Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional

multi-sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

based in

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 fourt ...

. Founded in 1889, it is one of the oldest multi-sports clubs in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. The club has various sports departments like

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, hockey,

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

eSports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

etc.

History

The foundation of Mohun Bagan stretches back into the 1880s when the neighborhood youth of presently known Fariapukur Lane in

Shyambazar Shyambazar is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata North Kolkata encompasses the northern part of Kolkata, including the city's oldest neighbourhood. Shyambazar, Bagbazar, Kumartuli, Shobhabazar, Posta, Jorasanko, Rajabazar, Phoolbagan, Mani ...

had set out in search for an ideal place to establish a football club, and came across a marble palace, ''Mohun Bagan Villa'', owned by the family of a leading

jute trade The jute trade is centered mainly around India's West Bengal and Assam, and Bangladesh. The major producing country of jute is India and biggest exporter being Bangladesh, due to their natural fertile soil. Production of jute by India and Bangl ...

r, Kirti Chandra Mitra. On 15 August 1889, after a meeting of three prominent aristocratic

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

families of North Kolkata – the Mitra family, the Basu family, and the Sen family – presided over by Bhupendra Nath Basu himself, ''Mohun Bagan Sporting Club'' was formed. Bhupendra Nath Basu became the first president of the newly founded club and Jyotindra Nath Basu was the first secretary of it. During the initial years, the meager ground inside the palace was used by the club for hosting matches, including their first match that was played against the team of Eden Hindu Hostel students, and lost 1–0. The club management hugely emphasized providing memberships to the youth and maintained a strict code of conduct with an avowed objective of producing excellent sportsmen and imbuing them with impeccable moral and social values. At the first-anniversary assembly, the Presidency College students and members of the club invited their professor, F. J. Rowe, to attend. Rowe pointed out the inappropriate naming of the club and suggested replacing ''"Sporting"'' with ''"Athletic"'' since the club didn't indulge in sporting activities, like angling or

rifle shooting Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such as ...

. Thus, the members agreed and renamed the club as ''Mohun Bagan Athletic Club''. The second-anniversary assembly was presided by Sir Thomas Holland, who later became a member of the Executive Council of

Governor-General of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1 ...

. In 1891, with the help of the

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, an ...

Durga Charan Laha of Shyampukur, the club ground was relocated within his residential estate, now known as Laha Colony. The club ground was later relocated to Shyam Square in Bagbazar, with the help of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation chairman, Henry Lee. In 1900, Mohun Bagan became the partner of Presidency College and shared their ground at

Maidan Maidan is an originally Persian word for a town square or public gathering place, adopted by various other languages: Urdu (''maidān''); Arabic (''maydān''); Turkish ; Bangla ময়দান, meaning field, and Crimean Tatar, from which ...

, where they would continue to play for 15 years.

Structure

Mohun Bagan is registered as a society under

Societies Registration Act, 1860 The Societies Registration Act, 1860 is a legislation in India which allows the registration of entities generally involved in the benefit of society – education, health, employment etc. The British Indian Empire, with a wish to encourage such ...

and

West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961 The West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961 is an Act of Parliament#India, Act of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, of West Bengal state in India. The Act was passed by the West Bengal Legislature. It was an act to provide for the regis ...

. Unlike many other top

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

s in the country which are

limited companies In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by shares, the lia ...

, it is not possible to purchase shares in the club, but only membership. The registered members forms the ''Mohun Bagan Society'', which takes part in the general elections for the appointment for various posts. The club is governed by its own "''

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

''". Amendments and resolutions are passed via annual general meetings.

Management

{, class="wikitable" , - !style="background:#7A1024; color:white; text-align:center;", Office !style="background:#1A5026; color:white; text-align:center;", Name , - , President , Swapan Sadhan Bose , - , rowspan="5", Vice president ,

Moloy Ghatak Moloy Ghatak is an Indian politician currently serving as Cabinet Minister in Government of West Bengal. Politics He is an MLA of All India Trinamool Congress, elected from the Asansol Uttar constituency of Paschim Bardhaman district in the ...

