MUMBAI: All of 63,756 football fans were on hand Sunday to witness Mohun Bagan FC, in its first outing post the iconic club’s takeover by Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG Group, Sunday defeating East Bengal 2-1 in the much-anticipated Kolkata derby, the penultimate clash between the two sides in the I-League.
Expect another full house at the next Kolkata derby of the I-League, the last one between the two sides, that will be played in Kolkata on March 15.
For it will mark the end of an era in Indian football as the Mariners, merged with RPSG owned ATK, will turn out in the Indian Super League from next season.
The outspoken Ranjit Bajaj, co-owner of I-League club Minerva Punjab FC, hit the nail on the head when tweeted his reaction Saturday to the landmark development: “Mohun Bagan-ATK Merger Is A Slap On Football Legacy, Bad News For I-League https://t.co/RIpoEWZGhj definitely horrible news for @ILeagueOfficial as we have lost fifty percent of the reason to play …???@Mohun_Bagan now I hope @eastbengalfc the other fifty Percent don’t follow.”
As SportzPower noted earlier, with Mohun Bagan moving up into the ISL from next season, with it will also go the highlight fixture of the I-league – the “Kolkata derby” games between the two historically bitter rival sides.
The massive gainer from all this is of course the ISL, which will now have one half of India’s two biggest fan-based legacy clubs within its fold. And with it will come television ratings. If today, the fan following of Kerala Blasters is the most celebrated in the ISL, the addition of the Kolkata giants would be expected to “rewrite the pecking order” as it were.
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