How Subroto Cup was introduced to Indian Football

The first edition of Subroto Cup was held in 1960

The 62nd edition of the Subroto Cup is set to take stage in September, pitting the best school-level teams across India against each other in New Delhi. The tournament is the oldest youth football competition in India and has played a key role in promoting and encouraging the grassroots development since the Indian Independence.

The Subroto Cup has given centre-stage to some of the prominent school-level football teams in the country and put them against each other in an inter-school competition. The tournament is played in a league cum knockout style competition, where teams are initially made to play each other before the best move onto the knockout stages, where the best two teams move to the final where the champion is crowned.

How Subroto Cup was created

The competition has been going on since 1960 and played a key role in the promotion of youth football in the country for many decades. In this competition, school teams from different states of India and even foreign countries are put to the test, making it a noteworthy tournament for aspiring footballers.

The Subroto Cup is named after (Late) Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, who was once the chief of the Air Staff and known to be a massive football lover. Mukherjee was adamant in his understanding that football needed to be encouraged at the grass root level for it to soar as a sport in India.

He created the idea of this tournament and green-lit it to be started in 1960. Even though he unfortunately passed away later that year, a Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society was created as a tribute to him later that year and continued playing a key role in organizing this competition.

The format and history of Subroto Cup

The first edition of the Subroto Cup was held in 1960, where 50 of the best inter-state school football team were put to the test at the U-17 level. The DAV HSS Daryaganj, Delhi and DAV HSS Chitragupta Road, New Delhi teams were the first joint-winners of the first-ever edition of the Subroto Cup in 1960.

Until 1997, the Subroto Cup happened only at the U-17 Boys level before the organizers decided to expand it by unveiling a Boys' U-14 level in 1998. In 2012, the organizers also introduced the Girls U-17 category to encourage grassroots-level football at every level and gender in the country.

From 1960-1994, the Subroto Cup was organized by the Durand Football Tournament Committee. However, from that year onwards, the Indian Air Force Sports Control took over as organizers and have been responsible for organizing the tournament in every year since that.

The competition was held in every single year from 1960-2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic forced the organizers to suspend it for 2020 and 2021. However, the competition returned to the fold last year with the football team of the Pilgrim Higher Secondary School, Dimapur, reigning champions in the U-17 category.

The Subroto Cup has not only encouraged grassroots development in Indian football and the local footballers, but also invited prominent football teams from different countries over the years to amplify the competitiveness and give the Indian youth footballers a chance to lock horns against foreign talents.

In 2016, for example, the youth team of the Athletico Paranaense team from Brazil reigned champions in the U-17 category. From the 50 teams that fought for the first-ever Subroto Cup trophy, the organizers have managed to invite as many as nearly 34,000 different school football teams from around the world – including countries like Brazil, Australia, UK, Ukraine, Switzerland, Sweden and Bangladesh.

The tournament has been a pioneer of promoting youth football in India and pushing for the improvement of the grassroots structure of Indian football.  This year, the tournament will be again held in New Delhi with the U-17 Boys, U-14 Boys and U-17 Girls categories all taking place to crown the best youth footballers in the country.