What is it with legacy Kolkata football clubs and their inability to work with corporate investors? Mohammedan Sporting‘s principal investor Bunkerhill Private Limited informed the club’s officials on Monday that they were looking for an exit.
The Gurgaon-based company came on board in October 2020 and helped the 132-year-old club gain promotion from I-League II to the I-League in 2020-21 and become two-time defending champions of the Calcutta Football League (CFL).
Bunkerhill CEO Dipak Kumar Singh, in a letter, stated that they faced lack of co-operation from the club officials. Despite them putting in tremendous efforts, both in terms of money and ideas, the club didn’t reciprocate. According to Singh, while “they tried to turn around the fortunes of Mohammedan SC, they did not get “any kind of help” from the club officials.
Singh further stated that they were forbidden from functioning freely at the club. He said, “We are not allowed to function freely with the Youth team and there has been no revenue model for us to work with.”
In the letter, Singh stated that while they would clear their commitments for the current season, that they do not wish to continue into the next season.
It is not the first time that a Kolkata club has faced operational differences with an investor. East Bengal‘s current financial backers Emami Group are their third investor in four seasons after first Benguluru-based Quess Corp, and then Kolkota’s Shree Cement chose the exit route when faced with the intransigence of entrenched officials.
Left with a bitter taste in their maiden major footballing venture, Bunkerhill has however vowed to remain involved in Indian football.
“We will stay in football and not completely exit the scene,” Singh confirmed to News 9 Digital.
