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Chennaiyin FC

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Chennaiyin FC

Chennaiyin Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The club competes in the Indian Super League (ISL), the top flight of Indian football. The club was founded in August 2014 during the inaugural season of the ISL. It has won the ISL Cup title on two occasions, in the 2015, 2017–18 seasons respectively.

The club is owned by Vita Dani, Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan and Indian cricketer MS Dhoni. The team's name Chennaiyin FC means Chennai's football club in Tamil where the 'yin' suffix is similar to a possessive 's' in English. The club's primary colour is blue ever since its inception and its logo is the Dhrishti Bommai, a representation of chasing away negativity and preserving positivity in the Tamil culture.

Chennaiyin has played three ISL Finals winning it two times. The first final they played was the 2015 final which they beat FC Goa by 3–2 in Goa. In their second final, they played against Bengaluru FC at Bengaluru and won their second title by winning 3–2. During 2019–20 season Chennaiyin played their third final against ATK, which they lost 3–1.

When the Indian Super League was founded in 2014, the city of Chennai was one of the nine proposed cities up for franchise bidding. However, on 11 April 2014 it was reported that Chennai's main bidder, a consortium led by Sunil Gavaskar would drop out due to commitments with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. In August 2014, with two months before the 2014 ISL season, the Bangalore owners Sun Group dropped out due to disputes with the organizers. Initially reports came out that the ISL organizers were looking for bidders for new owners for the Bangalore franchise before it was revealed that Ronnie Screwvala and actor Abhishek Bachchan would together bid for a Chennai team instead of a Bangalore franchise.

On 14 August 2014, it was reported that ISL officials were inspecting the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai for the proposed team. Finally, the team was bid for by actor Abhishek Bachchan and Vita Dani. On 12 September 2014, Italian World Cup winner Marco Materazzi was hired as player-manager. On 6 October 2014, former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the joint co-owner of the club. The club officially launched their jersey on 9 October 2014 but had changed their home jersey's pattern in the 2018–19 Indian Super League.

On 15 October 2014, Chennaiyin won their first Indian Super League fixture with a 2–1 victory over FC Goa. The goals were scored by Balwant Singh, who became the first Indian player to score in the competition, and the former Brazil international Elano. On 28 November 2014, the club brought Alessandro Nesta, who won the World Cup for Italy out of retirement. The team finished its 14-game regular season in first place in the league. In the semi-finals, the team lost the first leg 3–0 to Kerala Blasters FC. In the second leg, they overturned the deficit by leading 3–0 in regular time. However, a 117th-minute goal by Stephen Pearson sent Kerala through to the finals.

For the second season of Indian Super League, they retained six players: Balwant Singh, Jayesh Rane, Dhanachandra Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Harmanjot Khabra and Abhishek Das. They also signed Godwin Franco and Mehrajuddin Wadoo. On the last day of the transfer window, Chennaiyin FC announced that they had signed back Stiven Mendoza. The season started with the team losing the first two games. Though the team managed to score points by winning at Goa and Mumbai, they lost another three games on the trot. By the third week of November, Chennaiyin were placed last in the league table. However, the team won four consecutive games to qualify for the playoffs, finishing at 3rd place in the regular season. They won the second season of the ISL by beating FC Goa 3–2 in the finals.

For the third season, of Indian Super League, they retained six players: Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Jayesh Rane, Dhanachandra Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Harmanjot Khabra, Thoi Singh and Abhishek Das. Chennai signed John Arne Riise as the marquee player for the season. The season kicked off with a draw against Kolkata. Winning only three games through the season, the team finished in seventh place, just one point more than the last placed FC Goa. After a dismal season, it was announced on 6 March that Marco Materazzi and Chennaiyin parted ways on mutual consent.

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