Month: May 2013

Mr. Mitra’s appeal and queries from the fans

Mr. Anjan Mitra has on camera requested Mohun Bagan supporters to be there beside the club officials during the financial crisis of the Club on 27th May 2013. Here’s some queries to the Hon. General Secretary – hoping a proper and written response.

Tthe fund is for the football team or the club?
If football team, then will he be generous to release a white paper mentioning all the contractual ( commercial) details of the employees, coaching staff, non-coaching staff, officials, players of the Company?
Will he disclose the assets and liabilities?
Will the company launch shares – so that the interested parties can purchase the same ?

Mr. Saikat Bose asked the following –

Can the company share the balance sheet of previous 3 years. Need to know the income and expenditure of previous years.  The money that will be collected, the proposed way to utilize it. The fan(s) should be given receipt of the same and the post utilization of the same, same needs to be shared with the fans. They should actively look at introducing share holding pattern in the club and release 26% stake to the fans.

Will the fan(s) post contribution have a say on people like Nirapada never being hired for the club.

Also club should openly release the expected budget, current sponsorship amount + other income; so that fans are aware on what’s the expectation. All such retail funding will have to be available for public dessimation.

Mr. Rana Bose asked –
What is the Club’s road map to attain financial self-sufficiency? Are they approaching business houses like Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance etc., (they may not get crores and crores as sponsorship money because on-field performance being is as bad as Kalighat MS) the fan base is so large it may lure the big houses. What will be the recruitment philosophy/policy,  long-term planning etc. etc.

Mr. Indranil Ray was happy that Mr. Mitra finally wanted to share his burdens with  Mohun Bagan fans whom he considered "outsiders"

Mr. Dipanjan Chatterjee feels that post contribution there should be some representatives from supporters who would liasion with ec to ennsure proper utilization of donated money.  Mr. Mitra should clearly mention the strategy to sell merchandise globally to raise fund.

Mr Saibal Mitra mentioned that the supporters will buy shares of the company if needed- this can be a step towards raising fund.

While the supporters are willing to extend their support to the club officials, they would like to know if l Mr. Mitra , his kins and the "non-technical" officials (excepting the Football Secretary) stay away from the dressing room of the football team? They would also like to know if Mr. Mitra is willing to take the moral responsibility for the debacles in last few years- more this year- even a club like East Bengal won against us and give a statement towards the same? The officials made large mistakes in not participating in Durand Cup, in handling the Bhaichung Bhutia, Tolgay Ozbey, withdrawing the team against East Bengal in 1st Leg of iLeague this season – and the club suffered because of the same.

By saying so – the fans wish Mr. Mitra a speedy recovery and hope Mohun Bagan will recover from this crisis created due to mismanagement!
 

How Dutta / Mitra regime is affecting Mohun Bagan

I initially thought of penning down a protect against Mitra and his wrong thoughts that led to the worst season for Mohun Bagan in last 35 years (well – I must say “so far” since Mitra is still there at a very senior post in the Football Company and the Club!)

However, I came to know about some decisions that were taken before the game yesterday that went against us ; and one should not forget the decisions that were taken from the middle of the last season – that went against Mohun Bagan.

Keeping Mitra aside (we all know his wrong doings and how Mohun Bagan was affected because of the same), I would like to focus on what Dutta did for (or against) us!

We have learnt that Dutta influenced the Chief Coach to put Eche into the playing XI – the mistake he made earlier when he put an injured Barreto in the squad that went against us! If that was not enough – it is alleged that he recommended Nirmal to be put in the stopper back position that misfired. Everybody on earth knows that Dutta is not the best of the technical persons in India – or even in Mohun Bagan – perhaps even the gardener is more technical than Dutta and has more football sense than Dutta. Dutta is well known as recruiter – and had that been the only job he could have done properly (unfortunately many players did not sign for us since the relationship between the players and Dutta were not at their best – a personal problem – and Bagan is the sufferer)

This was not for the first time this complaint was lodged against Dutta – one can recall Darby sitting out in vital Fed Cup matches, Bhowmik sitting tight in the dugout region in vital iLeague matches – few examples to recall!

Ex-coaches have also serious complaints that Dutta’s handling the players are worse and his behaviours demotivate the players rather than motivating them! End result – Bagan suffering!

Mohun Bagan could have been relegated to the iLeague second Division because of wrong doings of Mitra and Dutta – they first took a decision, and then failed to prove that the decision was right!  The regime subsequently underwent multiple changes in the coaching since them came to power in 2005, leaving their fans disillusioned with the actions of these officials!

We are not sure if UB Group have expressed the company’s desire to persist with the club while still harbouring hope of back to India’s top flight and Sid Mallya’s desire to exercise the club’s brand in the Indian football circuit.  If he really wants to do that he must take steps in keeping Mitra/Dutta from the team and they must not exploit their positions and influence the players and the coach.

Sid Mallya – wake up now since it is already too late.

KEB+ Nirmal chettry 3 – 2 Mohun Bagan

Nirmal Chettry, like the earlier East Bengal matches, also made lot of ill efforts that helped East Bengal to secure 3 goals and get past Mohun Bagan by 3-2. Chidi scored 2 goals for KEB and Penn one – and in all three situations Nirmal messed in the defense! Odafa and Tolgay reduced margins.

