Formation and journey match against
Salgaocar in 2007 The club was founded in 1962 as the "Mahindra & Mahindra Allied Sports Club" under the patronage of
Mahindra Group. they secured admission into
Bombay's
Harwood League in 1964 and won their first title in 1970. Players like renowned goalkeeper
E.N. Sudhir appeared with the club at that time. The club later lifted its first knock-out tournament,
Bandodkar Gold Trophy in 1980. The club later became
Durand Cup champion in 1998, under coaching of legendary football manager
Syed Shahid Hakim, and went on to clinch the title again in 2001–02.
In leagues of Mumbai Since their inception, Mahindra became a member of
Western India Football Association (WIFA) and later in 1983, became affiliated with
Mumbai District Football Association (formerly
BDFA). They participated in later editions of
Bombay Harwood League alongside Maharashtra Football League, and won the Harwood League four times in 1970, 1982, 1984 and 1985. Mahindra later participated in
W.I.F.A. Super Division from 1990 to 1999 and clinched WIFA title in 1995. They later participated in
MDFA Elite Division and lifted trophies consecutively from 2000 to 2004 and 2006 to 2009. In the summer of 2006, it was renamed
Mahindra United. The shirt colour was also changed from orange to red. The team played its NFL home matches at the
Cooperage Ground in
Mumbai, but due to the bad state of the stadium, as of February 7, 2006, they had to play almost all of their NFL games at away venues. Mahindra were crowned champions of NFL Premier Division for the first time in the club's history in the 2005–06 season, with two games to spare. They followed it up by beating their arch-rivals,
Air India for the first time in the season. They are also two-time winners of the
Indian Federation Cup, having won the title in 2003 and 2005. The win in 2005 ensured that Mahindra became the first club in the history of Indian football to win both the Federation Cup and National Football League in the same season. They did however lose the NFL Super Cup to
East Bengal by a margin of 1–2.
Later years is the first ever naturalized Indian footballer, who played for both Mahindra United and the
India national team. In the 2006 edition of
IFA Shield, Mahindra United emerged as champions, defeating
Mohun Bagan AC by 1–0 in
Kolkata. They also participated in the
2006 Federation Cup and achieved third place, defeating
Dempo SC 4–2 in the penalty-shootout. In the 2008 edition of IFA Shield, they defeated the South African side
Santos FC by 3–1 to win the title. match against
ONGC. Head coach of the team was
Derrick Pereira. Players like Subhashish Roy Chowdhury,
Manjit Singh and
Surojit Bose have been associated with the team. The club also tried forming under-15 and under-19 teams in order to nurture the young talent in the country. ==Stadium==