Bringing the “Beautiful Game” back to football-crazy Kerala! Eagles FC Kerala is a Kochi based professional football club. In 1956, Eagles FC Kerala was founded as Ernakulam Eagles Football Club in Cochin by a group of soccer loving students of St. N J Joseph, their beloved mathematics teacher and an ardent sports lover. Fr. Varghese Chelatt, then Manager of St. Alberts School became the first President of Ernakulam Eagles Football Club while an eighth standard boy named K M I Mather (known as Imbayi) became its Secretary. The club attracted some of the brightest youngsters based in Cochin then and members included Shri. Antony Kurien, Shri. C P M Sundaram, Shri. N A Varghese, Shri. P A Stanly, Shri. M V Jacob, Shri. Lazar V, Shri. K L John, Shri. N Achutha Menon, Shri. Vayalar Ravi (formerly Hon. Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India), Shri. A K Antony (formerly Hon. Minister of Defence, Government of India) and Shri. Oommen Chandy (formerly Hon. Chief Minister of Kerala). Ernakulam Eagles Football Club was active till the mid-1980s but professional commitments of its members who had risen in their professional, entrepreneurial and political careers made the administration of the club difficult. After a period of dormancy, a new generation--the sons of the original members of Ernakulam Eagles--came onboard to take over the running of the club. This second generation met with the original members and decided to relaunch Ernakulam Eagles FC as Eagles FC Kerala and work towards securing a place in the national I-League. The formal transition to a professional football club was announced in October, 2010, as Eagles FC with EAGLES FOOTBALL CLUB PRIVATE LIMITED as the club’s professional owner / manager. Past Achievements:
Based at Cochin, Eagles FC organized several football tournaments for the local fans and played in prestigious tournaments in cities like Coimbatore, Madurai and Vishakapatanam. In 1962, Eagles organized the first All Kerala Eagles Football Trophy
In 1965, Eagles began the Annual Club Football Championship Nehru Trophy in honour of India’s First Prime Minister Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru. This tournament was organized every year without fail till the 80’s. The members of the Eagles FC were also the strength behind the organisation of Santosh Trophy National Football Championship in Cochin in 1973 & 1993. The members of Eagles FC also organized the prestigious first Federation Cup in 1978. After the relaunch as a professional football club, Eagles FC Kerala played in:
Kerala State Club Championship
Kerala Premier League
Dhronacharya Trophy
I-League IInd Division National Football League
Eagles FC were the winners of the First Kerala Premier League Championship in 2014-15. Presently, Eagles FC is in C Division in Ernakulam District.
