ATK Mohun Bagan FC
ATK Mohun Bagan FC () is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. The club competes in Indian Super League, one of the top flights of Indian football. The club, which was formed as a merger between the football section of multi-sport club Mohun Bagan AC and the ATK FC, began to play from the 2020–21 season as ATK Mohun Bagan FC. The entity continues with the existing registration of Mohun Bagan AC with AIFF and IFA (W.B.), and its history and tradition. The principal owner of ATK Mohun Bagan is RPSG Group  chairman, Dr. Sanjiv Goenka, along with Sourav Ganguly, Utsav Parekh and Mohun Bagan AC serving as the co-owners. ATK Mohun Bagan continues to share a fierce rivalry, known as the Kolkata Derby, with Mohun Bagan's long-time city rival East Bengal. The first derby match was played on 8 August 1921. The Mariners also have a big rivalry with Kerala Blasters since their debut in the ISL. Background. Mohun Bagan. Mohun Bagan Athletic Club was founded on 15 August 1889 as Mohun Bagan Sporting Club and is one of the oldest and most historic football clubs in India . Mohun Bagan was inducted into the Club of Pioneers, a network of the oldest existing football clubs around the world, on 29 July 2019 as the club celebrated its 130th year in existence. The club's most notable achievement came on 29 July 1911 when Mohun Bagan defeated East Yorkshire Regiment in the IFA Shield final. Mohun Bagan's victory was the first time an all-Indian football club had won the IFA Shield and became a symbol of nationalism during the Indian independence movement. The club was a founding member of the, India's first domestic league, in 1996 . Since then, the club has gone on to win record five league titles, three National Football League (NFL) and two in the I-League, becoming tied for most successful club in Indian football. Mohun Bagan have also won the most Federation Cup titles (14) and second most Calcutta Football League titles (30). ATK. ATK Football Club, founded on 7 May 2014 as Atlético de Kolkata, were a founding member of the Indian Super League. The club was owned by a consortium, Kolkata Games and Sports Pvt. Ltd., consisting of RPSG Group founder Dr. Sanjiv Goenka, Harshavardhan Neotia, former Indian cricketer  Sourav Ganguly, Utsav Parekh, and Spanish football club Atlético Madrid. The club would go on to win two of the first three Indian Super League finals in 2014 and 2016. After three seasons, Atlético Madrid ended their partnership with the club and sold their ownership stake to Goenka. The club was then rebranded as ATK. In March 2020, ATK won their third and final championship, defeating Chennaiyin in the 2020 ISL final. ATK Mohun Bagan. 2020–21. Discussions to include Kolkata giants and I-League clubs Mohun Bagan and East Bengal had been ongoing since 2018. Discussions and rumors continued through  2019 before an announcement was made on 16 January 2020 that ATK owners Dr. Sanjiv Goenka, Utsav Parekh and Sourav Ganguly bought an 80% stake in Mohun Bagan. As part of the purchase, it was announced that ATK would merge its brand with Mohun Bagan to create a merged entity for the 2020–21 Indian Super League season. It was also announced that the merged entity would launch on 1 June 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The club's new name was officially announced on 10 July 2020 as ATK Mohun Bagan. It was also revealed that  the club would retain the main colours of Mohun Bagan, along with its iconic insignia. Most of players in the newly formed team continued from ATK, including five of the foreigners, namely Roy Krishna, David Williams, Edu García, Carl McHugh and Tiri. The biggest signing of the club in this season was the veteran Indian defender Sandesh Jhingan. The team was led by five different captains: Pritam Kotal, Roy Krishna, Sandesh Jhingan, Arindam Bhattacharya and Edu Garcia. In its debut season in Indian Super League, the club narrowly lost the ISL Premiership on the last matchday as well as the  ISL Championship in the final, both to Mumbai City. ATK Mohun Bagan became one of the clubs to earn most points in a single season. Roy Krishna was declared the joint top scorer of the season with 14 goals in 23 matches and Arindam Bhattacharya won the Golden Glove of the season with 10 cleansheets in 23 matches. ATK Mohun Bagan dominated the AFC Cup group stage, but eventually lost the inter-zone play-off semi-final to Nasaf Qarshi. 