Super Cup (India)

Not to be confused with the original Indian Super Cup (1997–2011), the match between the league and cup champions.

Super Cup

Organising body	AIFF
Founded	February 19, 2018;6 years ago (2018-02-19)(succeeded the Federation Cup)
Region	India
Number of teams	26
Qualifier for	AFC Champions League Two
Current champions	East Bengal (1st title)
Most successful club(s)	Bengaluru Goa Odisha East Bengal (1 title each)
Television broadcasters	JioCinema International: Broadcasters
Website	Super Cup
2025 Indian Super Cup

The Super Cup, also AIFF Super Cup, is an annual football cup competition in domestic Indian football. It was founded on February 19, 2018 as a replacement for Federation Cup. ^[1] Organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), ^[2] the competition is open to all clubs in the Indian Super League and the I-League, the top two division of the Indian football league system respectively.

The tournament is similar and holds the same weightage as of FA Cup in England or Copa del Rey of Spain.

History

On 19 February 2018, the All India Football Federation announced the creation of the Super Cup as a reformed Federation Cup, India's main knockout football tournament. ^{[3] [1]} The qualifiers for the inaugural recherished tournament were held between 15–16 March. The tournament proper then commenced on 31 March and concluded with the final on 20 April 2018. ^[3] Bengaluru emerged as the winners of the inaugural edition of the recherished tournament. They defeated East Bengal 4–1 in the final. ^[4]

In the second edition, seven I-League clubs, namely Minerva Punjab, East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, NEROCA, Gokulam Kerala, Aizwal and Churchill Brothers withdrew from the competition citing "unfair treatment to I-League clubs by the AIFF." ^[5]

From 2020 to 2022, the competition was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the 2024 season onwards the Super Cup is renamed as the Kalinga Super Cup. Inaugural edition was played between 9 and 28 January. ^[6]

Competition format

Until 2019, the competition proper was a 16-team knockout tournament. In the event of a match being drawn after the completion of 90 minutes after the group stage, extra time was played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if required.

In 2024, the competition comprised 16 clubs in group stage. All clubs in the top tier Indian Super League entered the group stage, and I-League clubs played qualifiers for the four remaining spots. During the group stage, clubs were divided into four groups of four, playing against each other in a single round-robin format. At the end of the group stage, the team with the most points qualified to the semi-finals. The competition then culminated with the final to determine the champions, presented with the trophy and a spot in the AFC Champions League Two qualifiers. In 2024, Super Cup will return in its knockout format.

Winners

Super Cup finals

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Venue	Top scorer
2018	Bengaluru	4–1	East Bengal	Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar	Sunil Chhetri (6)
2019	Goa	2–1	Chennaiyin	Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar	Coro (5)
2020–2022	Tournament suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Indian National Team's international fixtures
2023	Odisha	2–1	Bengaluru	EMS Stadium, Kozhikode	Wilmar Jordán (7)
2024	East Bengal	3–2	Odisha	Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar	Cleiton Silva (5)

Performance by club

Club	Wins	Runners-up	Winning years	Total finals appearances
Bengaluru	1	1	2018	2
Odisha	1	1	2023	2
East Bengal	1	1	2024	2
Goa	1	0	2019	1
Chennaiyin	0	1	–	1

List of winning coaches

Season	Winning Head coach	Club	Runner-up Head coach	Club
2018	Albert Roca	Bengaluru	Khalid Jamil	East Bengal
2019	Sergio Lobera	Goa	John Gregory	Chennaiyin
2023	Clifford Miranda	Odisha	Simon Grayson	Bengaluru
2024	Carles Cuadrat	East Bengal	Sergio Lobera	Odisha

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Goals	Apps	Years	Club(s)
1	Sunil Chhetri	9	10	2018–2023	Bengaluru
2	Wilmar Jordán	8	7	2023–2024	NorthEast United, Punjab
	Diego Maurício	8	10	2023–2024	Odisha
4	Coro	7	7	2018–2019	Goa
	Nandhakumar Sekar	7	14	2023–2024	Odisha, East Bengal
6	Ansumana Kromah	6	8	2018–2023	East Bengal, Churchill Brothers
7	Miku	5	5	2018–2019	Bengaluru
	Dimitrios Diamantakos	5	6	2023–2024	Kerala Blasters
	Cleiton Silva	5	8	2023–2024	East Bengal

Sponsorship and media coverage

Sponsorship

The title sponsor for the Super Cup was Hero MotoCorp until the 2023 edition. ^[7] Hero MotoCorp was also the title sponsor for the Indian Super League and I-League, the leagues which comprise Super Cup participants. ^{[8] [9]} The next title sponsor was the Government of Odisha with the tournament being known as Kalinga Super Cup. ^{[10] [11]}

Period	Sponsor	Tournament
2018–2023	Hero MotoCorp	Hero Super Cup
2023–2024	Government of Odisha and Odisha Tourism	Kalinga Super Cup

Media coverage

Star Sports was the official broadcaster for the AIFF Super Cup, with all matches being broadcast on the channel, and Disney+ Hotstar was the official online streaming partner of the tournament. ^[12] Since 2023, Sony Sports and FanCode became the official media partners.

Television

Period	Broadcaster	Region
2018–2019	Star Sports	India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
	Fox Sports	Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
	ATN Channel	Canada
	ESPN+	United States of America
	OSN Sports	Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen
	Star Gold UK	England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales
	SuperSport	South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa
	Eurosport	Europe
	ESPN Africa	Parts of Africa
2023	Sony Sports Network	India

Online streaming

Period	Broadcaster	Region
2018–2019	Disney+ Hotstar	Worldwide
2023	FanCode	India
2024–	JioCinema	India

See also

• History of Indian football
• Indian football league system
• Durand Cup
• I-League 2
• I-League 3
• State leagues
• Indian Super Cup (1997–2011)
• Institutional League

References

1. "Indian football calendar for 2024-25 season announced". Khel Now. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
2. "Hero Super Cup". the-aiff.com. AIFF.
3. Saharoy, Shilarze (12 March 2018). "Chennaiyin to face Aizawl in Super Cup on March 31". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 18 June 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
4. "Chhetri scores a brace as Bengaluru FC thrash East Bengal 4–1 to win title". Scroll.in . 20 April 2018. Archived from the original on 28 June 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
5. "Super Cup: Minerva Punjab miss pre-match conference, meeting; AIFF terms it 'blatant disregard'". 14 March 2019. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
6. Sportstar, Team (29 November 2023). "Super Cup 2024 renamed as Kalinga Super Cup with winner earning AFC Cup qualification". Sportstar. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
7. "East Bengal seal semi-final berth in Hero Super Cup". Business Standard . 8 April 2018. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
8. "Four teams, one shot at glory: Here are the scenarios for the I-League title race ahead of final day". Scroll.in . 6 March 2018. Archived from the original on 10 August 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
9. "Indian Super League (ISL) 2017–18: Full Schedule, match-time and results". The Times of India . 17 November 2017. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
10. "Kalinga Super Cup will kick off in Odisha from January 9, 2024". the-aiff.com. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
11. "Odisha's rise as a shining example for sports infra". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
12. "Super Cup 2018: NEROCA FC v Kerala Blasters FC – TV channel, stream, kick-off time & match preview". Yahoo Sports . 5 April 2018. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.

External links

• Archived website