Anilavaa Chatterjee: Great news coming for the fans of Kolkata giants East Bengal as they have finally roped in Hari Mohan Bangur’s company Shree Cements as their principal sponsors. With this the Red & Gold Brigade are all set to play the Indian Super League 2020-21 as well. East Bengal is celebrating it’s centenary year and this news has made the day for millions of fans who were eagerly waiting for this day. Now it is official that not only Mohun Bagan, but also East Bengal will be there from Kolkata in the country’s top tier League. The famous Kolkata Derby is also completing it’s 100 years and at this historic moment the two arch-rivals will face each other in the ISL for the first time. So one can easily say with East Bengal’s entry in the ISL will make this season’s Kolkata Derby one of the best Kolkata Derbies in the history of Indian Football.
How did all this happen?
At one stage, East Bengal head zero chance of playing the ISL, not only that they were also in big jeopardy regarding their new investor. At first FSDL wanted East Bengal to join hands with Sanjiv Goenka’s ATK and on that period of time there are arch-rivals Mohun Bagan were in advance talks with Kotak Mahindra. But due to some unavoidable reasons the two clubs didn’t take any final decision regarding their investors. Not only that, but also FSDL too was a bit angry with East Bengal because they didn’t merge with ATK. Beside that both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan went to FIFA to file a complain against FSDL, by saying that they are not willing to to take the two Kolkata giants in the ISL and FSDL wasn’t happy with all these.
After East Bengal part ways with their former investor Quess, West Bengal Chief Minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee held talks with East Bengal officials and she made a promise that she would try to bring a new investor so that the club can play the top-tier league of India. Mamata Banerjee also told the club officials that if they want to see East Bengal in the ISL, then Quess isn’t the right investor. After getting an important suggestion from the Chief Minister, the officials started their work to find new investor, but Quess Corp Chairman Ajit Isaac was not in the mood to return the ‘NOC’ and ‘Sporting Rights’ to the club at that moment. Though under CM Mamata Banerjee’s supervision East Bengal already had their final talks regarding investment with Kolkata’s renowned Real-estate company ‘Shaporji-Palanji’ but due to the Covid-19 outbreak the nationwide lockdown got started and all the plans had failed. After that the East Bengal officials tried to confirm an investor many times but due to the lockdown they failed to bring anyone at that point of time.
In the meantime East Bengal got an offer regarding investment from a renowned business man named Prasun Mukherjee, but many people had doubts that he didn’t have the capacity or willingness to invest for East Bengal so that they can play in ISL. At this point of time East Bengal officials were a bit disappointed because FSDL wasn’t showing much interest to bring East Bengal in ISL and not only that there were many false and negative news happening regarding East Bengal.
But everything got changed with a sudden twist. On an evening East Bengal official Debabrata Sarkar met BCCI President Sourav Ganguly at the CAB. As a sports enthusiast Sourav asked Debabrata about East Bengal’s investor. Mr. Sarkar told Sourav that CM Mamata Banerjee e is looking after this matter and after listening to this Sourav told Sarkar that when CM is trying so hard something good will really happen soon.
After that Sourav had quite a few chats with the Red and Gold officials. The officials urged Sourav to talk with Reliance so that East Bengal gets a chance to play ISL this season. Sourav talked with Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani’s son Akash Ambani on this matter. As per sources, Akash is very close to Sourav and he assured Ganguly that he would definitely talk with his mother Nita Ambani on this matter. After a conversation with Mrs. Ambani, Akash talked with the the top officials of FSDL regarding East Bengal’s perticipation in the ISL but they were still unhappy with the Red & Gold officials. After talking to Akash two top officials of FSDL called Sourav and told him why there are very much angry with the club. Sourav assured him that it won’t happen again, and if needed he will supervise the whole process. Ganguly also told them,” East Bengal is a huge brand. If they join the ISL then it will be huge boost for the tournament and they can see a full house during East Bengal’s matches, which is good for ISL as well.” Sourav told the same thing to Akash Ambani as well.
Things got changed after that as after getting an assurance from Sourav, the FSDL officials again started the process to take East Bengal in the ISL. Beside that West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee too had a word with Mukesh Ambani on this matter. Despite of having a hectic schedule, she continued her talks with Reliance regarding East Bengal’s new investor. As a result, Reliance brought Bangur Industries to have talks with East Bengal. The Regional Head of Reliance Jio in Kolkata, Mr. Tarun Jhunjhunwala was the person who officiated the meeting between the all parties.
But at the last moment, again East Bengal officials were in jeopardy as some of the conditions given by the Bangur Industries group were not very good. Again CM Mamata Banerjee came forward in the aid of East Bengal. She had called Mrs. Nita Ambani and requested by her to sort things out so that two parties can come in the same page. XtraTime has always said the same thing. After knowing all the developments, we were confident that East Bengal will play the ISL.
More to follow….