2021–present. In the 2021–22 season, the club withdrew from the Calcutta Premier Division and also refused to participate in  the Durand Cup. Prior to the start of 2021–22 Indian Super League season, Sourav Ganguly, one of the co-owners of ATK Mohun Bagan Pvt. Ltd. decided to step down from his role as a director in the club in order to avoid conflict of interests with the club's principal owner and chairman, Dr. Sanjiv Goenka. The club made some of the big transfers of 2021 in Indian football that included, Liston Colaco for around $161K and Hugo Boumous for more than $250K. ATK Mohun Bagan also signed a Finnish midfielder Joni Kauko, who had recently  played in UEFA Euro 2020. On 18 December, Habas announced his decision to resign from his duty as the head coach of the team after a winless run of 4 matches including their biggest loss in the league till then. On 19 December, Goa president announced that ATK Mohun Bagan signed their first team coach, Juan Ferrando to replace Habas, through a buyout clause that possibly made him highest paid coach in ISL. ATK Mohun Bagan matched Goa's 15 matches unbeaten streak until they lost against Jameshedpur and finished 3rd in the league table. In the ISL play-offs , they lost against Hyderabad on aggregate score in the semi-finals. Club culture. Crest. The "Sailing Boat of Mohun Bagan" and its iconic green-maroon colours were retained in the club's unveiled logo. The sailboat signifies Mohun Bagan's place of establishment: North Calcutta, on the banks of the Ganges. In fact Calcutta was the capital during the later 19th century and a prime trade center of British India, where the main mode of transportation was through the waterways. The colours of the crest has its connection to the representation of the Sundarbans in the earliest crest design of  Mohun Bagan. Colours. At the club's first board of directors meeting after the merger on 10 July 2020, it was announced that the club would retain the traditional colours of Mohun Bagan – green and maroon – as their official club colours. On 12 November at the official unveiling of the kits for the 2020-21 season, both the released kits followed the traditional colour schemes of Mohun Bagan- green and maroon home kit and a white dominant away kit- with a ""Champions"" tag below the club crest, in honour of the successful preceding season for Mohun Bagan and ATK in  their respective leagues. The home kit design followed the traditional striped shirt of green maroon and maroon shorts, and the away kit was a white shirt of four green and maroon narrow bands through the middle and white shorts. The kit designs were continued for the next season as well. The third kit of the team wasn't released until 29 December 2020 when the club fielded the team against Chennaiyin FC donning a black and grey striped jersey. The third kit was a resemblance of ATK's 2019–20 away colours, which was discontinued in the next season due to  controversies and backlash from the supporters. Ownership. The club is owned by a consortium known as ATK Mohun Bagan Private Limited. RPSG Group founder Dr.Sanjiv Goenka is the principal owner of the organization while prominent stockbroker and businessman, Utsav Parekh and former Indian cricketer and BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly are the co-owners. They together own 80% of the shares, while Mohun Bagan Football Club Private Limited also acts a co-owner, owning 20% of the organization. ATK Mohun Bagan FC continues with the existing registration of Mohun Bagan AC with the All India Football Federation and the Indian  Football Association. Supporters. Since the establishment of Mohun Bagan in 1889, the club had been distinctly supported by dedicated and loyal fans, known as '"Mariners"', across the nation, which also includes various high-profile personalities. The principal owner and chairman of the club, Dr. Sanjiv Goenka, was himself an ardent follower of the club, belonging to a family of Mohun Bagan supporters. In his first interview after the merger he said, ""When I grew up, Green and Maroon was very much part of my being."" The co-owner of the club, Sourav Ganguly had even played for the club's  cricket team for many years in the past. The merger of ATK with Mohun Bagan was met with harshly negative reception among the Mariners, followed