Kolkata: City football giant Mohun Bagan has finally picked the ‘Invitation to bid documents’ for the upcoming ISL tournament. However the club will only play in the forthcoming tournament if and only if their demands are fully met by IMG-R according to a senior club official.
On being asked that tomorrow i.e., May 25 is the last date of submission of the bid documents, club’s secretary Anjan Mitra said, “There is no logic for clubs like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal which are over 100 years old and have such huge legacy in all over the country. Apart from this we also need the money of the Central Pool and would like to play the tournament in Kolkata. These three demands have been brought up in our executive meeting today and has been agreed by all the officials of the club.”
Mr Mitra also added, “We have picked the bid documents but that doesn’t mean that tomorrow is the last date of submission. Like the Indian constitution has been amended a total 56 times after its formation similarly here the dates for a private organization can also be changed. The sole reason for picking the bid is that if later IMGR cannot deny that we haven’t bought the documents. The date of submission of the bid documents is not a factor to us”
Mohun Bagan secretary Anjan Mitra expressed his gratitude towards the Chief Mnister Mamata Banerjee for extending her support to both the Kolkata giants. According to Mitra, “We are extremely grateful to the chief minister for her support. We have already sent her a letter to show out gratitude.”
Club’s finance secretary Debasish Dutta was in an attacking mood as he openly challenged the ISL organisers saying, “The revolution is already started and would spread all over Bengal. We would like to see how well the tournament progresses if the two best teams Mohun Bagan and East Bengal won’t participate in that particular tournament.”
“We have already sent a letter to AFC regarding the issue. Our last hope is AIFF as all tournaments require the permission of AIFF. ISL is been run by a company called FSDL. Since we have no relations with FSDL we never had any meetings with them as well as with the IMGR. We had our meeting with AIFF were we put forward our grievances” said Dutta.
The Bagan club officials are currently awaiting a feedback from AIFF general secretary Kushal Das.
The Green and Maroon club officials think the ensuing fiasco is a serious attack on Bengal football and has to be dealt immediately for the benefit of the two great clubs.
“Indian football cannot continue without these two clubs, at least for now that time has not come yet. As a result in this revolution one and all should participate with us. This is an attack on Bengal and not on the two clubs. The Chief Minister of the state has promised us that the government will support us during these hard times. If Mohun Bagan and East Bengal is erased from the history of Indian football then IFA will be dismissed and more than 300 clubs of West Bengal would also fade away as football from Bengal would be left with a void.” said Dutta.
In recent past we have seen century old clubs like Aryan, George Telegraph and Mohamedan Sporting Clubs struggling to compete with the other clubs in Bengal. It goes to be seen what the future lies in store for the Big Two clubs.