally slated to join the I-League 2nd Division but after the disbanding of Mahindra United the AIFF allowed AIFF XI into the I-League automatically. ^[7] The club participated in their first competition in 2010 which was the Federation Cup and played their first ever professional match on 21 September against JCT FC, in which AIFF XI won 1–0 with Malsawmfela scoring the first goal in the team's history. ^[8] The team finished third in the group in the end, missing out on going to the next round by four points. ^[9] The club then participated in their first I-League match on 3 December 2010 against Chirag United in which the club lost 1–2 and with Lalrindika Ralte scoring the first goal for the club in the league. ^[10] The club then earned their first points on 8 December 2010 against ONGC F.C. after drawing 1–1. ^[11] On 11 January 2011 it was announced that AIFF XI would change their name to Indian Arrows which would take effect on 1 February 2011. ^[12] Arrows finished the 2010–11 I-League season in 9th place.

Pailan Arrows (2011–2013)

2011–12 season

The summer of 2011 would be a busy one for the club. The club changed their name to Pailan Arrows ^[13] on 15 June 2011 after the All India Football Federation reached an agreement with Pailan Group to sponsor the team. ^[14] With the deal Pailan Arrows was also relocated to Kolkata and the Salt Lake Stadium. Then on 13 August 2012 head coach Desmond Bulpin was sacked by the club due to his "style of football" while former India national football team coach Sukhwinder Singh was signed to take over the club. ^[15] The club also lost many of the stars of the previous season like Lalrindika Ralte, Jeje Lalpekhlua (top scorer for Pailan and among Indians in 2010–11), Manandeep Singh and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. The club again participated in the Federation Cup in 2011 where Pailan won two matches but lost one which meant that they would finish 2nd behind Salgaocar and thus meant Pailan were knocked out in the group stage again. ^[16] Pailan Arrows then began the 2011–12 I-League campaign against Mohun Bagan at the Salt Lake Stadium on 23 October 2012 in which they lost 1–3 after Lalrozama Fanai gave them the early lead. ^[17] On 7 February 2012 Sukhwinder Singh resigned as coach of Pailan Arrows due to personal reasons, at this point also Pailan had not won a single match in I-League and had only managed eight draws in 17 matches. ^[18] Assistant coach Sujit Chakravarty took over the reins as head coach for the remainder of the season. ^[18] Towards the end of the season Pailan managed to win two matches, one against Chirag United Club Kerala and another against HAL to finished the season in 13th place out of 14 teams but since they are a developmental team, Pailan were not relegated. ^{[19] [20]}

2012–13 season

After the disastrous season Pailan endured, the club and All India Football Federation signed Australian Arthur Papas as the new permanent head coach of the India U23 and Pailan Arrows on 24 May 2012. ^[21] Papas came to the club after coaching his former club, Oakleigh Cannons FC, to the 2011 Victorian Premier League runners-up title. ^[21]

Disbanding

On 29 August 2013 it was announced that Pailan Arrows had been disbanded by the All India Football Federation as the club sponsors, Pailan Group, could not financially support the team. ^[22]

Revival as Indian Arrows (2017–2022)

After successful hosting of 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, AIFF revived the project as Indian Arrows with the aim of giving regular game time to U–17 world cup players as a team, and fielded the team in 2017–18 I-League. ^[23] They were immune from relegation. Despite being praised for their competitive showings in 2017–18 I-League season, they finished bottom of the league with 15 points from 18 games. ^[24] In the 2018–19 I League, with six wins and three drews, the Arrows finished eighth in the table among 11 teams. They qualified for the 2019 Super Cup by defeating Kerala Blasters 2–0. ^[25] Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the 2019–20 season was cancelled after 16 matches and the Arrows were placed at the bottom. ^[26] In the 2021–21 I League season, they were placed tenth in the league.

Disbanding

In September 2022, the AIFF executive committee accepted the recommendation of its new technical committee, to discontinue Indian Arrows because of the difficulty in fulfilling the AFC Licensing criteria. ^{[27] [28]} They also announced that the finances used for the Indian Arrows will be invested in creating a new Elite Youth League in the country. ^[29]

Crest and colours

The club's colours were blue and white, just like the India national football team. During the first season Pailan Arrows started with a dark blue kit ^[30] but eventually during the 2010–11 season the club started using a normal blue kit with black shorts. ^[31] For the 2011–12 season Pailan used a dark blue jersey ^[32] and a white kit with black or red socks. ^[33]

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
2010—2011	Nike	None
2011—2013		POTO Potato Flakes
2017—2018		None
2018—2022	Six5Six	Hero [34]

In october 2018, Government of Odisha signed Rs.50 million sponsorship deal with AIFF for the Arrows. The sponsorship deal will also cover India's under-15 football team. As part of the deal, the state government will host the Arrows and under-15 national team at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. ^[35] The deal also covers the two teams’ stay in Bhubaneswar, providing them with the ground facility as well as boarding/lodging during the I-league and off-season. ^[36]

Stadium

For the 2010–11 I-League season the club played at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Gurgaon, Haryana when they were originally due to play at the Ambedkar Stadium in Delhi but due to the pitch condition the club was moved to Gurgaon. ^[37] After relocating to Kolkata the club started to play at the Salt Lake Stadium which is also home to East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Prayag United. ^[38] In 2017–18, the team played in Goa and Delhi. In 2018–19, they used the Barabati Stadium and Kalinga Stadium. Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha were the last home base of the Indian Arrows before getting disbanded in September 2022. ^[35]

Notable former players

For all former or notable Indian Arrows players with a Wikipedia article, see: Indian Arrows players .

