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| Full name | Services football team | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground | Various | |||
| Owner | Services Sports Control Board Indian Army | |||
| Head coach | Mileswamy Govindaraju Ramachandran | |||
| League | Santosh Trophy | |||
| 2023–24 | Champions | |||
The Services football team is a football section of the Indian Armed Forces, representing them in various regional competitions. It is operated by the Services Sports Control Board, [1] and competes in Santosh Trophy. [2]
Services have appeared in the final of the Santosh Trophy ten times, and have won it six times.
The team won their first Santosh Trophy in 1960–61 by beating Bengal 1–0 in the final. Since then, they have won the tournament another four times – 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016. Their latest win came at the 2018–19 Santosh Trophy in Ludhiana, where they beat Punjab 1–0 in the final.
The National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy, due to ties with FIFA, also known as the FIFA Santosh Trophy, or simply Santosh Trophy, is an inter-state national football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the sport's governing body in India. Before the launch of the first national club league, the National Football League in 1996, the Santosh Trophy was considered the top domestic tournament in India. Many players who have represented India internationally have played and gained honour while playing in the Santosh Trophy. The tournament is held every year with eligible teams who are divided into zones, must play in the qualifying round and can progress into the tournament proper. The current champions are Karnataka, who won their title after 54 years during the 2022–23 edition. This was the first trophy for Karnataka, which had previously won four times as the princely state of Mysore, after 1968-69.
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