East Bengal was founded on 1 August 1920. It first started with just its men's football department but soon expanded into other sports such as hockey after 1947 and cricket in the 1970s. The women's football team was started in 2001.
East Bengal is one of the most widely supported sports clubs inAsia. The club is mainly supported by theBangals, i.e., the immigrant population from the eastern region of Bengal, who were forced to leave their homes (modern-dayBangladesh) during thepartition of 1947.[4] For those people, East Bengal Club became a source of identity and hope. The huge influx of dispossessed into the state led to a socio-economic crisis.[5] This led to rivalries among the immigrant and native population of West Bengal, popularly named as Bangal (বাঙাল) in every sphere of life, from jobs to schools and even on football, cricket and hockey pitches. As a result, East Bengal has a long-standing rivalry with its cross-town competitorsMohun Bagan, which is mainly supported by the native population, named popularly as Ghoti (ঘটি), with whom it competes in theKolkata derby, Asia's biggest sports rivalry. East Bengal also shares a local rivalry with another Kolkata club,Mohammedan. The club dons the iconic red and golden yellow colours, which give it the nickname of "Red and Gold Brigade" and "Laal Holud" (Bengali: লাল হলুদ). The fans of the club are also collectively called the Torchbearers
History
Suresh Chandra Chaudhari (founder)
Sailesh Bose
Sarada Ranjan Roy (First president)
On 28 July 1920, Jorabagan Club was scheduled to play againstMohun Bagan in the Coochbehar Cup. Jorabagan Club sent out their starting eleven but with the notable exclusion ofdefender Sailesh Bose, who was dropped from the squad for undisclosed reasons. The then vice-president of Jorabagan Club, Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri, asked in vain for Bose to be included in the line-up. When his request was not welcomed, Chaudhuri left the club along with Raja Manmatha Nath Chaudhuri, Ramesh Chandra Sen, and Aurobinda Ghosh. They formed East Bengal Club as a Sports and Cultural Association in the neighbourhood ofJorabagan on 1 August 1920. The name East Bengal was chosen for the newly formed club as the founders hailed from the eastern region of Bengal.[6][7][8]Sarada Ranjan Ray took on the role of becoming the first president of this newly formed club while Suresh Chandra Chowdhury and Tarit Bhusan Roy were declared to be the first joint secretaries of the club.[9] Soon after, Nagen Kali, M. Talukdar, B. Sen, N. Gossain, Goshto Paul (on loan from Mohun Bagan), P. Bardhan, S. Das, S. Tagore, J. Mukherjee, Ramesh Chandra Sen, S. Bose, C. Bose, A. Roy, and A. Bannerjee were announced to be the members of the first team squad by the board.[10][11]
Crest, colours and kits
Crest
In 1930,Mahatma Gandhi'sSatyagraha swept over India and affected football. Indian clubs boycotted the ongoing Calcutta Football League midway through the season. Amidst much confusion, Royal Regiment was declared the winner in the first division. However, East Bengal was not allowed to be promoted to the First Division. Thousands of East Bengal fans and officials decided to hold a protest march at theEast Bengal Ground. It was at this march that flaming torches were carried by the protesters. And the hand holdingflame torch(known as 'Mawshal' or 'মশাল' inBangla) became the club emblem, which has remained to this day.[12][13][14] In the year 2020 East Bengal released a special Centenary Crest to celebrate 100 years of its existence.
The primary and secondary colors of East Bengal are red and yellow respectively.[16] Traditionally, the home kit consists of a red and yellow jersey with black shorts, while the away kit colors vary every year.[17] These colors came about after the club was formed when the founders debated over them for the club jersey. At that time, the jerseys used to come from England. The founders, while searching, came across the red and gold color shirt hanging at theWhiteaway, Laidlaw & Co. department store inChowringhee, Kolkata. It attracted them, and they finalized the colors and jersey. It cost ₹80 in 1920, four times higher than the average.[18] These colours permanently integrated with the club.[6]
The men's football team is the most distinguished and revered department of East Bengal Club. It was the original department with which the club was founded in 1920. East Bengal FC is one of the most successful football clubs in the country having won 39 state leagues (effectively top-tier before the foundation ofNFL) and 3 national titles amongst numerous Durand Cups, Federation Cups and other premier Cup competitions. East Bengal is also the only Indian club to have ever won a FIFA recognized international tournament in 2003 which was the ASEAN Club Championship. East Bengal is the joint most successful team in that competition.
