The wonderful game of football has been a passion of hundreds of thousands of Malayalees for the last several decades—much before the tiny state of Kerala was born on 1 November 1956. Amateur clubs, popular and skillful football players from the erstwhile Malabar, the princely states of Kochi and Travancore carved a niche for themselves with their fighting qualities and brilliant craft from the 1930s to the 1960s, entertaining millions of football fans from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragode. Teams from Karachi and Bengal besides British military teams used to participate in early football tournaments organized by dedicated football lovers in Malabar, Travancore and in the port city of Ernakulam. HMC Kottayam, Calicut Young Challengers, Brothers, Lucky Star, Gymkhana, and popular clubs in Malappuram, Palakkad, Fort Kochi, Ernakulam, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram produced well known players such as Kottayam Saleh, James Fenn and Thiruvalla Pappan, Thrissur Antony, Pappu, Leiban, D’cruz, Olympians T A Rahman and O. Chandrasekharan, Chidanandan, R Balakrishnan, Petta Ravi, Moideen Kutty, goalkeeper Mustafah, Dr. Rajagopal, Thiruvalla Thomas, Balagopal, T K Chathunni, Sathyan, Jayaram, Balakrishnan,Indrabalan, Malappuram Aziz, and Ramakirshnan. Later the headquarters of KFA was moved to Kollam after P Laxmanan Pillai was elected president and K Thankappan Honorary Secretary. KFA saw a new breed of organizers taking over the reins of KFA in the 1970s with former Mayor of Cochin A K Seshadri becoming the president. Later past presidents such as A. K. Seshadri, T. O. Abdulla, who went on to become the Vice President of All India Football Federation, and P P Laxmanan, who later became the Hon. Secretary and Executive President of AIFF and President of Saarc Football Federation, and the present president K M I Mather steered KFA with a sense of direction, albeit there had been ups and downs too. They were ably supported by the hardworking Hon. Secretaries U P Johny, K Bodhanandan, K. Sugunan and K P Sunny in the past. Now KFA has its first full-time secretary in Ernakulam, P Anil Kumar a former Services football player and DFB – B Licence holder, who has been appointed in accordance with the Football Confederation AFC and AIFF statutes and guidelines. Clubs such as Premier Tyres, Kalamassery, Alind Kundara, KSRTC, AG’s Office, Young Challengers, Titanium and Kerala Police followed by F C Kochin, India’s first professional football club, and Viva Kerala helped produce a new breed of talented footballers and spread the fame of Kerala across the country. Kerala Police, in fact, nine Indian footballers and has lifted the Federation Cup in 1990 and 1991 while F C Kochin became the first Kerala team to win the prestigious Durand Cup with hat-trick by CA Liston, beating Mohun Bagan, in 1997. Alind Kundara, FACT, Premier Tyres and Kerala Police had won many national tournaments too. Inspired by the glory those wonderful dedicated players, Kerala saw the birth of talented players such as Mani and CA Liston, the hat-trick hero's and captain of the victorious 1973 Santhosh trophy team, Jaffar, Williams, Devanand, Najimuddin, C C Jacob, M M Jacob, Victor Manjila, Sethumadhavan, Xaviour Pious, Najeeb, Sathyan, Sharf Ali, Pappachan, I M Vijayan, Jo Paul Ancheri ….to Mohammed Rafi, Ajayan and Pradeep, Sakeer…. Remember, Kerala has produced five Olympians like Saleh, Rahman, Chandrasekharan, Narayanan and Thiruvalla Pappan in the golden era of Indian football in the 1950s and 1960s.
R B Ferguson Club
R B Ferguson Football Club is the first and the oldest football club in Kerala and southern part of India, was established in 20 February 1899 in Thrissur. The club was named after the Kochi Police Superintendent, R B Ferguson.In 1947, the second oldest club in kerala is also from thrissur which is called Aurora Football Club,it was formed by the football loving fans of Ollur.
is an upcoming professional football league organize by Kerala Football Association in the state of Kerala. The football league event was inspired by Indian Super League. The association is considering holding the inaugural edition of the KSL in September 2016. KSL would include 8–12 teams. The brand ambassador of the proposed KSL will be Dutch Mid fielder cum forward Ruud Gullit. Muvattupuzha FC won Ernakulam franchise of Kerala Super League Only established and KFA affiliated club in KSL
As a step to give more competence and professionalism for the football clubs in Kerala, KFA launched the Kerala Premier League in January 2014. The tournament is played in similar lines of Calcutta Football League. Twelve teams participated in the first season.
