It is the oldest national school football tournament in India and was instituted to promote and encourage the sport at the grassroots level in the country.

[7] Since then many schools from foreign countries take part regularly, such as Brazil, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan etc.

[9] Brazilian legend and football's elder statesman Pele came to India after a gap of 38 years to attend the final of the 56th edition of the Subroto Cup as the chief guest.

[6] The following is the list of winners and runners-up:[7] At the request of the School Games Federation of India, the Subroto Cup organisers started a sub-junior (11-14 Years) football tournament from 1998.

Since 2000, the fairplay trophy for the sub-junior group has been named in the memory of late Lieutenant Sandeep Loomba, who died in a mountaineering expedition at Abi Gamin peak.