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The highlight of Indian football was undoubtedly the retaining of Nehru Cup International title after beating 2007 runners-up Syria via tie-breaker in the final in New Delhi in August.
India, who have qualified for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Doha after winning the AFC Challenge Cup last year, lost to Lebanon and Syria in round-robin league matches but emerged winner in the final in front of a packed gallery at the Ambedkar Stadium.
The victory prompted Bhutia to assert that Asia's top countries would now find India a difficult team to beat. His coach Bob Houghton went a step further by declaring that with good crowd support his side can beat the top Asian countries except Australia at the Ambedkar Stadium.
The tournament also saw Bhutia becoming the first Indian, 37th Asian and 152nd international footballer to have played more than 100 matches for his country when he led the side in a league match against Kyrgyzstan.
But before that tournament, in June, he was suspended by his club Mohun Bagan for six months for missing an exhibition match and skipping team training. He later signed a contract with East Bengal though he had one more year with Mohun Bagan.
An arbitrator appointed by the All India Football Federation granted his interim relief after a bitter legal battle, allowing him to play for a club of his choice till a final decision is passed.
Towards the end of the year, India Under-23 boys, under wily coach Sukhwinder Singh, did the country proud by winning the SAFF Championships after beating Maldives in the final in Dhaka, a feat their senior side under Bhutia failed to do in 2008.
Bhutia and Co. lost to Maldives 0-1 in the final in the last edition final in Colombo.
The year also saw long serving senior vice-president Praful Patel taking over as AIFF president, replacing ailing Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi who had been at the helm of affairs since 1988. Dasmunshi is in a comma in a Delhi hospital since October last year.
Patel immediately brought Rs 25 crore as grant from the cash-rich Indian Cricket Board using his proximity with his National Congress Party boss and former BCCI chief Sharad Pawar.
Patel's colleague, general secretary Alberto Colaco, however, chose to cling onto the office despite his repeated claims that he wants to quit the job.
Colaco, who took office in December 2000 as AIFF's first paid general secretary, was given extension of contract till the end of this year and the national body did not even bother to interview the candidates who had applied for the post responding to a public advertisement.
The AIFF had to drop its ambitious 'Goal 2011' project due to lack of financial resources and some clubs opposing it.
Under this plan, which was expected to cost the AIFF Rs 400 million, 25-27 players would be barred from playing any domestic tournament for two seasons to prepare for the Asian Cup in January 2011.
Meanwhile, lack of international matches remained the sour point of Indian football and its outcome was that India, which began the year on 142nd in FIFA rankings, ended it at the same place.
Apart from Nehru Cup, they played just one international friendly -- against Hong Kong -- in January and lost 1-2.
An ambitious football academy to be set up in Goa in collaboration with telecom giants Bharti Airtel, which had earmarked Rs 100 crore for the proposed state-of-the-art centre, was abandoned after a land dispute.
Haryana showed interest to set up the academy in Gurgaon which was to acquire technical assistance from Manchester United but that later turned out to be just verbal ex-pression of interest and the state also apparently failed to find the required land.
The AIFF, however, took an important step in professionalising the game in the country by appointing Kolkata-based Leisure Sports Management marketing head Sunando Dhar as the I-League Chief Executive.
Houghton caught controversy after he responded to Sports Minister MS Gill's remarks that he feared the national team would be beaten by a school side of Australia and said if the Minister was really concerned of Indian football he should provide good stadia and other facilities in the country.
It was a heartbreak for India striker Sunil Chhetri as his dream of playing in England's professional league was shattered when he was first rejected by Coventry City and then failed to get the work permit to ply in United Kingdom after being selected by Queens Park Rangers.
Dempo missed the chance to play in the prestigious AFC Champions League after losing to Al Sharjah of UAE 0-3 in a play-off match early this year and their Goan rivals Churchill Brothers will now have a chance if they win the play-off on February 6 against the winner of Al Karamah of Syria and Al Wahda of UAE.
Meanwhile, India's women team was delisted from the FIFA rankings in July after failing to play a single international match for 18 months, a development which led to severe criticism of the AIFF by the former players.
In the domestic front, Churchill Brothers became the 2008-2009 season I-League champions ahead of Mohun Bagan and their star striker and captain Odafe Onyeka Okolie became the highest I-League scorer once again.
Okolie signed for Churchill for another year with a reported record sum of Rs 1 crore, the highest in Indian football history.
Goa won the Santosh Trophy National Championships held in Tamil Nadu after defeating Bengal 4-2 via tie-breaker, while the country's two other domestic tournaments -- Durand Cup and IFA Shield -- were also won by Churchill.
Towards the end of the year, AIFF temporarily suspended India and Dempo players Mahesh Gawli and Sameer Naik after their club refused to send them for national camp in Goa citing injuries.
Dempo was fined Rs 5 lakh by the AIFF Disciplinary Committee for disobeying the national body's directives though the footballers were later cleared to play.
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