Why the once legendary football clubs of Kolkata are fading

Bogged down by inefficient administration and unable to attract financing, the once legendary football clubs of Kolkata are fading into irrelevance

The Maidan, a vast stretch of an urban park in the heart of Kolkata, was once the nerve centre of Indian football, its bungalows with their small patches of green home to iconic clubs like Mohun Bagan AC, East Bengal FC and Mohammedan Sporting Club. Last Saturday, there were thousands milling around, but sadly, it was not for football that they had congregated there. They were carrying placards of protest against the decision taken by Mohammedan Sporting to disband after 123 years of existence.

"If you can't save the club's dignity, step down," one angry banner carped at the club administrators. Imran, a supporter wearing the famous black and white colours of the club, was emphatic: "Mohammedan is in our blood and we will not let it shut down." Perhaps in acknowledgment of this passion, the club committee reversed its decision barely a week after announcing that lack of sponsorship and inability to pay the salaries to the players had forced them to down shutters on activities for the current year.

The drama might have been short-lived, but it exposed the bitter truth - that the mecca of Indian football is in danger of losing its relevance due to the lack of professionalism and the inefficiency of clubs at the Maidan.

Outside the office of Sultan Ahmed, the Mohammedan Sporting Club president, there is a queue of people. Inside sit office bearers from the ruling party, the Trinamool Congress. The walls of the waiting room are decorated with portraits of Sultan with political leaders. One of them shows Sultan with Shar Rukh Khan, owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, the city's Indian Premier League franchise. Sultan has been the president of the club since 2009, re-elected five times in succession without opposition. "The club elections are free and fair," he insists, "I get re-elected because the supporters trust me. The club won the Durand Cup tournament after 73 years in my tenure."

Irregular elections or those that critics claim are "staged" have centralised the management of the clubs in the hands of a few people. This is one of the reasons for the malaise that has set in. But the problem is not merely one about individuals monopolising a post. As Anjan Mitra, general secretary of 125-year-old Mohun Bagan for the past 15 years, points out, the lack of able administrators have made it necessary for "old boys to remain in the fold".

Sitting in the cafeteria at the East Bengal club, Moinuddin Bin Moksud, a structural engineer who took charge of Mohammedan Sporting after the recent crisis, says, "Running a football club is a professional job. But year after year, clubs are being run by people with vested interests and political ambitions." He is optimistic that with a bit of professionalism, he can bring back the glory days of Mohammedan Sporting. "I have already received calls from people who are willing to help the club financially," he says. "Till now, they didn't know who to approach in the club."

Moksud has his task cut out, for Kolkata football no longer attracts money like it once did. A top club needs funds in excess of Rs 10 crore per season to meet expenses arising out of players' salaries and football activities. Mohun Bagan's budget this season was Rs 12 crore, East Bengal's a bit more. Even though much poorer than the Rs 45 crore that each team in the new Indian Super League will spend on average in its first two-month season, this is an amount that can daunt the best clubs of Kolkata.

Already, the search for funds has landed clubs in trouble. Mohun Bagan's accounts, like those of rival East Bengal, have been frozen by the Enforcement Directorate, allegedly for receiving sponsorship money from the scam-riddled Saradha group. "A Rs 2-crore sponsorship contract was signed with Saradha in 2010-11 and the club was to receive this sum over three years," says Mitra. "We didn't receive the full payment." Unable to pay salaries to players and staff, Mohun Bagan, for the first time in its history, withdrew from a regional football tournament. "Why can't the officials raise money from respected companies instead of going after chit funds?" wonders a club footballer.

As vice-president of the Indian Football Association, the governing body for the game in West Bengal, Moksud had conceptualised the Premier League Soccer, a tournament modelled along the lines of the Indian Super League. It fell through reportedly due to financial constraints.

It's early on a Sunday morning and the Mohammedan Sporting coach, Fuja Tope, is waiting for his wards at the ground. The Nigerian has the huge challenge of preparing the team for the Durand Cup, and the least he expects from his players is punctuality. And that underlines another of Kolkata football's serious problems: the quality of club players. "There has been a questionable decline in the players' quality and commitment," comments Rajarshi, a 37-year-old who has followed the Kolkata clubs since his teenage years. "It is not like those days when people felt proud to don the jerseys of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal."

Bhaskar Sengupta, physiotherapist at Mohammedan Sporting who has also worked with the Bengal state team, has seen the players from close quarters. According to him, football in Kolkata is more an emotion than a profession. "Subrata Bhattacharya turned out in the green and maroon of Mohun Bagan for 17 years in spite of getting offers from abroad," he says.

Football expert Novy Kapadia blames the reluctance of the clubs to hone new talent and instead concentrate on foreigners for the rapid decline of quality football. "Clubs like Aryan Sports and Kalighat FC used to act as the feeder institutions for bigger clubs through their local tournaments," he says. "Players like Prasun Banerjee and Surajit Sen Gupta climbed through these ranks." Today, this nursery no longer exists.

Kapadia feels a major failure of Kolkata's clubs was their inability to market themselves. The concept of gate receipts and merchandising has been nonexistent in club football in India. "During my days, I know many people who would have treasured a Mohun Bagan jersey," he says, "and the clubs could have made a fortune by selling their team jerseys. But there was no professional marketing." At the bustling market just 500 metres from the Maidan, a treasure trove for football lovers, the demand is no longer for memorabilia of the local clubs . The demand is for jerseys of European clubs. As if to strike the final blow to the antiquated footballing system of the city, Amlan, whose shop is almost 50 years old, states a new reality: "Atletico de Kolkata's jersey is the new favourite."

Leaving Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Mohammedan Sporting and all the old favourites behind, Atletico de Kolkata is the team that now represents the city in the spanking new Indian Super League. On October 12, as the league was being inaugurated on the revered pitch of Yubabharati Krirangan, the arena where the traditional gladiators fought numerous battles, the old order was anxious. "Our clubs can never match the glitz and glamour of the Indian Super League and will ultimately be pushed out," said Mridul Banerjee, former coach of Mohun Bagan. His worries are not unfounded. That day, the tiers at the stadium which till now had been bisected into two parts to accommodate Mohun Bagan and East Bengal supporters were cheering unitedly for the same team: Atletico de Kolkata. In football, when rivalries cease, when emotions fade, the very game comes to a stop.