Pune F.C. - History

History

Pune Football Club was formed in August 2007 by the Ashok Piramal Group. In 2008 the club joined the I-League 2nd Division where after the 2008 version, they finished third in Group A and thus did not earn promotion to the I-League. The club then won promotion to the I-League after finishing fourth in the 2009 I-League 2nd Division.

Pune's first season in the I-League was the 2009–10 I-League season. Pune selected the Balewadi Sports Complex in Balewadi as their home stadium. Pune made news headlines before their first I-League season by signing India #1 goalkeeper Subrata Pal from East Bengal and by signing Japanese midfielder Arata Izumi from Mahindra United. The club also signed Derrick Pereira as head coach of the team before the season. Before joining Pune Pereira was head coach at Mahindra United where he had won the National Football League and Federation Cup as well as make the quarter-finals of the AFC Cup.

Pune played their first I-League match against East Bengal F.C. which was also their first home match in the I-League; the final score was 0–0. Pune went with 0 wins, 6 draws, and 2 losses in the league before winning their first ever I-League match on 9 January 2010 against JCT 2–1. At the end of the season Pune finished in third place which was called a success by the club due to their weak start in the league.

The summer of 2011 would be an important time for Pune. On 23 June 2011 it was announced that Pune would start the Pune F.C. Academy team which would make Pune the first team in I-League with an Academy team. Then on 25 July 2011 it was announced that Pune's Brazilian striker Edmar Figueira would join the Portuguese top flight Primeira Liga with C.D. Feirense which would be the first-time a player from the I-League would sign for a team in a top 10 european league based on the UEFA coefficient. Then on 26 September 2011 it was announced that Pune would play English Premier League side Blackburn Rovers, who are owned by Indian owners Venky's, in a friendly. Thus making Pune the first ever Indian club to play a friendly against an English Premier League team. The match was then played on 7 October 2011 at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune; the final score was 0–3 to Blackburn. Then on 22 October it was announced that Pune have tied-up a partnership with IT giant Infosys which would see more promotion of the club through media networks. Then on 11 June 2012 Pune became the first Indian football team to participate in a transfer between other I-League club Prayag United when Pune sold midfielder Lester Fernandez to Prayag for 20 lakh.