Talk:List of football clubs in India

Untitled
I removed speedy deletion tag because of this ZeroFuzion 21:28, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)


 * in which case the page should be created in the same style as those, as List of football clubs in India rather than just 'clubs' ... --VampWillow 22:28, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I revamped the look and layout. Hope you like it. Peter-27 (talk) 20:22, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Criteria for clubs to be listed in this article
Owing to the huge number of semi-professional and amateur football clubs in India, it is necessary to define a cut-off criteria for clubs to be listed on this page so that it does not become unweildly and full of redlinks as it was in the past.

The criteria in use at present is only clubs that are presently playing in the national, regional or state leagues. However, this results in clubs that have played in major leagues in the past being left out.

For this reason, I propose the following criteria to include clubs in this list:


 * 1) Clubs that are currently playing in national, regional or state leagues, regardless whether they have an article of their own or not.
 * 2) Indian clubs that are still functional and have an article of their own. Having a Wikipedia article can be assumed to establish notability of the club, or else, the club's own article should be nominated for deletion.

Unfortunately, my attempt to apply this criteria resulted in defunct clubs and duplicate articles coming into the list. However, the solution for this would be to update the relevant articles and then to remove them from this article, rather than to have a very exclusive list.

The Discoverer (talk) 22:18, 29 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Well I dont know where you are going with regional clubs as there is not regional leagues yet. Right now the current Indian System goes like this...
 * I-League
 * I-League 2nd Division
 * Top state leagues which are professional and/or affiliated with AIFF
 * Assam State Premier League
 * Delhi Senior Division
 * Goa Professional League
 * Bangalore Super Division
 * Manipur State League
 * Nagaland Premier League
 * Bengal Premier League Soccer
 * Calcutta Football League
 * 4. District Leagues (County/City Leagues)


 * I think the cut off point for adding teams on here should be Number 3. Every other league below Number 3 is completely amateur and not notable. Also if a club plays in the Durand Cup or Federation Cup (India) then they should be in the list. Otherwise no. Also if there is still a club that does not play in either of the top 3 divisions of India nor the Fed and Durand Cup but still are in existence then they should be in the article. (But they must have a wikipedia article already). --Arsenalkid700 (talk) 00:19, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I agree with your first point that clubs that are in the top three divisions of India, and the Fed and Durand cups should be listed in this article regardless of whether they already have their own article and ideally, they already should have their own article. This is in accordance with WP:FOOTYN which states that all teams that have played in the national levels of the league structure are assumed to meet WP:N criteria. It is also important to note that any team that has played in these leagues in the past is also eligible for this list.

However I do not see any reason why any functional Indian club that has a Wikipedia article of it's own should not be a part of this list, since this is not a list of elite clubs. In short, any club that is in Category:Football clubs in India but not in Category:Defunct Indian football clubs has a right to be listed on this page. If a club is non-notable, it would not have a wikipedia article. Similarly, issues with defuct clubs and duplicate articles should be addressed in the clubs article first, and then this article should be updated. The Discoverer (talk) 09:29, 30 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree. Thing is though all these clubs wont be notable. For example all 10 teams in the Nagaland Premier League are professional and the NPL is the top-AIFF state league in Nagaland but none of the 10 teams are notable enough to have a wikipedia article as they have not played in a National Competition.


 * Anyway now I will go through every state league and every category and revamp, delete, create articles. Today is a Friday so I have no schoolwork to do and thus I am free. I shall also add those clubs once I am done. --Arsenalkid700 (talk) 20:42, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I would like to point out that WP:FOOTYN for club notability states that clubs that have played in nationally important leagues are assumed to be notable but does not rule out other clubs from being notable. Also regarding league notability, it says that 'All leagues whose members are eligible for national cups are assumed notable.' This makes many Indian state leagues notable. The Discoverer (talk) 16:33, 1 April 2012 (UTC)


 * 1) For the clubs I have gotten in trouble for this before. For example I tried to make the page for Life Sports FC who play in the Nagaland Premier League but it was deleted because they have never played in a fully national cup.


 * 2) As for the leagues... for the national cups there is no set way for qualification. For the Durand Cup last season it was invitational. For the Federation Cup there was all 14 I-League clubs plus 7 of the non-promoted I-League 2nd Division clubs. Also in order to qualify for the I-League 2nd Division all you need to do is fullfil the AFC Club Criteria. There is really no set way of state to national leagues. It really varies from year to year. In order to get through this I had a talk on Wikiproject: Football a few months ago and it was agreed that only the top state leagues are notable. Clubs still need to play in one of the 4 national competitions.


