Kalighat Milan Sangha (also known as Kalighat MS), is an Indian professional multi-sports club based in

Kalighat Kalighat is a locality of Kolkata, in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India. One of the oldest neighbourhoods in South Kolkata, Kalighat is also densely populated — with a history of cultural intermingling with the various foreign incursions i ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

, that competes in the Premier Division of

Calcutta Football League The Calcutta Football League (CFL) is a ladder-based football competition in the Indian state of West Bengal, organised by Indian Football Association (WB), under state football leagues in India. Due to sponsorship reasons, the league is offi ...

. Founded in 1944, the club has mostly been amateur, but in January 2012, it moved into professional football when it was included in the

I-League 2nd Division I-League 2, previously known as I-League 2nd Division and officially known as or Hero I-League 2 (for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp), is an Indian men's professional football league. It is the 3rd tier of Indian football, behind Indian ...

, then second tier of

Indian football league system The Indian football league system is the league structure of football club competitions in India. The highest level of men's club football competition in India is the Indian Super League. Indian Women's League, founded in 2016, is the highest l ...

History

Formation and journey

Kalighat Milan Sangha was founded in 1944, in Kalighat, Kolkata, as a cultural association club and has since grown step by step from district to state and national level outfit. The club is continuation of Kalighat Club, formed long ago, that left

Indian Football Association The Indian Football Association, abbreviated as IFA, is the organisation that administers association football in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the oldest Football Association in India and was founded in 1893. Among the founders was form ...

in 1939 with Mohammedan and East Bengal to form BFA, but rejoined later. In 1966, the club started its football team through competing in Allen League under license from

(IFA). The club qualified to the first division of the Calcutta Football League for the first time in 1989.

Present years

They secured a place in the Calcutta Premier Division for the first time in 2009. Winning the 2011 edition of the

All Airlines Gold Cup The All Airlines Gold Cup was a domestic football tournament organised by the Indian Football Association The Indian Football Association, abbreviated as IFA, is the organisation that administers association football in the state of West Be ...

was the club's biggest achievement. In January 2012, it was officially certified by the All India Football Federation to participate in the

, and reached to the final round. They also participated in the

2013 I-League 2nd Division The 2013 I-League 2nd Division is the sixth season of the league under its current title. The season will begin on 9 March 2013. The original 21 clubs who would participate in the 2nd Division were officially announced on 25 January 2013, howev ...

. In 2014

Sikkim Gold Cup The Sikkim Gold Cup, known as the Sikkim Governor's Gold Cup, is an Indian football tournament held in Sikkim and organized by Sikkim Football Association (SFA). Past champions include New Road Team of Nepal in 2007, Three Star Club of Nepal in ...

, Kalighat Milan Sangha reached the semi-final but lost 1–0 to

Manang Marshyangdi Manang Marshyangdi Club ( ne, मनाङ मर्स्याङ्दी क्लब) is a Nepali professional football club based in Kathmandu, that competes in the Martyr's Memorial A-Division League. The club is record champion of Nepale ...

of Nepal at the end. They also participated in the

2014 I-League 2nd Division The 2014 I-League 2nd Division was the seventh season of the I-League 2nd Division under its current title. The season began on 7 February 2014. It contained 11 clubs in two groups and twelfth club United Sikkim F.C. directly entered into fina ...

and moved to the

Final Round A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, finishing third with 14 points in 8 matches. They participated in

2020 IFA Shield The 2020 IFA Shield is the 123rd edition of the IFA Shield. It will have four I-League teams and eight Calcutta Premier Division teams. No overseas teams were invited due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Real Kashmir beat George Telegraph in t ...

, reaching the quarter-finals. Besides football, the club has joined the fight against

COVID-19 pandemic in West Bengal The COVID-19 pandemic was first confirmed in the Indian state of West Bengal on 17 March 2020 in Kolkata. The Health and Family Welfare department of Government of West Bengal has confirmed a total of 13,43,442 COVID-19 positive cases, inclu ...

from May 2021 by providing free vaccinations to people. In July 2022, they participated in Naihati Gold Cup. After its relegation to the Premier Division B in 2021, Kalighat MS gained its promotion to Premier Division A after winning the 2022 season.

