KOLKATA:
East Bengal
club on Wednesday further escalated their confrontation with its investor, which controls the
football
team, saying that it is ready to play the
Super Cup
even “with a team comprising of reserves.”
The club’s move came after its letter to Ajit Isaac, chairman of the Quess East Bengal FC Pvt Ltd, failed to elicit a reply on Thursday.
“We are sticking to our stand of taking part in the Super Cup because it involves sentiments of our fans and former players. If our football team refuses to play, we will field a team from among our reserves. This is why, we have kept a plan ready to call a practice session with our reserve players on Friday,” senior club official Debabrata Sarkar said. “If the situation demands, we may involve Santosh Trophy players and try to take more players on lien from other clubs,” he added.
IFA president Ajit Banerjee, who is also East Bengal’s executive committee member, has been entrusted with the responsibility of assembling the team on a war footing. Former player Chandan Das may be made a temporary coach of the side.
Meanwhile, the heads of nine I-League clubs have written to
All India Football Federation
general secretary Kushal Das wherein they have agreed to play the season-ending knock-out tournament in Bhubaneswar on the condition that they get a “confirmation” of a meeting with the federation supremo Praful Patel and their demands on other issues are met.
Asked if East Bengal club was going into an “all-out war” against its investor, Sarkar reiterated that their move was driven “solely” by the need of participation in the tournament. “Our decision has nothing to do with what the other clubs are doing. We have made our stand clear to the football team that we want to play — if not with the senior team, then with a different team under the club’s umbrella,” Sarkar said.