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East Bengal will play Churchill Brothers, and newly-crowned I-League champions Aizawl FC will begin their campaign against Chennai City FC on May 7 on the opening day of the Federation Cup -- India's version of the English FA Cup -- at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack. With speculations rife about a possible restructuring of the domestic structure in the coming season, this could well be the last edition of the Federation Cup, a tournament conceived in 1977 with the express intention of having a pan-Indian club competition for the first time in Indian football. There is talk of a new tournament called the 'Super Cup' in the new domestic season, as and when it happens, and the 2017 Federation Cup champions could be the last Indian team to qualify for the AFC Cup through one of Indian football's oldest active pan-India competitions. So, how have the subsequent editions been? What is the format? Which teams are competing for the crown this season? ESPN has got you covered. The beginnings The first edition of the Federation Cup was held in Ernakulam, Kerala and was organised with a view to bringing together all the respective local league champion teams from around the country into a competition. It pre-dated the first National Football League by almost two decades, and the first edition itself produced an upset of sorts in the final -- Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) of Bangalore, an institutional team, beat one of Kolkata's glamour clubs Mohun Bagan 1-0. In subsequent years, the format has changed several times, including a straight knockout among the top 16 teams in the country that was persisted with till 2007. The format this year The straight knockout format was dispensed with in the 2008 edition, when Mohun Bagan won their 13th title in front of their supporters in Kolkata after a 1-0 win over I-League champions Dempo. In that particular edition, there were four groups of four teams each, which gave second division teams like State Bank of Travancore and Oil India Limited a chance to compete against the best in the country. The 2016 edition went back to a knockout format, though the matches leading up to the final were played across two legs, and involved the top eight finishers of the I-League. Mohun Bagan emerged champions, beating Aizawl FC 5-0 in the final in Guwahati, but Aizawl had already proved a point by beating defending champions Bengaluru FC in the quarterfinals itself. The 2017 edition brings us back to two groups of four teams each, with the last two teams from the I-League points table, Minerva Punjab and Mumbai FC, missing out. Each team will play the other three in the group stages, and then the top two from each group will progress to the semifinals. The groups and favourites Group A this year will have Aizawl FC, East Bengal, Churchill Brothers and Chennai City FC in it. Aizawl are just coming off the emotional high of winning a league that they were originally not even meant to be a part of, and it would interesting to see if they can continue with the momentum built up through a long campaign. East Bengal have a strong contingent on their part, and come into the tournament with two big wins to round up their engagements in the I-League. The 2013-14 champions Churchill Brothers are beginning to gel well under Derrick Pereira and cannot be taken lightly by any opposition, while Chennai City showed with a 2-1 win over East Bengal in the league that they could present a banana skin for any of the big teams in the league. Group B pits defending champions Mohun Bagan with Bengaluru FC, Shillong Lajong and DSK Shivajians. Bagan and Bengaluru are both coming off defeats in their most recent AFC Cup games, though Bengaluru are still in contention for qualification from their Group E. Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru will effectively be meeting for the fourth time this season when they play on May 12, and then Bagan host Bengaluru in an AFC Cup match in Kolkata five days later. Lajong themselves are coming off their best-ever showing in the I-League, and had made the Federation Cup final in the year of their I-League debut in 2009. With Thangboi Singto getting some consistent contributions this season from Indian players like striker Samuel Lalmuanpuia, midfielder Isaac Vanmalsawma and goalkeeper Vishal Kaith, Lajong should be put down as dark horses for the knockouts, though Shivajians have the quality in their ranks to have a say in the final places in Group B as well. Players to watch out for Much of the attention will be around Aizawl FC and their band of Indian players like Jayesh Rane, Laldanmawia Ralte, Brandon Vanlalremdika and goalkeeper Albino Gomes, but another player from Mizoram, Jeje Lalpekhlua, would be looking to pick up from where he left off in 2016. Jeje was the top scorer in the 2016 edition of the Federation Cup with eight goals, including a hat-trick in the semifinals against Lajong. Bengaluru also have a point to prove, having won the tournament in their second appearance in 2014-15, but then beaten in the first round last year. Expect Churchill Brothers and Shillong Lajong to play potential spoilers in a tournament where the top four teams from the league -- Aizawl, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Bengaluru -- could be tipped to make the knockout stages.
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