Kerala Football Association which was instituted in 1948 even before the State of Kerala was born directly oversees the development of football in Kerala from Grassroots to Senior level.

We are affiliated to All India Football Federation (AIFF) which is the apex body for the governance of football in the country. We operate within the guidelines set forth by FIFA, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) & AIFF to ensure steady progress of the sport in Kerala & beyond. We are also regarded as one of the Best State Football Associations in the country in terms of quality in Administration, Strategy & Innovation.

Teams from Karachi and Bengal besides British military teams used to participate in early football tournaments organized by dedicated football lovers in Malabar, Trvancore and in the port city of Ernakulam. HMC Kottayam, Calicut Young Challengers, Brothers, Lucky Star, Gymkhana (Kannur), and popular clubs in Malappuram, Palakkad, Fort Kochi, Ernakulam, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram produced well known players such as Kottayam Saleh, James Fenn and Thiruvalla Pappan (T D Varghese), Thrissur Antony, Pappu, Leiban, D’cruz, Olympians T A Rahman and O. Chandrasekharan, Chidanandan, R Balakrishnan, Petta Ravi, Moideen Kutty, goalkeeper Mustafah, Dr. Rajagopal, Thiruvalla Thomas, Balagopal, T K Chathunni, Sathyan, Jayaram, Balakrishnan,Indrabalan, Malappuram Aziz, Ramakirshnan etc etc. Later the headquarters of KFA was moved to Kollam after P Laxmanan Pillai was elected president and K Thankappan Honorary Secretary.KFA saw a new breed of organizers taking over the reins of KFA in the 70s with former Mayor of Cochin A K Seshadri becoming the president.

Later past presidents such as A. K. Seshadri, T. O. Abdulla (Ernakulam), who went on to become the Vice President of All India Football Federation, and P P Laxmanan (Kannur), who later became the Hon. Secretary and Executive President of AIFF and President of Saarc Football Federation, and the present president K M I Mather steered KFA with a sense of direction, albeit there had been ups and downs too. They were ably supported by the hardworking Hon. Secretaries U P Johny (Thrissur), K Bodhanandan (Thiruvananthapuram), K. Sugunan (Kollam) and K P Sunny (Thrissur) in the past.Now KFA has its first full-time secretary in P Anil Kumar, a former Services football player and DFB – B Licence holder, who has been appointed in accordance with the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) and AIFF statutes and guidelines.

Clubs such as Premier Tyres, Kalamassery, Alind Kundara, KSRTC, AG’s Office, Young Challengers, Titanium and Kerala Police followed by F C Kochin, India’s first professional football club, and Viva Kerala helped produce a new breed of talented footballers and spread the fame of Kerala across the country. Kerala Police, in fact, nine Indian footballers and has lifted the Federation Cup in 1990 and 1991 while F C Kochin became the first Kerala team to win the prestigious Durand Cup with hat-trick by CA Liston, beating Mohun Bagan (1), in 1997. Alind Kundara, FACT, Premier Tyres and Kerala Police had won many national tournaments too. Inspired by the glory those wonderful dedicated players( some of them even became very popular in Bombay, Madras, Goa and Bengal as well), Kerala saw the birth of talented players such as Mani and CA Liston, the hat-trick hero's and captain of the victorious 1973 Santhosh trohphy team, Jaffar, Williams, Devanand, Najimuddin, C C Jacob, M M Jacob, Victor Manjila, Sethumadhavan, Xaviour Pious, Najeeb, Sathyan, Sharf Ali, Pappachan, I M Vijayan, Jo Paul Ancheri to Mohammed Rafi, Ajayan and Pradeep, Sakeer. Remember, Kerala has produced five Olympians like Saleh, Rahman, Chandrasekharan, Narayanan and Thiruvalla Pappan in the golden era of Indian football in the 1950s and 1960s.