East Bengal, Mohun Bagan to withdraw from Super Cup

East Bengal and Mohun Bagan conveyed their decision along with five others clubs, including the I-League champion Chennai City FC, to withdraw their participation from the Hero Super Cup.

Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are unhappy with the treatment meted out to the I-League clubs in comparison to the ISL clubs.

City giants, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan joined the clamour for “boycotting” the upcoming Hero Super Cup in protest against the national governing body of sport All India Football Federation (AIFF) not “responding” to the issues raised by the I-League clubs.

READ | I-League clubs threaten to boycott Super Cup

In a similarly worded statement issued by the media officers of the two clubs, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan conveyed their decision along with five others clubs, including the newly crowned I-League champion Chennai City FC, to withdraw their participation from the Hero Super Cup. The other four sides joining the boycott are the former champions Aizawl FC and Minerva Punjab FC, and the likes of Gokulam Kerala FC and NEROCA FC.

The statement outlined four points that led the clubs to this show of unity in deciding to pull out of the Super Cup, which will see top few sides of Indian Super League and the I-League participating. The reasons given by the seven I-League clubs in their decision to withdraw from Super Cup are – “1. Our letter dated 18th February (2019) requesting the president of AIFF to address the various issues of the I-League has not been responded to; 2. No Clarity of the I-League and its future; 3. Increasing inability (by the I-League clubs) to find financial sponsors in the absence of clarity of the League and its future; 4. Lack of an agenda for the game at the grass root level.”

As the AIFF failed to find a solution to the avowed objective of instituting one-nation-one-league system, the I-League clubs kept on pressing the national federation to act on its words. Mohun Bagan wrote a letter to Asian Football Confederation on February 20, 2019 seeking a solution from the continental body, which had convened a meeting on June 7, 2017 to finalise a roadmap for Indian football. As the national federation continued dither from taking a final decision, came the decision of withdrawing from the Super Cup 2019.