 * BTW I have started with this project right here... User:Arsenalkid700/Project: Football Clubs in India. I have done research on every page in the Category:Football clubs in India and have proded the ones that are not notable and put the notable ones on the list for revamps. --Arsenalkid700 (talk) 16:55, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I think that in a big country like India, one can consider the fully professional top league under each state association to be notable and also clubs that have played in these leagues can be considered notable. Also, even though there is no qualification procedure from these leagues to the national leagues, definitely playing in these leagues is an important step towards plaing in the national leagues. At the end of the day, these are the leagues from which the teams come to the national tournaments, and these are where they get 'relegated' to. If the 'national leagues only' rule had to be a strict cut-off, surely many articles in Template:Football in Brazil would be non-notable. If we apply this rule for India, we will have articles for not more than 40 clubs I think, which is obviously unrealistic. Also, consider that we right now have only 62 pages in Category:Football clubs in India while there are 724 pages in Category:Football clubs in Brazil, many of which have never even won a state league, having only played in them a few times.

I think we should define here, of course with the consensus of other editors from Wikiproject Football, that for India, the top-most fully professional state leagues should be assumed to be notable, including former ones, and professional clubs that have played these leagues are also notable. The Discoverer (talk) 18:08, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Fully professional leagues are automatically deemed to be notable, and clubs playing for these leagues are deemed notable as well; right now however, I only see the I-League as fully professional. If other Indian leagues are fully professional, please add them to the list (with reliable sources, of course). –  Kosm  1  fent  19:26, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I have found proof that the Nagaland Premier League is a professional league,  , I hope that this would be enough to create articles for the clubs in these leagues as I have so much information on each team so making an article would not be hard. --Arsenalkid700 (talk) 20:03, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Only the second link descibes the league as professional. The rest describe it as "professionally managed", which is not the same thing, as it shows no indication about the professional status of the clubs. I'd advise you to wait for a second opinion by another editor. – Kosm  1  fent  20:14, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I concur with Kosm1fent, only one of those four is really claiming to be a professional league. And of the four, it's the most potentially biased. Looks more like a press release than a news story, unfortunately. Cloudz 679 20:19, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Yep that is what happened when I tried to make the Life Sports FC article a few months ago. Unless a national newspaper in India like the Times of India reports it as professional I doubt I can make a page for any club. Anyway I think we should wait till April 24th when the All India Football Federation will have a meeting with all the I-League owners about a new format which is rumored to involve folding the I-League 2nd Division and starting expansion in the league. There is also rumors of a new cup along the lines of the FFA Cup and FA Cup. Till then any club that has not played in the Durand Cup, Federation Cup, I-League 2nd Division and I-League should be deleted and the rest revamped. --Arsenalkid700 (talk) 20:26, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I think you can still make league pages for the 24 states which don't have league pages yet, as long as there are sources - and you feel there is content to put there. This issue of professionalism really only limits the number of player articles at the moment, in my opinion. One thing you might like to consider is the current I-League teams, where did they play before? Maybe one of these state leagues (maybe not!) but worth considering. Your task list looks like a lot to be getting on with, in any case. Good luck! Cloudz 679 20:36, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh, I think your getting confused here mate. I am not deciding whether the state league is notable. It is already known that the TOP state league of each state of India is notable. I am talking about the clubs in the leagues who have not played in one of the 4 national cups. For example the Nagaland Premier League is notable but all 10 teams in the league are not as they have not played in 1 of the 4 nationwide tournaments. That is what the debate is and should be about. As for the current I-League teams. Almost 14 of them have either played in state leagues that already have a page or automatically started in the I-League 2nd Division. In that case only the Shillong Premier League should be created into an article as Shillong Lajong F.C. came from there. As for players I have already found a way to store information about players who are not notable though here User:Arsenalkid700/Future non-notable players. That way when the player is notable I wont have to waste hours finding information on him. --Arsenalkid700 (talk) 21:07, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, if those clubs play for a semi-professional/amateur league (as it seems) and haven't played for any national cup, then they are not and should not be notable. Same with the players of that league. – Kosm  1  fent  05:45, 2 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Exactly what I was thinking. Until I can prove the league pro or until a club plays in 1 of the 4 pro cups then I cant make an article. --Arsenalkid700 (talk) 06:06, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

I think this article should be improved Adityadebnath 1234567890 (talk) 14:08, 6 May 2018 (UTC)

League Updates
I have updated the tables in this page as per the current leagues the clubs play in. Please rectify if there are any mistakes. - Milesandkilometrestogo (talk) 17:12, 31 March 2013 (UTC)
 * It's good for now. In fact you are doing really well. Well done. I am actually going to wait till June (when the leagues officially end) before I begin to go deep into this. Some clubs are missing and also I am not a fan of red-links. If the club is not notable then the name should not be highlighted. --ArsenalFan700 (talk) 18:00, 31 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Ok. Thank you. -Milesandkilometrestogo (talk) 18:44, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Update
This article really needs to be updated Adityadebnath 1234567890 (talk) 14:04, 6 May 2018 (UTC)