The women's football team was formed in 2001. It won theCalcutta Women's Football League title in its inaugural season and was runners-up in 2002.[19] In the centenary year, the women's team was relaunched.[20][21] In the first year of relaunch, the East Bengal women's team became runner's up of the2020 Kanyashree Cup.[22]
East Bengal Club Reserves is the reserve team of East Bengal Club. It is the most senior level beneath the first team. The team generally consists of younger players but at times senior players also play. Reserve side currently plays in theCalcutta Football League.
East Bengal Academy are the club's under-21, under-18, under-15 and under-13 sections. The under-21 team is the last stage for promotion of youth players into the first team. The youth teams participate in theReliance Foundation Development League and theYouth League of various age groups.
This department started after theIndependence of India. The club is affiliated with the Bengal Hockey Association and participated in the BHA First Division hockey league and theBeighton Cup.[25][26][27] They won 13 trophies. The team was disbanded in 2000.[28] The hockey department was restarted in 2021 withCalcutta Hockey League.[29]
Athletics
East Bengal has anathletics team, which is affiliated with the West Bengal Athletic Association, and participates in various tournaments of West Bengal.[30] The club also organizes Annual Athletic meets at the club ground.[31]
E-Sports
East Bengal also took part in the inaugural season ofe-ISL where the ISL teams competed to play the video gameFIFA 22. The club was represented by 2 youngsters, Ankit Gupta and Shayantan Mondal.
Ownership
East Bengal is mainly organized as a registered society under theSocieties Registration Act, 1860, which means one can avail of membership in the club. There are around 12,000 members.[32] Although, alimited company, named East Bengal Club Pvt. Ltd., was later formed, and both are governed by the club parallelly. Sponsorships and investments happen via thiscorporate company.[33] The club is governed by its own set of rules and regulations.Amendments and resolutions are passed viaextraordinary orannual general meeting.[34][35]
Currently the football rights are with a new merged entity, Emami East Bengal FC Pvt. Ltd. jointly owned by East Bengal andEmami Group who owns 77% stake of the whole club.[36]
Stadiums
The club has used several stadiums at Kolkata,Howrah andBarasat, including theEden Gardens, which has been reserved for cricket since Salt Lake Stadium opened in 1984.[37] The first ground used by the club was Kumartuli Park in north Kolkata.[38][39]
The Salt Lake Stadium, also known asVivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK), is a multi-purposestadium in Kolkata, built in 1984. The stadium is the largest non-auto racing in India. It is currently used mainly for football matches. The stadium includes a unique running track, long jump track, electronic scoreboard, natural turf, floodlighting arrangement, conference hall, medical room, and a doping control Room. The Salt Lake Stadium hosts the home games of East Bengal in the Indian Super League and AFC competitions. The total capacity of the stadium was 85,000, before it was changed to 68,000.[40]
The East Bengal Ground is located in Kolkata and is the club's historical home ground. The stadium lies in theMaidan (Kolkata) area on the northern side ofFort William and near the Eden Gardens. This stadium is used mostly for Calcutta Football League matches and by the academy, women's, and hockey teams.[41] The total capacity of the stadium is 23,500.[40]
The Eden Gardens is the second largest cricket stadium in India. The stadium currently has a capacity of 68,000 and formerly had a capacity of around 100,000. East Bengal has used this stadium on several occasions. For many games and seasons Eden Gardens served as the Home ground of the men's football team before the construction of Salt Lake Stadium. After its construction the club continued to use the stadium for its cricket teams.
Other grounds
Barasat Stadium is also used by the club for some regional matches, especially in cases where the Salt Lake Stadium or East Bengal Ground cannot be used.[42]Kanchenjunga Stadium, a multipurpose stadium based inSiliguri, has also been used several times to host club football matches.[43] It also hosted the2012 Federation Cup.Kalyani Stadium, situated on the outskirts of Kolkata atKalyani, was used by East Bengal as their home turf during the 2019–20 I-League.[44]
The team also trains at one of the VYBK practice grounds.[45]
Chattopadhyay, Hariprasad (17 January 2015)."Time to regain lost glory".telegraphindia.com. Kolkata: The Telegraph India. Archived fromthe original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved22 September 2021.
Notes: The tournament was not held from 1914-19 (due toWWI), in 1939 (due toWWII), from 1941-49 (due toWWII andPartition), in 1962 (due to1962 War) and in 2015 and 2017-2018 (due to unknown reasons)