Final staff

Position	Name
Head coach	Shanmugam Venkatesh
Team manager	Shalak Patade
Assistant coach	Mahesh Gawli
Goalkeeping coach	Abhijeet Mondal
Team analyst	Prashanth Murthy
Physiotherapist	Neeraj Churi

Team records

Overview

Season	Division	Teams	Position	Attendance	Super Cup	Durand Cup	IFAShield
2010–11	I-League	14	8	—	Group stage	DNP	DNP
2011–12		14	13	—	Group stage	DNP	DNP
2012–13		14	12	—	Group stage	Group stage	DNP
2017–18		10	10	—	Qualification round	DNP	DNP
2018–19		11	8	—	Round of 16	DNP	DNP
2019–20		11	11	—	DNP	DNP	DNP
2020–21		11	11	—	DNP	DNP	GS
2021–22		13	10	—	DNP	DNP	GS

Overall records

Season	Division							Continental						Top scorer
	Division	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Player	Goals
2010–11	I-League	26	7	8	11	31	49	Not qualified						Jeje Lalpekhlua	13
2011–12		26	2	10	14	17	40	Not qualified						Chinadorai Sabeeth	9
2012–13		26	6	5	15	45	40	Not qualified						Halicharan Narzary Milan Singh	5
2017–18		18	4	3	11	13	24	Not qualified						Abhijit Sarkar	4
2018–19		20	6	3	11	19	28	Not qualified						Rohit Danu	4
2019–20		16	2	3	11	7	20	Not qualified						Vikram Pratap Singh	4
2020–21		10	1	1	8	6	31	Not qualified						Harsh Patre	3
2021–22		2	1	1	0	2	1	Not qualified						Parthib Gogoi	1

Head coaching history

This is a full list of Indian Arrows's coaches and their records, from 2010 until they were disbanded in 2022.

Only competitive matches are counted. Wins, losses and draws are results at the final whistle; the results of penalty shoot-outs are not counted.

Name	Nationality	From	To	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Win%
Des Bulpin	Scotland	August 2010	August 2011	26	7	8	11	31	49	026.92
Sukhwinder Singh	India	15 August 2011	7 February 2012	17	0	8	9	8	28	000.00
Sujit Chakravarty	India	8 February 2012	7 May 2012	9	2	2	5	9	12	022.22
Arthur Papas	Australia	22 May 2012	28 May 2013	27	6	6	15	27	47	022.22
Sanjoy Sen	India	20 July 2013	29 August 2013	0	0	0	0	0	0	!—
Luís Norton de Matos	Portugal	17 August 2017	18 July 2018	19	4	3	12	14	26	021.05
Floyd Pinto	India	25 July 2018	29 November 2019	22	7	3	12	21	31	031.82
Shanmugam Venkatesh	India	29 November 2019	April 2022	31	5	5	21	18	58	016.13

See also

• AIFF Elite Academy
• Elite League
• Football in India
• History of Indian football
• Indian football league system
• Junior National Football Championship
• List of Indian Arrows seasons
• Subroto Cup

References

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2. "Young Indian Goalkeepers Look to Make a Mark in SAFF U20 Championship". www.news18.com. Bhubaneswar, Odisha: CNN News18. 20 July 2022. Archived from the original on 24 July 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
3. "Hero I-League 2021–2022 TABLE". footballdatabase.com. FootballDatabase. Archived from the original on 20 August 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
4. Sharma, Siddharth. "Vital steps to improve the Indian U23 football team". Sportskeeda. Archived from the original on 22 June 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
5. "IM Vijayan chairs Technical Committee meeting in Kolkata". www.the-aiff.com/. Kolkata, West Bengal: AIFF. 18 September 2022.
6. Bali, Rahul. "Why Pailan Arrows isn't India's best bet for talent but the rest of the clubs are". goal.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
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8. "Federation Cup results". Sam80dev3. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
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13. Williams, Joe (25 September 2017). "The Goa and Maha Derby: A thing past in I-League". khelnow.com. Khel Now News. Archived from the original on 20 July 2021. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
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27. Mergulhao, Marcus (27 September 2022). "AIFF set to ban foreign players from lower leagues". timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Panaji, Goa. TNN. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
28. Mukherjee, Sayan (27 September 2022). "Six foreigners recommended for matchday squads as I-League returns on Oct 29". www.news9live.com. Archived from the original on 8 October 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
29. "No Longer Part of I-League, Indian Arrows Players to Not Play Football Till January". News18. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
30. http://www.the-aiff.com/siteadmin/uploads/1285427823ONGC-%26-India-XI-match-in-Ludhiana-2.jpg Pailan vs. ONGC 2010
31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PahsMF7fw5I Archived 24 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine Pailan vs Pune as Indian Arrows
32. http://footballkerala.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Pailan-Arrows-striker-CS-Sabeeth-dribbles-past-a-horde-of-Chirag-Kerala-defenders-500x275.jpg Archived 13 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine Pailan vs Chirag United 2011–12
33. http://www.chrispd.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20111022-2-650x291.jpg Archived 13 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine Pailan in the white kit 2011–12
34. Zaidi, Waseem (21 January 2022). "I-LEAGUE: Introducing shirt sponsors of every I-league club for 2021-22 season". www.khelnow.com. Khel Now. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
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36. "Odisha Government to sponsor I-league team Indian Arrows". Times of India. Archived from the original on 13 January 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
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38. "Pailan Arrows muff chances, settle for a draw". The All India Football Federation. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2012.

External links

• Pailan Arrows at Goal.com
• Indian Arrows at GSA