Industrialist Murari Lal Lohia Becomes East Bengal President, Aims To Make It 'Best In Asia'
After three decades, the iconic football club East Bengal made a change of guard at the top on Wednesday with city-based industrialist Murari Lal Lohia taking over as its president from Dr Pronab Dasgupta.
Founder of railway wagon manufacturing company Jupiter Wagons, which has a market cap of Rs 25,626 crore and has diversified into commercial vehicle business, Lohia, an IIT pass out, has taken over from Dasgupta, an eminent gynecologist.
On his first day as president, Lohia made a bold promise of making East Bengal "the best football club in Asia."
"East Bengal is not just a football club but a legacy institution. While we continue to strive for being the best in the country with our senior football team, we need to have a concrete roadmap for the future to make East Bengal among the best in Asia," Lohia said after the first meeting of the executive committee here.
"Only time will tell whether we will succeed in this mission but I seek the support of millions of East Bengal supporters and members. Dreams only succeed when people come around you," he said.
An East Bengal fan from childhood, Lohia said he had approached Dasgupta and executive committee member Debabrata 'Nitu' Sarkar to find an "active role".
"In the last few months, I approached Dr Dasgupta and Nitu and started discussing with them on playing a more active role in giving something to the club of which I've been a supporter since childhood," he said.
Dasgupta said: "All good things must come to an end, for five years I've been pressing all my colleagues to look for someone who is smarter and more popular than me, I'm glad they have found someone."
Businessman Rupak Saha has become the new general secretary replacing Kalyan Majumdar who held the post for more than two decades.
East Bengal also inducted former India women's cricket team captain Jhulan Goswami as a member of the executive committee.
"Never in my wildest dream, I had thought of becoming an EC member of the club. I will give my best with the limited experience that I have," said Jhulan.
Charting out their priorities, Nitu Sarkar said, "Bringing financial stability to the club is the main aim and the next target is youth development in all disciplines."
All the members were elected unanimously.
Asked whether it's healthy for a club to have no opposition, Sarkar said: "It's not for us to bring in opposition. Obviously, we must be doing something right so that there's no opposition."
Besides the top two posts, the new EC has five vice-presidents, 10 office-bearers and 21 members.
Last year, East Bengal had ended a 12-year wait for a national trophy, winning the Super Cup.
East Bengal Executive Committee
=========================
President: Murari Lal Lohia; General Secretary: Rupak Saha; Assistant General Secretary: Dr Santi Ranjan Dasgupta; Finance Secretary: Sadananda Mukherjee; Treasurer: Debdas Samajdar; Football Secretary: Saikat Ganguly; Cricket Secretary: Sanjib Acharya; Hockey Secretary: Prabir Kumar Daffader; Athletic Secretary: Partha Pratim Roy; Tennis Secretary: Indranil Ghosh; Ground Secretary: Rajat Guha.
East Bengal FC are likely to face Altyn Asyr FC from Turkmenistan in Qualifiers Round of the 24/25 ACL Two competition!
The match will take place on 14th August 2024 in Salt Lake Stadium. The winner will progress to the Group Stages, while the losers will take part in 24/25 AFC Challenge League Group Stages!
Interestingly, Altyn Asyr did not win the Turkmenistan FA Cup or the top-division title last season. That was won by FK Arkadag. But Arkadag reportedly does not have the necessary club licenses to play in the AFC Champions League II and can only play in the AFC Challenge Cup – which is the third tier of continental football in Asia.
As a result, Altyn Asyr, who finished as the runners-up in the 2018 AFC Cup, are expected to be granted their place and represent Turkmenistan instead. They will be meeting East Bengal or any ISL side for the first time in this crucial qualifier. Asyr finished in second place in the Yokary Liga (Turkmenistan top division) behind FK Arkadag, who enjoyed an invincible campaign and didn’t lose a single of their 24 league games
Carles Cuadrat has experience of facing Altyn Asyr. That is because, in 2018, his Bengaluru FC side lost the AFC Cup inter-zonal semi-finals against the Turkmenistan side by a 5-2 margin
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Industrialist Murari Lal Lohia Becomes East Bengal President, Aims To Make It 'Best In Asia'
After three decades, the iconic football club East Bengal made a change of guard at the top on Wednesday with city-based industrialist Murari Lal Lohia taking over as its president from Dr Pronab Dasgupta.
Founder of railway wagon manufacturing company Jupiter Wagons, which has a market cap of Rs 25,626 crore and has diversified into commercial vehicle business, Lohia, an IIT pass out, has taken over from Dasgupta, an eminent gynecologist.
