Stafford Challenge Cup: One cup, many emotions

The Stafford Challenge Cup. Throw the name out to the football fraternity and you are met with a flurry of words tinged with nostalgia. Of a time when football was also played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. When the nip in the air in Bengaluru was all year long and the roads were far from the lawless labyrinth they are now. A visual of an epoch for the Stafford Challenge Cup - the oldest football tournament in South India - was last held in 1993. A proud lineage ending before the internet ruled the world, the word muggle meant nothing and Jack and Rose were not the tragic 'it' couple.

Now, 30 years later, the tournament is set to return to Bengaluru on Thursday.

“It was a major tournament. All the best Indian teams came to play, and there was a huge public interest,” says Krishnamurthy, who played in the tournament for AGORC.

There is a reason why this tournament and other heritage ones like Durand Cup, DCM Trophy, Rovers Cup and such are held in high regard. Before the idea of the ‘one league’, the clubs played their local leagues in different parts of the country and it was these tournaments that brought them together.

“The Stafford Cup allowed people in Bengaluru to watch the best teams in the country. They used to conduct it at Kanteerava Stadium and even Chinnaswamy Stadium because the Bangalore Football Stadium was not big enough to accommodate the people who came to watch. When ITI and East Bengal played a semifinal, the stadium was full and there were over 5000 people outside!” says Krishnamurthy.

“This was the only tournament (here). There was no telecast. So we saw it all live, top players in the country, all the giant clubs. I was a ball boy and then I won it with Mohammedan in 1991,” says Nickson, who came up the ranks in Bengaluru.

The level of support probably played a big role in Karnataka teams doing well in the tournament, with the clubs from the State winning 11 titles since the tournament’s inception in 1938. Bangalore Muslims, Bangalore Sporting and Mysore Rovers were the earliest non-British teams to win the tournament from 1941-1943.

“Karnataka teams played effective football and brought huge crowds,” admits Derrick Perreira, who played in it with Goan club Salgaocar.

“We all played our local leagues and the best teams were invited to tournaments. There was a motivation to do well in the local league because this tournament allowed us to go out and play teams from other parts. Punjab played long balls, Bengal was more attacking and Karnataka and Tamil Nadu played short passes. Kerala played with pace. That would give different dimensions and challenges to face,” said the FC Goa Technical Director.

The tournament even gained international flavor in the 1980s with teams from Iraq making their presence felt with the Iraqi Youth Club (1980), Iraq Air Force (1982), Students Club (1984) and Iraq Olympic Team (1990) all winning the title.

“We, Salgaocar, entered the final and played against the Iraqi side (Students Club) and lost 3-0. That team was quite superior,” says Brahmanand Sankhwalkar, one of India’s greatest goalkeepers.

“I was under pressure for 90 minutes and after the last goal, I was done. I received a lot of applause from the public while stepping off because they appreciated our performance.”

It made international headlines too.

“Because the tournament was played abroad and during the Iraq-Iran War, it has some significance and it was amplified as it was a victory on foreign soil,” revealed Hassanin Mubarak, author of Birth of the Lions of Mesopotamia: The early years of football in Iraq.

As the story goes, the original trophy, a silver cup presented by Staffordshire Regiment, was lost in Iraq, believed to have been destroyed in the conflict between Iran and Iraq.

Chasing the story of the lost trophy went nowhere, but at least the tournament is restarting. Indian football has looked at its past with rose-tinted glasses and longing for long. Perhaps the return of the heritage tournament will help the country rise from mediocrity to the heights of its golden era.