Hyderabad City Police FC – Wikipedia

Hyderabad City Police FC, also known as City Afghans, were the most famous team in the Hyderabad Football Association.^[1][2][3][4] They were associated with the Hyderabad City Police during the reign of the Nizam of Hyderabad.^[5][6] The club was one of power houses of Indian football, praised for producing some of country’s legendary players like Sayed Khwaja Aziz-ud-Din,^[7][8]Muhammad Noor,^[9]Syed Nayeemuddin,^[10][11] and Anthony Patrick,^[12][13] and Syed Shahid Hakim.^[14][15][16] In the 1950s, the club achieved success with their 2–3–5 formation.^[17]

History[edit]

Hyderabad City Police had enjoyed a series of endless achievements in the pre-Independence era, the first non-Kolkata club to do so.^[18] In 1941, the club reached final of prestigious Stafford Challenge Cup, but a defeat in hands of Bangalore Muslims Club let them finishing runner-up.^[19] The first major success came in 1943 when the team win Ashe Gold Cup final against Bangalore. The club established its legendary performance on national level when it won the prestigious Durand Cup against Mohun Bagan,^[20][21] the cup was held after a break of 8 years and first time after Indian Independence; it won total 4 Durand Cups, including one as Andhra Pradesh Police after 1959. The club won Rovers Cup consistently for five years from 1950 to 1954,^[22][23] and state league championships for 11 consecutive years.

It was N. A. Fruvall who shaped the club in his captainship early from 1940s, and by 1950 the team was transformed into the national champions. In 1951, Syed Abdul Rahim took over Hyderabad City Police club as a coach and served until his death in 1963.^{[24][25][26][27]}

The team underwent a change in name in the 1960s after the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed and Hyderabad became its capital, with the change in name of the police force to Andhra Pradesh Police. They continued to play as Andhra Pradesh Police Football Club and won tournaments like Rovers Cup in 1960 and DCM Trophy in 1965.^[28]

Honours[edit]

• Durand Cup^[29][30]
  • Champions (4): 1950–51,^[31] 1954, 1957–58, 1961
  • Runners-up (3): 1952, 1956–57, 1963
• Rovers Cup
  • Champions (9): 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1960, 1962*, 1963–64
• IFA Shield
  • Runners-up (2): 1954, 1962
• DCM Trophy
  • Champions (2): 1959, 1965
  • Runners-up (2): 1964, 1970
• Sait Nagjee Football Tournament
  • Champions (1): 1958, 1959^[32]
• Stafford Challenge Cup
• Madura Cup

(*) joint winners with East Bengal

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Kapadia, Novy (2017). Barefoot to Boots: The Many Lives of Indian Football. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-143-42641-7.
• Majumdar, Boria; Bandyopadhyay, Kausik (2006). A Social History Of Indian Football: Striving To Score. Routledge. ISBN 9780415348355. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021.
• Basu, Jaydeep (2003). Stories from Indian Football. UBS Publishers’ Distributors. ISBN 9788174764546. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022.
• Martinez, Dolores; Mukharjiim, Projit B (2009). Football: From England to the World: The Many Lives of Indian Football. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-88353-6. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022.
• Sharma, Nikhil Paramjit; Gupta, Shantanu (4 February 2019). India’s Football Dream. SAGE Publications India. ISBN 9789353283063. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
• Roselli, John. Self Image of Effeteness: Physical Education and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal. Past & Present (journal). 86 (February 1980). p. 121–48.
• Sinha, Mrinalini. Colonial Masculinity, The Manly Englishman and the Effeminate Bengali in the Late Nineteenth Century (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995).
• Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post-colonial Histories (Calcutta: Oxford University Press, 1995).
• Nath, Nirmal (2011). History of Indian Football: Upto 2009–10. Readers Service. ISBN 9788187891963. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022.
• Dineo, Paul; Mills, James (2001). Soccer in South Asia: Empire, Nation, Diaspora. London, United Kingdom: Frank Cass Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7146-8170-2. Archived from the original on 25 July 2022.
• “Triumphs and Disasters: The Story of Indian Football, 1889—2000” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
• D’Mello, Anthony (1959). Portrait Of Indian Sport. P R Macmillan Limited, London.
• Shreekumar, S. S. (15 August 2020). THE BEST WAY FORWARD FOR INDIA’S FOOTBALL. HSRA Publications. p. 244. ISBN 9788194721697. Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.

External links[edit]