On his first day as president, Lohia made a bold promise of making East Bengal "the best football club in Asia."
"East Bengal is not just a football club but a legacy institution. While we continue to strive for being the best in the country with our senior football team, we need to have a concrete roadmap for the future to make East Bengal among the best in Asia," Lohia said after the first meeting of the executive committee here.
"Only time will tell whether we will succeed in this mission but I seek the support of millions of East Bengal supporters and members. Dreams only succeed when people come around you," he said.
An East Bengal fan from childhood, Lohia said he had approached Dasgupta and executive committee member Debabrata 'Nitu' Sarkar to find an "active role".
"In the last few months, I approached Dr Dasgupta and Nitu and started discussing with them on playing a more active role in giving something to the club of which I've been a supporter since childhood," he said.
Dasgupta said: "All good things must come to an end, for five years I've been pressing all my colleagues to look for someone who is smarter and more popular than me, I'm glad they have found someone."
Businessman Rupak Saha has become the new general secretary replacing Kalyan Majumdar who held the post for more than two decades.
East Bengal also inducted former India women's cricket team captain Jhulan Goswami as a member of the executive committee.
"Never in my wildest dream, I had thought of becoming an EC member of the club. I will give my best with the limited experience that I have," said Jhulan.
Charting out their priorities, Nitu Sarkar said, "Bringing financial stability to the club is the main aim and the next target is youth development in all disciplines."
All the members were elected unanimously.
Asked whether it's healthy for a club to have no opposition, Sarkar said: "It's not for us to bring in opposition. Obviously, we must be doing something right so that there's no opposition."
Besides the top two posts, the new EC has five vice-presidents, 10 office-bearers and 21 members.
Last year, East Bengal had ended a 12-year wait for a national trophy, winning the Super Cup.
East Bengal Executive Committee
=========================
President: Murari Lal Lohia; General Secretary: Rupak Saha; Assistant General Secretary: Dr Santi Ranjan Dasgupta; Finance Secretary: Sadananda Mukherjee; Treasurer: Debdas Samajdar; Football Secretary: Saikat Ganguly; Cricket Secretary: Sanjib Acharya; Hockey Secretary: Prabir Kumar Daffader; Athletic Secretary: Partha Pratim Roy; Tennis Secretary: Indranil Ghosh; Ground Secretary: Rajat Guha.
Vice-presidents: Ajoy Krishna Chatterjee, Sangar Bagri, Subhasish Chakraborty, Rahul Todi, Kalyan Majumdar.
Members: Jhulan Goswami, Subir Ganguly, Santosh Bhattacharya, Diptendu Mohan Bose, Siddartha Sarcar, Debabrata Sarkar, Birendra Saha, Dipankar Chakraborty, Biswajit Mazumdar, Tapan Roy, Suman Dasgupta, Aritra Roy Chowdhury, Tamal Ghosal, Beni Madhav Bhattacharya, Manab Paul, Subhasis Dasgupta, Saroj Bhattacharjee, Molly Ganguly, Debasish Bose, Bikash Dutta, Biplab Paul.
The match will take place on 14th August 2024 in Salt Lake Stadium. The winner will progress to the Group Stages, while the losers will take part in 24/25 AFC Challenge League Group Stages!
https://x.com/IFTWC
Interestingly, Altyn Asyr did not win the Turkmenistan FA Cup or the top-division title last season. That was won by FK Arkadag. But Arkadag reportedly does not have the necessary club licenses to play in the AFC Champions League II and can only play in the AFC Challenge Cup – which is the third tier of continental football in Asia.
As a result, Altyn Asyr, who finished as the runners-up in the 2018 AFC Cup, are expected to be granted their place and represent Turkmenistan instead. They will be meeting East Bengal or any ISL side for the first time in this crucial qualifier. Asyr finished in second place in the Yokary Liga (Turkmenistan top division) behind FK Arkadag, who enjoyed an invincible campaign and didn’t lose a single of their 24 league games
Carles Cuadrat has experience of facing Altyn Asyr. That is because, in 2018, his Bengaluru FC side lost the AFC Cup inter-zonal semi-finals against the Turkmenistan side by a 5-2 margin
https://khelnow.com/football/indian-football-east-bengal-set-face-altyn-asyr-afc-asian-champions-league-two-qualifier-202406
Turkmenistan players or this club are not in form. East Bengal will be good with current set of players & they still need to sign 1 foreign player..