2014–15 Bharat FC season

Bharat FC

2014–15 season
Manager	Stuart Watkiss
Stadium	Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex
Home colours Away colours Third colours

The 2014–15 season will be Bharat FC's first season in the I-League and first season in existence.

Background

On 25 August 2014 it was announced that Kalyani Group had won the bidding rights to a new I-League team and that they would base the team in Pune, Maharashtra.^[1] On 4 November 2014 it was announced that former Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Stuart Watkiss would be the first head coach of the teams history.^[2] Then, six days later, on 10 November, it was announced that the team had signed their first player in New Zealand international Kris Bright.^[3] On 15 November, Stanley Rozario was appointed as the assistant coach.^[4] On 23 November, the team was officially unveiled as Bharat FC.^[5]

Pre-season

The club started the season with two friendlies against Bombay Engineer Group, which they won 3–0 and the second one 5–0, courtesy two goals from Steven Dias and a goal each from Subhash Singh, Surojit Bose and Jayashelan Prasad.^[6][7] In the last friendly before the season, Bharat FC played against Air India and managed a 2–2 draw with a goal each from Kris Bright and Gunashekar Vignesh.^[8]

Matches

January 2015	Bharat FC	3–0	BEG	Pune, Maharashtra
		Report

12 January 2015	Bharat FC	5–0	BEG	Pune, Maharashtra
	Dias (2 goals) Singh Bose Prasad	Report

16 January 2015	Bharat FC	2–2	Air India	Pune, Maharashtra
15:30 IST	Bright  36' Vignesh  52'		Neil Gaikwad  26' Vishnu T  53'	Stadium: Bharati Vidyapeeth Ground

I-League

Table

Updated to games played on 26 April 2015.
Source: I-League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored; 5) taking lots
¹ Bengaluru FC, as the winner of 2014–15 Federation Cup, have qualified for the qualifying play-off at 2016 AFC Cup
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

First-team squad

As of 5 January 2015^[9]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Arindam Bhattacharya GK Harshad Meher GK Shahinlal Meloly DF Bobby Hassell DF Bikramjeet Singh DF Dharmaraj Ravanan DF Gouramangi Singh DF Mehrajuddin Wadoo DF Nallappan Mohanraj DF Naorem James Singh DF Sabas Saleel

No. Position Player MF Adil Khan MF Dipendu Dowry MF Gunashekar Vignesh MF Jayashelan Prasad MF Lester Fernandez MF Simranjit Singh FW Kris Bright FW Manjit Singh FW Rajinder Kumar FW Subhash Singh FW Surojit Bose

Technical Staff

Position	Name
Head Coach	Stuart Watkiss
Assistant Coach	Stanley Rozario
Fitness coach	Lindsay Davis[10]
Physiotherapist	Ian Farmery[11]

References