Super Cup: No sponsors as Md Sporting officials fund trip on their own

A pan-Indian following, alongwith a 134-year-old history, should have worked as an asset for Mohammedan Sporting Club of Kolkata in trying to market itself. The reality, of course, is far from so as the black-and-white brigade are struggling with crippling financial woes for the whole of this year – with the club’s top brass toying with the idea of even closing down their operations.

The news of their participation in the AIFF Super Cup 2025-26 in Goa after much dithering, where they will take on Sunil Chhetri’s start-studded Bengaluru FC in the opener on Thursday, may have come as a relief for the fans – but only just. The whole of this year has seen Sporting hurtling from one crisis to another as unpaid dues kept piling up and the top officials finally coughed up nearly Rs 25 lakhs from their own pockets to organise the trip.

Pleading helplessness, Mohammed Qamaruddin, Working President of the club told the National Herald: ‘’We have appealed to Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of Bengal, twice to help us find a sponsor and hope to se light at the end of the tunnel soon. For now, we need at least to the tune of Rs 17 crores to meet the financial liabilities like coach and players’ payments, get a three-season FIFA transfer ban lifted so that we can prepare for the Tier I league (erstwhile Indian Super League) as and when it starts.’’

The euphoria among the club fans of about a year back – when they qualified to make their ISL debut and had had a ‘home ground’ allotted in the southern fringes of Kolkata — seems like a mirage now. Things have come to such a pass that any news of the club’s financial hardship has stopped making headlines while a dwindling interest from sponsors of any worth is also creasing the foreheads of the officials.

Asked whether the brand has a strong potential to evoke interest from corporate houses in the Gulf countries or West Asia, Qamaruddin said without taking names: ‘’We have tapped all resources with our officials travelling even to Qatar to carry out discussion but nothing materialised. We seriously want to stay in the top tier and it was an imperative that we feature in the curtain raiser tournament and hence only last week, the boys assembled together under coach Mehrajuddin Wadoo last week and we rushed with air tickets and hotel booking on our own.’’

Endorsing the club official’s views, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, club’s interim coach and former international confided before the media in the pre-match conference on Wednesday: ‘’Given the uncertainty over the season, we could not do any pre-season training and had been out of active football for more than 40 days. We have come here with an all-Indian outfit and just five days’ practice behind us but then as I see it, the tournament is also the ideal one for some exposure for the youngsters.’’

The squad has just 21 players on their roster and reached the team hotel late on Wednesday evening. ‘’We had dished out a good performance against Bengaluru FC in last ISL. However, it was a different team that we had altogether and the odds are now stacked against us.’’

When sporting earned an entry into the ISL after winning the 2023-24 I-League, the city’s football fraternity was upbeat that the Big Three of Kolkata football finally had representation in the elite league. Bunkerhill Pvt Ltd, the club’s long term sponsor which played a key role in the major makeover of the club's facilities as it tasted back-to-back success in the Calcutta Football League (CFL) and roped in real estate company Shrachi Group as a co-investor. 

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with a new shareholding pattern: Mohammedan Sporting Pvt Ltd (39 per cent), Bunkerhill (30.5 per cent) and Shrachi Sports (30.5 per cent). However, the latter stopped payment midway last season owing to the club’s failure to reach a consensus on share transfers.

Its debut ISL season saw Mohammedan Sporting finish as wooden spooners among 13 teams, and the AIFF does not want it to figure in the Tier I league this season due to ‘lack of governance’ in the club. Its CFL fortunes dipped too, with the club had barely managing to stave off relegation this season.

The road to redemption then is a long one, but the top brass of the club are not willing to give up yet!