The tradition of ‘Bar Puja’ is a less than a week away. The recipe of gossips mixed with spicy rumors for the next season’s team is on the shelf. Won’t it be a good time for every Mariners to assess the ground reality of our beloved club in terms of tradition, pride and achievement? This article is one such effort to look back our glorious past to assess the current environment in and out of Green and Maroon tent.
The Glorious Past
Mohun Bagan Athletic Club was born during the peak of the renaissance of Bengal. It started off as an association of rich and the upper class. These people had been in touch with the British culture and started realising that there lay an immense horizon beyond the debauchery of nautch girls and intoxication.
Sports, especially serious sports had a lot of advantages. It kept one strong and fit and over and above all else, it was equally if not more intoxicating. The progression of the Club is common history and need not be repeated here. What needs enlightenment is, what type of people created and ran the club in those opening few decades. These gentlemen gave shape to a Club that has today become the giant Institution that we love to call our home.
These people came from the upper – crust of the society. They were the leading lights in their own fields. People knew that they had loads of money and fame and their fame was not subject to the club to which they were attached. For all practical purposes, who can tell whether Bhupendra Nath Bose or Sir Bhupendra Nath Mitra was a member of any other club? But they were famous people who got together to build an Institution. Subedar Major Sailen Bose was an achiever too, not just as the coach of the now mythical 1911 team. Ever since the British created the British Indian Army, they followed a conscious policy of not elevating any native to officer rank, post mutiny once the rule of the company was over, this was gradually relaxed. At the turn of the century, Subedar Major was the highest rank that a native could achieve.
Dr. Ganendra Nath Mitra was a triple gold medallist doctor with a Master in Medicine at the turn of the last century. A remarkable achievement given that he was also a member of the first football team of the club. Although he died young, he amassed great fortune and fame through his work and philanthropy. The later generations carried on the tradition.
With the onset of the mid sixties, the management of the club gradually started shifting away from this class of people. One would argue about the snooty Dhiren Dey. Indeed he was the last of the Mohicans. But in trying to hold on to the power within the Club especially towards the late eighties and early nineties, he started letting in people whose main aim was not to do something for the club, but to do something for themselves using the club as the means to get to their end. This started the downslide that has assumed a humongous proportion. The officials have surrendered the last shred of the guiding principles of the club.
Mohun Bagan AC, had quite a few of them. These were unwritten rules that were perhaps observed more religiously than the written ones. The Club never protested, nowadays the officials protest about almost anything. More importantly, they brandish those pathetic letters of protest as if they have won the world cup in front of the media, and the media in turn fan the fire. Actually they are a clever ploy of the officials that turn the focus of the media, supporters, fans and members of the Club from the actual acts of omission or misdeeds of the officials. They use that as a shield against criticism.
‘Chaos’ – as Seen Today
The Club is run more as personal fief of those in power than a professionally managed organisation. They have installed their children and in-laws in places of power so that they form a retention wall around them so that they cannot be dislodged. Do they have the necessary capability to do the job. In almost all cases they do not, their only qualification being their father.
Coming back to the fathers, in the old days they used to be famous people, who had already earned their name and fame, ran the Club. Their achievements equalled the achievement of being able to provide service to the Club. Discipline was tight and being a showman was the last requirement for the job. Nowadays, it looks like being the only criteria.
The present bunch of administrators evoke a sense of disgust, especially given the fact that they themselves are non-entities who stick onto the Club like leeches and derive their identity from the Club. Gone are the days where stalwarts came to the club.
Again, the Club had a saying that Mohun Bagan plays fair but plays to win on the ground. Nowadays the officials take pride in coming second. They do not realise that by doing that they are only debasing the heritage of the Club and blackening their own faces. The army of sycophants that surround them are also basking in the false reflected glory of these inept officials.
We Bengalis take pride in our football, but it is a fact that some other states are already miles ahead of us and it the sheer passion of us, the supporters which is keeping our noses above the water, if we fail to catch up very soon, we will be completely submerged. Our officials do not realise that with the help of foreigners we can win a few titles, but at the end of the day, we have to bring up talents of our own. Boys who will come through the system of nurturing and grooming that will help the Club to sustain itself.
The Academy had had four coach changes in as many years. Why? No one with self respect will be able to work there. The level of interference to admit boys who are unworthy is so high that reputed coaches have thrown in the towel repeatedly. They do not have any competitive pressure, then why is this happening? The officials should be able to explain why, but they choose to remain silent because of the very fact that they do not have any to give.
Celebrating Mohun Bagan Day every year will get a plate of good quality piping hot biriyani, but it is not going fetch us the IFA Shield, Federation Cup or the I League. The present bunch of officials have systematically eliminated all opposition so that their reign is almost guaranteed to perpetuity. This is causing more damage. It is almost impossible to get inside the premises of the club if one is a marked member of the opposition. A democratic society is essentially one where we tolerate the opposition, if we fail to do that, it becomes a dictatorship. This sham of an election will again be held this year and this same set of shameless officials will get “elected”.
Why is the Club not run by a bunch of professionals? People who can run the show effectively. These people should not be elected, but appointed by the Club. The elected representatives can sit on their respective perches airing their egos. At least we shall have the consolation that the people who are running the works know their job. This mechanism will allow the “elected” officials to get “re-elected” for ever after, but at the same time, allow the club to be run professionally. This will no doubt create a new set of bureaucracy, but that seems the only way ahead.
So, What’s Next for Us?
That brings us to the next question. Are the officials stupid enough not to understand the benefit of this structure? The answer is an emphatic NO. So, the next question follows, why don’t they create such a structure? There is nothing in the Constitution of the Club that prevents or prohibits it. Indeed we do have a Sports Management professional as an exhibit. The only function that he performs is related to typing and replying to letters, sending and receiving faxes, in short secretarial.
It is time the officials stop making money out of the Club. The Club is not meant for them to run their family and provide jobs to their children. It is an Institution in itself and merely wearing a tie does not make anyone equal to the stature of the previous greats who had run the Club with success and dignity. In short, we would like to have officials who, in the words of John F. Kennedy, “will not think what the Club has done for them and their family, but what they have done for the Club.
Why can elections not be held with a credible and able opposition? One of the primary reason is the fact that opposition is not tolerated by the present “Management”. They are base enough to employ thugs, crooks and ruffians as their sycophants. Security of the life and limb will be seriously impaired if one is to raise his voice in protest at the Club premises. These hooligans are given club membership and the genuine supporter has to wait half their life to get one. Laughable as it may sound, this is the true picture. There are also another type of creature who are found in the Club. This is the more educated type, they think that airing the ego of the officials is the way up the ladder. They do not realise that they are not “biggest” fans of the Club, indeed they are doing more harm than all the others put together. They have turned the officials into king Canute.
The officials should read the writing on the wall and try to modernise the Club and bring in a thoroughly professional management. The wind of change is blowing and it will not take long for this wind to turn into a raging typhoon and the officials will have only themselves to blame.
Is it not the time that we, the members and supporters put up a credible opposition to contest the election? Or are we going to remain silent on the most important point of all and remain tainted for the rest of our lives?
– Editorial Board of mohunbaganclub.com