Kolkata: The future of East Bengal on their chances of participating in the ISL might get a clear picture on the 22nd May as the Kolkata Giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan will sit for a discussion with The AIFF officials to know their standpoint regarding the issues which were raised by the Kolkata teams. East Bengal officials on Wednesday picked the bid document understand the terms and conditions in the Indian Super League while Mohun Bagan were expected to follow suit signalling their eased stance against the IMG-Reliance owned lucrative meet.
“We have collected the (Invitation to Bid) documents in Mumbai. But this doesn’t guarantee our participation. We cannot take a plunge in the sea without assessing what’s on offer. We will study it and then details will follow. We will meet Mr Kushal Das of AIFF on Monday to know if they can come up with any solutions”, East Bengal General Secretary Kalyan Majumdar confirmed today.
Though the East Bengal General Secretary stated, “Two things for sure. We won’t play outside of Kolkata and we won’t pay a single penny as appearance fee to play in the ISL.”
Football Sports Development Limited, the ISL organizers, have floated the tender through ‘Invitation To Bid’ on May 12 and the deadline for submitting is May 25 as a maximum of three teams would be up for grabs.
This is seen as a doorway for East Bengal and Mohun Bagan to play in the ISL along with Bengaluru FC who have already picked the ITB in a move by the All Indian Football Federation to make the three-year-old ISL as the premier meet in place if I-League.
Though a bid cannot be expected from either of the two Kolkata giants just because the document has been taken up for consideration, this is a sign that both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan are easing their stance against the IMG-Reliance owned league.
On the other hand East Bengal had their condolence meeting today at the club today for the legendary Shanto Mitra who passed away a few days back. All the East Bengal officials were present there.