Letter to AIFF secretary

Subhrajit Mukherjee, an ardent Mohun Bagan fan tried to meet Mr. Kushal Das in person and hand over a letter of protest to him. However, Mr. Das was unavailable. mohunbaganclub.com shares the letter for kind attention of all football lovers.

To, Date- 14th May, 2013

The Secretary,

All India Football Federation,

 

Dear Sir,

This is to bring to your notice, an incident that took place in the match between Churchill Brothers and Mohun Bagan Athletic Club at Tilak Maidan on 7th May, 2013. We find that as football fans, while it is our duty to congratulate the Churchill Brothers football team on their 2nd I-league title, it is also our responsibility to voice our anger at how our (Mohun Bagan Athletic Club’s) supporters were treated during the match.

Gourav Roy and Deepanjan Mullick traveled all the way from Bengaluru to Vasco to watch our beloved team in action. The duo went inside the ground with the team and since there’s generally no separate stands for supporters of the visiting team they sat behind the Mohun Bagan reserve bench. They had a huge green and maroon flag with them with Mohun Bagan Club’s symbol, National Club of India and Mariners@Bangalore printed on it. According to the instruction they tied the flag to the railing of the stand and also tied the lower ends to the dressing room windows. It might be noted that no one, other than the organizers have access to this area. Suddenly a few organizers untied the flag from the windows of the dressing room and we saw the flag being pulled up towards the stand. They ran towards them and protested but only got abuses hurled at them in return. When they requested the organizers that they should at least return the flag they were threatened that they would get thrown out of the stadium.

Arindam Bhattacharyaa who played in Churchill Brothers last season and team manager Sanjoy Ghosh intervened and they were allowed to sit with the reserve bench players only after they took off our club jerseys. As soon as Sabeeth scored, 3-4 of the match organizers came near us and started abusing us. After Churchill equalized Karim Bencherifa got hit by a bottle of water and got hurt. Gourav and Deepanjan left right at the time the added minutes were announced due to security reasons.

We can understand that Churchill Brothers wanted to cover the entire stadium with small flags and felt a bit insecure and intimidated upon seeing our 15 feet by 6 feet flag. Even Alemao Churchill, the patron saint of Churchill Brothers Club, noticed our flag and pointed towards it. We don’t whether the flag was taken down and stolen on his instructions or not, but this behaviour is unbecoming of any self-respecting football club.

I am just humbly asking you, Mr. Secretary, that how can the organizers of an I-league match go scot free after doing something which is so manifestly unfair? Let the AIFF then tell the football clubs outside Goa to request their fans around the country not to travel to Goa to shout for their favourite clubs, because our supporters had similar experiences in the Sporting Clube de Goa match. Gourav had intimated the vice-president of AIFF Mr. Subrata Dutta about his concerns, but that apparently has fallen on deaf ears.

I am sure that football in India will thrive like this under the able guardianship of AIFF.

Thanking you,

 

(Subhrajit Mukherjee)

Source : As posted in Facebook : http://tinyurl.com/c4cahtb

Mohun Bagan 3-0 United Sikkim

Mohun Bagan finishes off iLeague 2012-13 journey with a 3-0 win against United Sikkim – a dramatic iLeague tournament fro Bagan. Nirmal (6 min), Odafa (69 min penalty) and Tolgay (87 min) scored for Bagan.

Mohun Bagan 1-1 Churchill Brothers

Mohun Bagan share points with Churchill Brothers today. Sabeeth scored for Bagan in 27th minute but Churchill scored the equaliser through Sunil Chettry in the 71st minute. Bagan missed Tolgay and had to replace Odafa in the 29th minute

Three Star 2-1 Mohun Bagan

Mohun Bagan went down to Nepal’s Laxmi Bank Three Star Club by 1-2 at the Dashrath stadium on 1st May 2013. Jagjeet Shrestha and Adewumi Femi scored for the home side while Dipendu Biswas reduced the margin in the added time for Bagan. The match started at 5 pm local time and was played in floodlight.

Bagan did not play well in this game and the defense was sloppy.  The midfield was controlled by the Nepalese team that was offensive right from the kick off by the local team. The home team could have got the lead in the 5th minute but Bagan was lucky as the ball hit the post and then Femi’s attempt was saved by Arindam. Later Snehasish had a goal line save.

Bagan got few opportunities but they failed to convert them into the goal in the first half.

A tolgay shot missed the goal by inches in the 37th minute.

The first half ended 0-0. In the 55th minute Three Star took the lead when Jagjeet header found the ball kissing the net. Bagan they started attacking more – but in the 68th minute Femi scored from a Counter attack.  Dipendu scored in the 93rd minute. Dipendu replaced Tolgay in the 55th minute after the Aussi striker got an injury.

Squad –  Arindam ,  Nabi (C), Mehraj  ,  Masih, Nirmal , Denson (Maithani -21′) ,  Bhargav (Fela 48′),  Jacobs, Snehasish , Sabeeth , Tolgay  (Dipendu – 57′)