page_title: East Bengal Ultras
section_title: Controversy
hierarchical_section_title: East Bengal Ultras / Controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: NRC Tifo East Bengal Ultras
context_page_description: The East Bengal Ultras are the vocal supporters' group for Indian football club, East Bengal F.C., which competes in the I-League, one of the two co-existing premier football leagues in India. The group is also often referred to as the Bangal Brigade owing to much of its fanbase hailing from the East Bengal region. Founded in 2013, it was the first Ultras group in Indian football and has been credited with revolutionising the Indian football fan movement. They were the first supporters' group in India to organise a pyro-show on-field and the first in South Asia to organise a live chant show, named Tunes of Colony, in 2019. They have around 25 chants and slogans.
  The Ultras are known for making some of the largest unique tifos in Indian football. In the 2019–20 I-League season, they set a record for the biggest tifo—10,000 sq ft —in Indian football history, breaking the previous record of 7,200 sq ft which the group had also set.
context_section_description: The East Bengal Ultras caused a controversy in January 2020, when during the 2019–20 I-League first leg Kolkata Derby match, they unfurled a tifo which had statements against the National Register of Citizens (NRC). There was a banner written in Bengali that said, "We bought the land with our Blood, not with Papers". The official statement from the Ultras group was that the tifo was an answer to the racist jibes and cyber-bullying from their arch-rival fans. However, the incident led to groups, both for and against NRC, making an issue of the situation and stirred up controversy.
caption: Tifo on display with slogans on NRC during Kolkata Derby
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