That might not be a bad thing based on some of the shady business I have heard coming from the New York Cosmos in the US and Lagardere's involvement with the side
According to a report in Pratidin, East Bengal goalkeeping coach Abhijit Mondal has assumed charge as the coach of Mohammedan Sporting replacing Mridul Banerjee who has taken charge as the coach of the Bengal Santosh Trophy team.
“ISL, in its third edition, has fallen flat, even if
somewhat. TRP is falling drastically. Five cities out of a total eight are not
seeing full houses. So the question is: what
next? The policy decision of taking MB, EB & BFC from I-league have
been taken. In that scenario, IMGR-AIFF face three problems. Number of teams
will become eleven. It will not be a good advertisement for the league to run
with odd number of teams. But 12 teams will increase the costs. Club budgets
will increase manifold if the league runs for eight months. STAR Group wants
unified league of 10 teams. The familiar face of Indian football Chirag Tanna,
who has joined IMGR from Pune FC, has been saying the same during ISL matches
for the last three weeks. Now if it is 10 teams, then the ninth would undoubtedly
be BFC, as corporate team as well as performance-wise. Sundar Raman, who has
joined IMGR after being expelled from IPL, has very good rapport with MB Asst
Secretary Srinjay Bose. The relationship goes back five years when Bose was in
IPL committee. And due to this relationship, MB are in the process of finalizing
the deal with Red Chillies, even after advanced talks with French Agency
Lagardare. Hurdles still remain. ATK owner Sanjiv Goenka is firm in his
position for the last four months citing the clauses of the agreement with
IMGR. After ensuring ATK in the semis after the draw with Kerala Blasters on
November 29, he said that the next year also, there will be one team from Kolkata in ISL and that
will be ATK. The agreement says one city,
one league. To counter it, IMGR have their plan B ready. They want MB to
play out of Howrah city. ATK cannot do much about it; Howrah is a separate city
and district. And Howrah is a strong support base of MB. In the election in
2015, 5,500 out of 8,000 voters were from Howrah itself. ‘Powerful’ oppositions
like Subrata Bhattacharya were vanquished on the strength of the Howrah lobby. Both
the Secretary and the Asst Secretary are from Howrah since their childhood days.
When pointed out to this, the Finance
Secretary Debashis Datta said, ‘Why Howrah only, our base can very well be any
city of India. Remember, MB is the National Club of India. Metro Rail
construction work is going on around the areas of Howrah Stadium. The seating
capacity of the stadium is being increased; Howrah Improvement Trust is overseeing
this. If matches can be staged in the haunted house of Rabindra Stadium, then
matches can take place in Howrah as well.’ “
What about East Bengal? And does this solve the problem? Three teams from a state? What about national spread ? So what was wrong with I-league? Why IMGR are taking all the decisions?
Send ATK to Kalyani Stadium. They will not have to change their abbreviation. "Atletico De Kalyani" Different Municipality. MB in Howrah Stadium. East Bengal in Rabindra Sarobar Stadium.
Comments
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/aug/20/the-long-game-time-is-on-new-york-cosmos-chairman-seamus-obriens-side
There is no truth in it
http://thefield.scroll.in/823016/before-pointing-fingers-at-clubs-for-not-bringing-in-fans-aiff-must-look-at-the-mirror.
“ISL, in its third edition, has fallen flat, even if somewhat. TRP is falling drastically. Five cities out of a total eight are not seeing full houses. So the question is: what next? The policy decision of taking MB, EB & BFC from I-league have been taken. In that scenario, IMGR-AIFF face three problems. Number of teams will become eleven. It will not be a good advertisement for the league to run with odd number of teams. But 12 teams will increase the costs. Club budgets will increase manifold if the league runs for eight months. STAR Group wants unified league of 10 teams. The familiar face of Indian football Chirag Tanna, who has joined IMGR from Pune FC, has been saying the same during ISL matches for the last three weeks. Now if it is 10 teams, then the ninth would undoubtedly be BFC, as corporate team as well as performance-wise. Sundar Raman, who has joined IMGR after being expelled from IPL, has very good rapport with MB Asst Secretary Srinjay Bose. The relationship goes back five years when Bose was in IPL committee. And due to this relationship, MB are in the process of finalizing the deal with Red Chillies, even after advanced talks with French Agency Lagardare. Hurdles still remain. ATK owner Sanjiv Goenka is firm in his position for the last four months citing the clauses of the agreement with IMGR. After ensuring ATK in the semis after the draw with Kerala Blasters on November 29, he said that the next year also, there will be one team from Kolkata in ISL and that will be ATK. The agreement says one city, one league. To counter it, IMGR have their plan B ready. They want MB to play out of Howrah city. ATK cannot do much about it; Howrah is a separate city and district. And Howrah is a strong support base of MB. In the election in 2015, 5,500 out of 8,000 voters were from Howrah itself. ‘Powerful’ oppositions like Subrata Bhattacharya were vanquished on the strength of the Howrah lobby. Both the Secretary and the Asst Secretary are from Howrah since their childhood days. When pointed out to this, the Finance Secretary Debashis Datta said, ‘Why Howrah only, our base can very well be any city of India. Remember, MB is the National Club of India. Metro Rail construction work is going on around the areas of Howrah Stadium. The seating capacity of the stadium is being increased; Howrah Improvement Trust is overseeing this. If matches can be staged in the haunted house of Rabindra Stadium, then matches can take place in Howrah as well.’ “
What about East Bengal? And does this solve the problem? Three teams from a state? What about national spread
Questions, questions ...