Home stadium

Kalighat MS has played all their home matches for previous editions of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

at the Salt Lake Stadium. In Calcutta Football League, the club also plays at the

Rabindra Sarobar Stadium The Rabindra Sarobar Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Lake Gardens, Kolkata, India. It is used for football matches and it serves as the home of many Calcutta Football League matches. History The venue opened in 1961. It also was the home gr ...

, which is commonly known as Lake Stadium and has a seating capacity of 22,000 spectators.

Ownership

The club is owned by Kalighat Milan Sangha Football Club Private Limited, which is a non-governmental company incorporated on 18 November 2011. It is situated at 32 Harish Chatterjee Street, Kalighat, Kolkata 700026. Ajit Banerjee and Abesh Banerjee served as the board members and directors.

Other departments

Cricket

Club's men's cricket section is known as ''Kalighat Club'', and is currently based in Outram Road, Maidan Tent, Kolkata. They use

Kolkata Maidan The Maidan (; bn, ময়দান), also referred to as the Brigade Parade Ground, is a large public park and urban green space in the center of Kolkata, India. With a total area of , it is the largest urban park in the world. It is a va ...

fields for practice and plays at Kalighat ground. They often play at the

Eden Gardens The Eden Gardens is a cricket ground in Kolkata, India. Established in 1864, it is the oldest and second-largest cricket stadium in India and third-largest in the world. The stadium currently has a capacity of 66,000. Eden Gardens is often re ...

. The cricket section is situated at Outram Road, Tent Maidan, near

Park Street, Kolkata Park Street, is a famous thoroughfare in downtown Calcutta, India. In Bengali, it oftenly referred as Shaheb -er Para or the “neighbourhood of Englishmen”.The street runs through what was a deer park of Sir Elijah Impey, Chief Justice of t ...

. The cricket team, primarily competes in the

Cricket Association of Bengal Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) is the governing body for cricket in the Indian state of West Bengal. Its headquarters are located in the Eden Gardens stadium, Kolkata. It is a full member of Board of Control for Cricket in India. It gover ...

(CAB) First Division tournament, and also participate tournaments like JC Mukherjee T-20 Trophy, A.N. Ghosh Memorial Trophy, CAB One Day League and P. Sen Trophy. In May 2018,

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

international

Wriddhiman Saha Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha (born 24 October 1984) is an Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian national cricket team. He is a right-handed wicket-keeper batsman. He plays for Tripura in domestic cricket and for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Pr ...

opened a cricket coaching camp (Kalighat MS–P. Sen memorial coaching camp) at the Kalighat Club to nurture young talents.

Football (youth)

*Kalighat MS U19 In 2014, Kalighat Milan Sangha launched it's U19 team to participate in the

Elite League (India) The Youth League, also known as Hero Youth League for sponsorship reasons, is a system of youth football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the All India Football Federation. It consists of 3 age groups competitions: U17 (Eli ...

. The U19 team was first participated in the league during the

2014 I-League U19 The 2014 I-League U19 was the sixth season of the Indian I-League U19 competition. The season ran alongside the 2013–14 I-League season. Pune F.C. were defending champions, but were knocked out in zonal stage. Tata Football Academy won the le ...

season from ''Kolkata'' zone'', but failed to qualify for the final round.

Honours

League

**Third place (1):

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

* CFL Premier Division B **Champions (3): 2008, 2018–19,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

Cup

**Champions (1): 2011 * Kalinga Cup **Runners-up (1): 2014

References

External links

*
Kalighat MS archive
at indiafooty.com
Kalighat MS info
at ifawb.org * {{Football in India Football clubs in Kolkata 1944 establishments in British India Association football clubs established in 1944