The Churachand Singh Invitation Football Trophy is the biggest club tournament in the Northeastern state of Manipur.
The game of Football arrived in Manipur in the later part of the 19th century. With the formation of least teams in Manipur namely Maharaja Churachand team, Johnstone team and Battalion Football team, some Manipuri started to play football with the guidance of British teacher Pettigrew. Even though, it is slow in its stride to popularize, it has become a king of the games in our state.After the end of the First World War, Manipur Town Club was established with its head, Phoni Mukherjee, a Bengali settled in Manipur. For the first time in the history of Manipur, the team participated in the football tournament held at Lamding, Assam. The team took the champion trophy with the maximum efforts led by His Highness Sir Churachand Singh, KCSI, CBE, (KCSI-Knight Commander Star of India and CBE-Commander of British Empire, the titles given by the British Emperor) who was the Maharaja of Manipur (1881-1941). He was also known as "Father of Modern Sports". Other than football, he took keen interest and initiated to introduce and popularize the games like hockey, cricket, athletics, badminton, tennis, polo and tennikoit, etc.
After the Second World War, the standard of modern football in Manipur had improved gradually. In the meantime, Manipur Town Club was converted to Manipur Sports Club (MSA) in 1947. They started to organize different sports disciplines in Manipur. Manipur was affiliated as a district to the Assam Football Association. The Manipur team was the Winner of the "1st All Assam Inter-District football tournament, 1947" held at Shillong organized by the Assam Football Association.
With the establishment of Manipur Sports Association (MSA), the members of the association had a strong ambition to organize some prestigious football tournaments in the state. Thus, by inviting some football team from the neighboring states, the most popular tournament known as "C.C. Meet" was instituted in 1950 in loving memory of the late Maharaja of Manipur, Sir Churachand Singh, KCSI, CBE. And now it has become a major football event in the North Eastern Region of India.
With the amalgamation of Manipur Sports Association and Manipur Olympic Association in 1954, the tournament came under the management of the All Manipur Sports Association (AMSA). The All Manipur Football Association (AMFA) became an affiliated unit of All India Football Federation (AIFF) in 1973 and the tournament was registered under the AIFF. Since then, the All Manipur Football Association has taken the reins of organizing the prestigious tournament, C.C. Meet as an All India Open Invitation Football Tournament. Again, the name of the prestigious tournament has been changed to a beautiful present caption-"Sir Churachand Singh KCSI, CBE Memorial Tournament".
Features of the tournament:
The winners trophy "Shield" was donated by Maharaja Bodhachandra Singh in memory of his beloved father, Sir Churachand Singh in 1950. The shield plated with gold at its centre was donated by Maharajkumar Tutendra Singh, son of Maharaja Bodhachandra Singh in 1956. The runners-up trophy "Shield" was donated by M.Y. Khan in loving memory of his beloved father, Raj Bahadur Khan Durani.
Some rolling trophies of the tournament are:
- Footballer of the Year (Men)
- Footballer of the Year (Women)
- Fair Play Team
- Best Goalkeeper
- Best Player
- Top Scorer
- Best Coach of the Year
- Best Defender
- Best Referee
- Man of the Final Match
Though this tournament has become one of the biggest events in Manipur, the long standing legacy of teams from outside the state participating in the tournament has been greatly reduced. So, the trophies with more cash should be encouraged. Therefore, it is right time that the AMFA should take up initiatives in bringing in more sponsorers from both governmental and non-governmental firms to strengthen the popularity of the game nationwide.