Integrity Score 230
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ATK Mohun Bagan have qualified for the group stages of the AFC Cup rather smoothly. After routing a hapless Blue Star from Sri Lanka, the green and maroon side got the better of another club from a neighbouring nation, Abahani Limited Dhaka, 3-1 to make the grade. It wasn’t exactly a cakewalk for the home side at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium against Abahani, but their Australian striker David Williams struck a brilliant hat-trick to pave the way for his team’s victory. ATKMB thus joined compatriots Gokulam Kerala, Bashundhara Kings (Bangladesh) and Maziya Sports and Recreation (Maldives) in group D of the AFC Cup main round. They will take on Gokulam Kerala in their group opener on May 18.
Having won in front of 30,000 fans at home, ATK Mohun Bagan have reasons to feel satisfied with the way things are moving. But a few hiccups are always there – a section of their supporters are still dissatisfied with the 132-year-old club’s merger with now defunct ATK, owned by Sanjiv Goenka, and have been demonstrating for a long time. Whenever ATK Mohun Bagan played a match in Kolkata, the fans grabbed the opportunity to vent their anger. It wasn’t any different when they played Abahani. A few hundred Mohun Bagan supporters marched from a nearby five-star hotel to Salt Lake Stadium with banners and posters. They shouted slogans like “Remove ATK” and “break the merger”. It didn’t stop at the stadium gate – some supporters were spotted raising similar slogans in the stands too during the march.
It is not easy to predict whether such regular show of dissent would anyway influence the club management. While the football team is now totally owned by ATK with their boss Sanjiv Goenka controlling 80 per cent of the share, the original club, Mohun Bagan AC, has virtually been taken over by people from the state’s ruling party, Trinamool Congress. The ordinary members of the club have little or no say in running the affairs of the club. Given the current scenario, it is difficult to imagine the club and the football team management would be rattled by some stray sloganeering.