| Full name | Jagatjit Cotton & Textile Mills FC | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Millmen | ||
| Founded | 1971 | ||
| Dissolved | 2011 | ||
| Ground | Guru Gobind Singh Stadium (Capacity: 22,000) |
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JCT Football Club, founded in 1971, was an Indian professional football club based in Phagwara, Punjab (India). They were sponsored by Jagatjit Cotton and Textile Mills under the leadership of Samir Thapar and have emerged as one of the most successful Indian football clubs in recent years. They played in the national I-League and Punjab State Super League.
JCT FC had long been synonymous with football in Punjab and northern India. Like the other two institutional teams from the state, Border Security Force SC and FC Punjab Police, JCT have played a pivotal role in raising the standard of football in Punjab.
JCT have won many prestigious tournaments and brought laurels to the State of Punjab. They won the inaugural edition of the National Football League in 1996. The success of the outfit can be partly attributed to the fact that their owners, the Thapars, apart from being business moguls, are also keen followers of the game.
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Jagatjit Cotton and Textile Mills constituted the football club in 1971. However, the club got recognition from 1974 onwards when several players joined the club from the Leader Club of Jalandhar. Included among these players was Inder Singh, who had captained the Indian national team in previous years and won the Arjuna Award in 1969. The Leader Club, started by Lala Dwarka Das Sehgal had played a major role in popularizing football in Northern India in the 1960s and 1970s. Though the Leader Club is no more, JCT Mills have since taken the mantle and become the biggest and most successful football club in this part of India.
JCT Limited has been involved in the Punjab Football Association (PFA) for the last three decades. JCT won the innagural NFL title in the 1996-1997 season. In January 2007, the JCT management decided to change the club name from JCT Mills FC to JCT FC.
In May 2008, JCT announced a partnership with Wolverhampton Wanderers of the English Premier League in England.
On June 20 it was announced by JCT FC that the club would disband following the 2010-11 I-League season due to lack of interest for football in India but they did say that they would still run the club at grass-root level and still run the JCT academy.
JCT was the first Indian club to hire a foreign coach.
JCT was the first Indian team outside Kolkata to win the IFA Shield.
JCT is a part of the flagship JCT group that was started by the late Karam Chand Thapar.
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| Samir Thapar | Chairman/President |
| Parminder Singh | Head Coach |
| Harjinder Singh | Manager |
| Kuldip Singh | Assistant Coach |
| Dr.Manjeet Singh | Doctor |
| Dr.Vishal Kumar | Physio |
n last 3 decades of its existence, the JCT is the first Indian team outside Kolkata to win the IFA Shield. Apart from this, the JCT Club have won many prestigious tournaments and brought laurels to the State of Punjab. They also won the opening edition of the National Football League in 1996. JCT Club has also been the winner of the Asian Club Championship and finished 3rd in the 2007-2008 season of the newly formed I-League. The team has been 8 times winner of the Punjab Football League and 5 times winner of the Durand club. The success and the constant good performance of the club is attributed to its owner, the Thapars who apart from being business moguls, have been in constant effort to enhance the bar of their club at all the levels.[2]
Even though JCT FC senior side is disbanded the Academy side of JCT FC is still running and still developing young footballers. The JCT FC Academy made its mark during the 2011 I-League U19 Academy league which JCT FC Academy won.
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