mo4ch:> Down the memory lane: The quick rise and swift fall of FC Kochin | Mo4ch News

FC Kochin's rise in Indian football was meteoric but their fall was even more swifter...The mid-1990s was in many ways an exciting time for football fans in India. It was a period which heralded a change in the domestic football structure with the establishment of the National Football League (NFL) in 1996.It was the first-time ever that a national league was established in the country whose football appetite had been whetted before by prestigious cups like the Durand Cup, Federation Cup, the Santosh Trophy and other invitational tournaments.With NFL came TV coverage, better prize money and more attention for the players. Those were exciting times and a group of Malayali businessmen were about to make it even more so. A consortium of Non Resident Indians (NRI) from Kerala, led by PV Paul, established the first-ever fully professional football club in Kochi in 1997, just after the first season of the NFL had concluded.Editors' PicksThe development lit a spark in Kerala, with th…