Bagan merges with ATK

Kolkata, January 16

Mohun Bagan will be rechristened ATK-Mohun Bagan from next season after the iconic club merged with ATK FC today by selling the majority stake to the owner of the two-time Indian Super League winners.

The merged club will come into existence in June and will compete in the 2020-21. ISL season. The two sides will, however, play separately in the current I-League and ISL seasons. As per the deal, the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, who are the principal owners of ATK, will have a 80 percent in Mohun Bagan Football Club (India) Private Limited.

Goenka said the name of the merged club will be ATK-Mohun Bagan. The merged club may keep both the jersey colours of green-and-maroon (Mohun Bagan) and red-and-white (ATK) for home and away matches.

Asked what would be the team management of the merged club, Goenka said the current ATK coach Antonio Habas, under whom they won the inaugural ISL title in 2014, has a contract for two seasons running till 2020-21. “Of course, Habas is coach for two years. We have not yet discussed all this. But (ATK’s youth development head) Sanjoy Sen was also Mohun Bagan coach. We will see how it goes,” he said. — PTI

‘Come what may, East Bengal not up for sale’

Kolkata: East Bengal senior official Debabrata Sarkar today took an indirect dig at arch-rivals Mohun Bagan’s merger with ATK, saying his club will never be up for “sale”. This is not our subject to make a comment. It’s for Mohun Bagan club’s officials and fans to react and see where they are heading for… It’s none of our business,” Sarkar said. “We would never sell our club. We will always go by what our fans and members say. They want investors to come but keeping the dignity of the club intact will be our priority. Our members will strive hard to run the club, come what may,” he said. East Bengal currently have principal investors in Bangalore-based Quess Corp but they are all set to break the alliance at the end of this season. It remains to be seen how East Bengal go about joining ISL, for which a hefty franchise fee is required to be paid. PTI

ISL: Chennaiyin FC improve play-off chances

Chennai: Chennaiyin FC registered a 2-0 win over NorthEast United FC in an Indian Super League match here today to improve their chances of making it to the play-offs.On a night of missed opportunities, the two-time champions rode on goals from Rafael Crivellaro and Nerijus Valskis in the 57th and 59th minutes, respectively, to go sixth in the points table. PTI