Nehru Cup

Nehru Cup

Organising body	AIFF
Founded	1982
Abolished	2012; 9 years ago (2012)
Region	India
Number of teams	5 (2012)
Related competitions	Intercontinental Cup
Last champions	India (3rd title)
Most successful team(s)	Soviet Union (4 titles)

The Nehru Cup was an international association football tournament organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), named after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was launched in 1982, but was not held from 1998 to 2006. After the trophy was won by Iraq in 1997, it was reinstated only in 2007 before officially being held last in 2012 and was replaced in 2017.

TV coverage[]

1st Nehru Cup was covered by Prabir Roy with a 5 on-line camera operation. This was long before Doordarshan started the same during the Delhi Asian Games in November 1982. It was inaugurated by Indira Gandhi. This was apparently the first Color T.V. coverage.

Absence, revival and replacement[]

The tournament was shelved after 1997 due to lack of sponsorship and other reasons. It was revived in 2007 mainly due to persuasion by the former coach of India national football team Bob Houghton. The original rolling trophy could not be recovered from Iraq, and a new trophy was designed.

The tournament held during 2007 was called the ONGC Nehru Cup, to acknowledge sponsorship from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. The 2007 Nehru Cup took place from 17 to 29 August 2007 with Syria, Kyrgyzstan, India, Cambodia and Bangladesh as participating nations where India won their first title after hosting it for the last couple of decades defeating the much higher ranked Syria in the final by a 1-0 margin, on a goal scored by N. P. Pradeep in the 44th minute on a back pass from Bhaichung Bhutia.^[1]

2009 Nehru Cup took place in New Delhi from 19 to 31 August 2009. After the participation of Palestine was cancelled by the AIFF, the tournament was changed into a round-robin format with five teams playing each other and the top two clashing in the final.^[2] India defeated Syria by 5–4 on penalties after a 1–1 draw in the final on 31 August 2009.

The 2012 Nehru Cup was the 15th edition of the Nehru Cup and 3rd Nehru Cup since it was revived in 2007. It was held from 22 August to 2 September.^[3] The tournament was hosted in New Delhi, India. A total of 5 teams participated in the tournament through being invited by the All India Football Federation. The final match happened between India and Cameroon and India won the match in penalty shoot out 5-4 after the match ended 2-2 after 120 minutes of play.^[4][5]

Hopes to have another tournament in 2014 were shelved in August 2014 due to the AIFF not being able to pursue capital investment.^[6]

AIFF revealed on 17 May 2016 that it plans to replace Nehru Cup with a new Intercontinental Cup.^[7]

Results[]

Year	Host city	Final			Third place match			Num. teams
		Winner	Score	Runner-up	3rd Place	Score	4th Place
1982	Kolkata	Uruguay	2–0	China PR	South Korea	– [note 1]	Italy	6
1983	Kochi	Hungary [note 2]	2–1	China PR U-19	Cameroon	–	Romania U-21	7
1984	Kolkata	Poland	1–0	China PR	Argentina	–	Vasas SC	6
1985	Kochi	Soviet Union	2–1	Yugoslavia	Morocco	–	South Korea U-20	8
1986	Thiruvananthapuram	Soviet Union B	1–0	China PR	East Germany	–	Peru	6
1987	Kozhikode	Soviet Union [note 2]	2–0	Bulgaria [note 2]	Denmark	–	East Germany	8
1988	Siliguri	Soviet Union [note 2]	2–0	Poland [note 2]	Bulgaria [note 2]	–	Hungary [note 2]	8
1989	Margao	Hungary [note 2]	2–0	Soviet Union U-21	North Korea	–	Iraq U-20	6
1991	Thiruvananthapuram	Romania B	3–1	Hungary	Soviet Union	–	China PR	6
1993	Chennai	North Korea	2–0	Romania	Cameroon	–	Finland	7
1995	Kolkata	Iraq	1–0	Russia U-20	Thailand	–	India	5
1997	Kochi	Iraq	3–1	Uzbekistan U-19	China PR	2–1	India	5
2007	New Delhi	India	1–0	Syria	Kyrgyzstan	–	Bangladesh	5
2009	New Delhi	India	1–1 (a.e.t.) (5–4 p)	Syria	Kyrgyzstan	–	Lebanon	5
2012	New Delhi	India	2–2 (a.e.t.) (5–4 p)	Cameroon	Maldives	–	Syria	5

Notes

Medal summary[]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	4	1	1	6
2	India	3	0	0	3
3	Hungary	2	1	0	3
4	Iraq	2	0	0	2
5	Romania	1	1	1	3
6	Poland	1	1	0	2
7	North Korea	1	0	1	2
8	Uruguay	1	0	0	1
9	China PR	0	4	1	5
10	Syria	0	2	0	2
11	Cameroon	0	1	2	3
12	Bulgaria	0	1	1	2
13	Uzbekistan	0	1	0	1
	Yugoslavia	0	1	0	1
15	East Germany	0	0	2	2
	Kyrgyzstan	0	0	2	2
	South Korea	0	0	2	2
18	Argentina	0	0	1	1
	Denmark	0	0	1	1
	Finland	0	0	1	1
	Maldives	0	0	1	1
	Morocco	0	0	1	1
	Russia	0	0	1	1
	Thailand	0	0	1	1
Totals (24 nations)		15	14	20	49

See also[]

• Nehru Cup (cricket)
• 2017 Hero Tri-Nation Series
• Intercontinental Cup (India)

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nehru Cup.

• IndianFootball.Com - India's premier football site
• Soccertub - All coverage for 2012 Nehru Cup
• Nehru Cup on the RSSSF
• ONGC NEHRU TROPHY 2007 on Kolkata Football (archived)
• ONGC Nehru Cup (2009) Photo Gallery
• 2012 edition results on Nehru Cup blogsite