EAST BENGAL FOOTBALL CLUB

EAST BENGAL FOOTBALL CLUB

East Bengal Football Club, commonly referred to as East Bengal, is an Indian professional multi-sport club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. It is best known for its professional men's football team that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. Founded in August 1920, the club became affiliated with the Indian Football Association in 1922 and initially played in the Calcutta Football League Second Division before earning promotion to the First Division in 1924. The club was a founding member of the National Football League. The club is mainly supported by the Bangals, i.e., the immigrant population from the eastern region of Bengal, who were forced to leave their homes (modern-day Bangladesh) during the partition of 1947. For those people, the East Bengal Club became a source of identity and hope. East Bengal has a long-standing rivalry with its cross-town competitors Mohun Bagan, now known as ATK Mohun Bagan, which is mainly supported by the native population, named popularly as Ghoti (ঘটি), with whom it competes in the Kolkata derby, Asia's biggest football 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 (লাল হলুদ). The both teams have separate nicknames for their adversaries, i.e. Macha (মাচা) for the Mohun Bagan fans and Lota (লোটা) for the East Bengal fans. In 2022, Emami Group came on board as the investor of East Bengal Club’s football teams with a majority shareholding stake. East Bengal's red and gold shirt with a logo of a flaming torch is indicative of the fire among refugees to conquer the odds of life. Football was only an expression. Its red, yellow and blue logo with a torch held by a right hand with its name written on red and yellow border is bold, direct, impressive and evocative of the constitution of the club.