#3 Mahindra United
Mahindra United announced that they were withdrawing their participation from competitive football at the end of 2009-10 season to focus solely on a school-level initiative to promote the sport. The 15-time Mumbai League champions may have ended their involvement with competitive sports but they will remain as stalwarts of the game long after the face of league football has been transformed thanks to IMG Reliance.
The Mumbai-based club won the NFL in 2006 and entered the AFC Cup in 2007. Considering the side had never gotten past the group stages in 2004 and 2006, there wasn’t much pressure on the Jeepmen.
However, they took everyone by surprise when they qualified as runners-up in the group at the expense of Mohun Bagan and made it to the quarter-final stage where they lost out to Al Nejmeh 5-4 on aggregate.