by numerous protests around the city, digitally as well as on streets. The fans feared that the merger would become a mark of their 'mother club' Mohun Bagan and its century-old legacy's conclusion. Gradually as the air of doubts were cleared, the resentment was calmed, though few ultras continued to voice their demands with hard statements. Regardless, the club received considerable support from the fans during its ups and downs in the league  and other tournaments. In March 2020, a digital fanbase called "Mariners' Arena" became the first fan club in West Bengal to launch their official fan merchandise. The members of the fan club also took active participation in ISL Fan Wall during ATK Mohun Bagan's matches in its debut season. Stadiums. Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan. ATK Mohun Bagan plays its home matches at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, also called Salt Lake Stadium, located in the suburb of Bidhannagar in Kolkata. A multi-purpose stadium owned by the Government of West Bengal under Youth Affairs and Sports Department, the VYKB  primarily hosts football matches, apart from track and field events. The stadium was built in 1984, predominately for matches like Kolkata Derby that featured attendance too huge for the grounds in Maidan to accommodate. Before its renovation in 2011, it was the largest football stadium in the world by capacity of 120,000. Prior to the construction and opening of Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in 1989, it was the largest football stadium in the world. It is currently the fourth largest sports stadium in Asia by capacity. The gigantic stadium features three tiers of concrete galleries and has 9 entry  gates, including a VIP gate, and 30 ramps for the spectators to reach the viewing blocks. 2022 AFC Cup preliminary round 2 was the first match that the team played at VYBK and also in front of a home crowd, since the merger happened in 2020 during the restrictive situation due to COVID-19 pandemic. Mohun Bagan Ground. The Mohun Bagan Ground, located in the urban park of Maidan near Mohun Bagan Athletic Club tent, is owned by Mohun Bagan AC who currently uses the stadium as a training ground. ATK Mohun Bagan management has a plan to renovate the stadium  in the near future so that they can use this stadium for their home matches in Indian Super League and other big tournaments, but currently the ground is used for Calcutta Football League and Durand Cup matches. The stadium has galleries on three sides and a rampart on the fourth side. The north side, a contemporary gallery of the stadium, having bucket seats installed, is for the members of the club. Rivalries. SC East Bengal. Kolkata Derby or the "Boro Match" is a football match between ATK Mohun Bagan FC (previously Mohun Bagan AC) and its city rival SC East  Bengal. The rivalry was born out of a social tension between the two cultural groups of Bengalis in Kolkata: the "Ghotis" (nativists) and the "Bangals" (migrants), that eventually led to the formation of East Bengal Club as a representation of the Bangals, and hence the Derby. The first match between the two sides was played on 8 August 1921 in the Coochbehar Cup semifinal that ended in a goalless draw. Mohun Bagan won the replayed semifinal by 3–0 score. The goals in the first ever derby were scored by Rabi Ganguly, Poltu Dasgupta and Abhilash Ghosh. Till 29 January 2022 , 381 matches have been played between the two teams out of which ATK Mohun Bagan has won 124 matches and East Bengal won 132 matches, the rest ended with a draw. After the merger, the first encounter was in the 2nd match-week of ISL on 27 November 2020 at Tilak Maidan in Goa, where ATK Mohun Bagan beat East Bengal by a margin of 2–0. Roy Krishna and Manvir Singh were the goal-scorers for ATK Mohun Bagan. The two clubs currently meet at least twice a year in Indian Super League and once a year in Calcutta Football  League. Players. "Note": Players in bold has senior international cap(s) for their respective nations. First-team squad. eSports. The organizers of ISL introduced eISL, a FIFA video game tournament, for the ISL playing clubs, each represented by two players. ATK Mohun Bagan hosted a series of qualifying games for all the participants wanting to represent the club in eISL. On 20 November the club announced the signing of the two players.