Three-time National Football League/I-League and eight times Federation Cup champions East Bengal are going through a major financial crisis at the moment which has forced them to resort to crowdfunding.
Last month, East Bengal officials made a public appeal for crowdfunding to reach a target of INR 6 crores in a year.
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Why are East Bengal resorting to crowdfunding?
Kolkata-based conglomerate Emami Group currently owns a 77 percent stake in the football division of the club. They came on board as investors last year after Shree Cement parted ways with the club.
Despite the presence of Emami as the club's investor, the club officials made an emotional plea to their millions of fans to help the club during the crisis period.
As per the club officials, they are unable to make meet ends when it comes to the day-to-day functioning of the organisation. They also intent to help their investors with some additional money in order to build a strong squad ahead of the 2023/24 season.
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How have East Bengal performed in ISL?
The Red and Golds have struggled both on and off the pitch in recent times. Since their arrival in the cash-rich Indian Super League (ISL), the club have never finished above the ninth position on the league table.
The club also witnessed three companies getting associated with them in the last five years as investors. Quess Corp came on board in 2018 but their relationship with officials soured after just one season and then in 2020, they ended the joint venture.
A similar situation happened with Shree Cement who took ended the partnership after just two years.
A contrasting picture comes up when we look at East Bengal's arch-rivals Mohun Bagan. They entered the ISL along with East Bengal in 2020 after getting the Sanjeev Goenka-led RPSG group on board as their investors.
Initially, former ISL champions ATK FC and Mohun Bagan were merged into one entity, but after three seasons, Goenka has now removed the ATK prefix and have renamed them as Mohun Bagan Supergiants.
Unlike East Bengal, Mohun Bagan finished runners-up in 2020 and reached the play-offs the succeeding season before winning the ISL title last season.
