AGORC topped the Chennai Football Association’s Senior Division table for 2025-26 with 22 points from 11 matches, according to the league table compiled by The Away End, which lists the club as that season’s champion. The Senior Division is the top tier of the city’s own league, separate from the Indian Super League, and it is where most Chennai footballers who never pull on a Chennaiyin FC shirt actually play.
The league is small, cheap to watch and almost entirely made up of teams backed by employers: banks, tax departments, the railways and the police. Here is how its divisions are set up, who wins it, how it links to the Tamil Nadu state team, and what a player has to do to be eligible to play in it.
How the CFA league is structured
The Chennai Football Association runs at least two tiers. In the 2025 season, played from late March to late April that year, the Senior Division had nine teams and the I Division below it had eight, according to the regional tables kept by RSSSF, the long-running football statistics archive.
| Tier, 2025 season | Teams | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Senior Division | 9 | Tamil Nadu Police, Central Excise, ICF, Indian Bank, Chennai Customs, AGORC |
| I Division | 8 | DBYC Basin Bridge, Octopus Marine, Dawood Memorial, Madras Postal, Income Tax RC |
By 2025-26 the Senior Division had grown to 12 teams. Several sides from the 2025 I Division list, including Dawood Memorial FC, DBYC Kilpauk, Octopus Marine and Thalapathi Stalin FC, appear in the 2025-26 senior table, alongside Customs, Central Excise, Income Tax, Indian Bank, ICF and both police teams. The Away End’s fixture list shows all 2025-26 matches at the Pavendhar Bharadhidasan Football Stadium. Dawood Memorial scored the most goals, 29, while Octopus Marine finished bottom with four points.
DBYC stands for Don Bosco Youth Centre, one of several community clubs in the lower tier that give younger players a start.
Recent champions
The league has not run every year. When it resumed in May 2022 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium after a four-year break, Customs opened with a 3-0 win over Income Tax, DT Next reported. The champions listed since then show how often the title changes hands:
- 2017-18: Indian Bank
- 2021-22: Viva Chennai
- 2022-23: Swaraj FC
- 2024-25: ICF
- 2025-26: AGORC
The list mixes clubs such as Viva Chennai and Swaraj FC with institutional sides such as Indian Bank and ICF, the team of the Integral Coach Factory. Neither group has had the title to itself in recent seasons.
Why the teams are mostly employers
Public-sector employers in Chennai have long hired sportspeople on sports quotas and fielded them in city leagues. That system is the reason a player can still earn a steady salary from a bank, the Customs department or the police while playing competitive football in the evening. It also means the league is a working league, where many players fit training around full-time jobs.
For a spectator, the appeal is that the football is close up and the players are local. For a young player, a good season in the CFA league is one of the few routes to being noticed for state selection or a club contract.
The link to the Tamil Nadu state team
The Tamil Nadu Football Association picks the state side for the Santosh Trophy, the national championship for state teams, and the CFA league is a major pool for those picks. In 2025-26 Tamil Nadu reached the 12-team final round, drawn in Group A with hosts Assam, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Rajasthan, according to the All India Football Federation. The final round ran in Dhakuakhana and Silapathar in Assam from 21 January, with the top four in each group going through.
Tamil Nadu made the quarter-finals and were drawn to face Punjab at Silapathar on 3 February 2026, Outlook India’s preview said.
How to play in the league: registration rules
Every player in organised football in India, amateur or professional, has to be registered on the AIFF’s Centralised Registration System (CRS), which issues a FIFA ID. The federation’s letter to member associations says only players registered on CRS with a FIFA ID are eligible, and that clubs and state associations can be sanctioned for fielding unregistered players. The practical steps for a Chennai player are:
- Find a club that enters the CFA league, usually through a coach, college team or an employer’s sports officer.
- Sign the amateur consent form with that club. An amateur registration lasts one season and can be extended.
- The club registers you on CRS, which state associations can access.
- If you change clubs mid-season, a release letter from your old club must be uploaded. Moving at the start of a new season, or after your consent form expires, needs no release letter.
Questions about registration go to the AIFF’s Players’ Status and Registration Department at registrations@the-aiff.com, as listed in the same letter.
Quick answers
Who won the CFA Senior Division in 2025-26?
AGORC, with 22 points from 11 matches (six wins, four draws, one loss), according to the published table.
How many teams are in the Senior Division?
Twelve in 2025-26, up from nine in the 2025 season.
Do I need a FIFA ID to play in the Chennai league?
Yes. AIFF rules require every player in an AIFF or state-approved competition to be registered on CRS.
Is the CFA league the same as the ISL?
No. The ISL is the national professional league in which Chennaiyin FC plays; the CFA league is the city’s own amateur and institutional competition.
Information checked against official sources on 23 October 2026. Fees, dates and rules can change; confirm on the linked official pages before acting.
Sources
- CFA Senior Division 2025-26 table, fixtures and past champions (The Away End)
- India 2025 Regional Championships: CFA Senior and I Division (RSSSF)
- CFA League: Customs defeats Income Tax (DT Next)
- Draw out for 12-team Santosh Trophy 2025-26 final round (AIFF)
- Santosh Trophy 2025-26 quarter-finals preview (Outlook India)
- Letter to member associations on amateur player registration (AIFF, June 2021)
