Dempo SC: The club from Goa

Dempo Sports Club is an Indian professional football club which competes in the Goa Professional League. The club is based in Panjim, Goa. The Dempo group of companies own the club. Founded in 1967, the club has competed at the top levels of Indian football for the majority of its existence. The club’s nickname is Golden Eagles.
Dempo has won several trophies during its existence as a club. It won the National Football League/I-League 5 times, Federation Cup once (2004), Durand Cup (2006) and the Goa Professional League 15 times just to name a few. The club became the first Indian team to reach the AFC Cup semi-finals in 2008. Dempo was the first club from Goa to win the Rovers cup. It won its first international cup in Male, Maldives against New Radiant SC. Dempo was one of the 12 original members of the National Football League in 1996. When National Football League was rebranded as the I-League in 2007, Dempo won the first season in 2007-08. For the first time, they got relegated from the I-League in March 2015. Ahead of the 2016-17 I-League season, Dempo, together with Salgaocar and Sporting Clube de Goa, announced that they would withdraw from the I-League.
Dempo has three partners namely Devashri Group, Navhind Times and Goa Carbon Limited. Of course, the club’s main sponsorer and the owner is the Dempo Group. Dempo has a state of the art 48,450 Square Metre training complex in Goa for its academy known as “Ella Academy”. It opened in 2017 and according to the club, it had fast become the epitome of professionalism and scientific monitoring. The academy was constructed to specifically imitate the football setups in Europe. Dempo’s academy consists of a Physiotherapist Room, a fully functioning Gym and a Rehabilitation room just to name a few.
While Dempo have fallen in recent seasons, given their history and reputation, we should see them back in the I-League soon. Patience is the key for Dempo to come back to the upper divisions of Indian Football.