KOLKATA: Shree Cement Limited on Tuesday officially ended their two-year “troubled from the get-go” association with East Bengal, handing back the sporting rights of the ISL wooden spooners to the club’s executive committee.
Shree Cement is the second corporate after Bengaluru-based Quess Corp forced to cut their losses and exit after falling afoul of the shenanigans of the EB’s “old guard”, which is run by Debabrata (Nitu) Sarkar.
It was primarily due to the efforts of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that the Hari Mohan Bangur-owned cement conglomerate bought a majority stake of 76% in the long beleaguered club, thereby gaining the storied Kolkata institution entry into the India Super League for the 2020-21 season.
Confirming the development, Shree Cement Ltd CEO Col Shibaji Samaddar told PTI: “Yes, Shree Cement has moved out of East Bengal after two seasons. The process to hand over the sporting rights was on for the last couple of days.”
“They did not sign the final agreement and as per the term sheet the association was for two years, so it finally ended,” he added.
Speaking to Telegraph India, the official said: “We also held discussions with FSDL (ISL’s commercial rights holder). We got the clearance on Monday and we did not want to waste any time.”
After coming on board, Shree Cement had promised a long term association with the Red-and-Gold Brigade but trouble started brewing before the second season regarding the term sheet.
It was once again at the behest of Mamata Banerjee, Shree Cement had agreed to continue for the last ISL edition where it spiralled downwards from bad to worse as they finished bottom of the table with just one win from 20 matches, which included 11 defeats and eight draws.
Under the Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler, East Bengal had a poor ninth place finish in their maiden ISL season with nine losses, eight draws and just three wins.
This was not the first time the Red-and-Gold club management have found themselves in a logjam with their investors.
For the club’s long-suffering fans, the Sree Cement fiasco is a re-run of the fate that Quess Corp suffered, which too exited after a two-year association in a premature end to what was a three-year agreement.
EB in talks with Bashundhara Group
Sarkar also confirmed to the newswire that it had receiving the sporting rights back and said “we would formally announce the development on Wednesday”.
He further said they are in “talks with Bangladesh investors Bashundhara Group which owns Bangladeshi top tier club Bashundhara Kings”.
Asked about their fate in the ISL, Sarkar said: “SCL may have exited but at the moment, we are not thinking beyond ISL… We are very hopeful of striking a deal with Bashundhara Group, but nothing is formalised as yet.”