, - ,

Arup Roy Arup Roy is an Indian politician. He was a cabinet Minister in Charge for Co-operations department, of Government of West Bengal since May 20, 2011. He was also an MLA, elected from the Howrah Madhya constituency in the 2011 West Bengal state ...

, - ,

Kunal Ghosh Kunal Ghosh (''Kunal Kumar Ghosh'' engali: কুণাল কুমার ঘোষ born 20 June 1968) is an Indian journalist and politician. He is a member of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and a former member of the Parliament o ...

, - , Ashit Chatterjee , - , Shoumik Bose , - , General secretary , Debasish Dutta , - , Assistant general secretary , Satyajit Chatterjee , - , Finance secretary , Mukul Singha , - , Planning & development secretary , Ranjan Basu , - , Football secretary , Swapan Banerjee , - , Youth football secretary , Manas Kumar Bhattacharya , - , Cricket secretary , Tanmoy Chatterjee , - , Hockey secretary , Subhasis Paul , - , Tennis secretary , Sandipan Banerjee , - , Athletics secretary , Debashis Mitra , - , Treasurer , Uttam Kumar Saha , - , rowspan="11", Executive members , Debasish Chatterjee , - , Chinmoy Chatterjee , - , Satyaki Dey , - , Pinaki Ranjan Das , - , Samrat Bhowmik , - , Samir Chatterjee , - , Debaprasad Mukherjee , - , Parthajit Das , - , Debashis Roy , - , Saswata Bose , - , Someswar Bagui , - , rowspan="2", Co-operative executive members , Pintu Biswas , - , Sohini Mitra Chaubey

Departments

Football

The Mohun Bagan football team is the most distinguished and revered department of this club. It was the original department with which the club was founded in 1889. The team plays its home matches mostly at the

Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan The Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK; ), commonly known as the Salt Lake Stadium, is an all-seater multi-purpose stadium located in Bidhannagar, with current capacity of 85,000 spectators. Named after Swami Vivekananda, the stadium f ...

and also at the

Mohun Bagan Ground Mohun Bagan Ground, also known as Mohun Bagan–Calcutta FC Ground, is a football stadium located in the maidan region of central Kolkata, just opposite the Eden Gardens. The stadium is leased to Mohun Bagan AC and is mostly used as training gro ...

. It competes in the

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

, the top tier of Indian football league system. The team is most notable for its victory over the East Yorkshire Regiment in the 1911 IFA Shield final. It is one of the most successful teams in the country. In its 130th year of existence, the team was inducted into the "

Club of Pioneers The Club of Pioneers is a worldwide network of the oldest continuing association football clubs from each country. The Club of Pioneers was founded in 2013 by Sheffield FC, the first and oldest association football Association football, mor ...

", a network of the oldest existing football clubs around the world, on 29 July 2019.

Cricket

The Mohun Bagan cricket team participates in various tournaments for varying age groups conducted by 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 ...

. Currently, it participates in the CAB First Division League, CAB Senior Knockout, CAB Super League, and JC Mukherjee Trophy. The team plays its home matches mostly 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 ...

and also at the

Jadavpur University Campus Ground Jadavpur University Campus Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Salt Lake City Campus of Jadavpur University, Jadavpur, Bengal. The ground is mainly used for organizing matches of football, cricket and other sports. The main ground at ...

. They have won over 100 major state-level trophies so far. In past many big names like Sourav Ganguly,

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-scor ...

Virat Kohli Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the India national cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Kohli plays as a right-handed Batting (cricket), batte ...

MS Dhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian former international cricketer who was captain of the Indian national cricket team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He is also the curren ...

and even Sri Lankan player

Chaminda Vaas Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas (born 27 January 1974) is a former Sri Lankan international cricketer, who played all forms of the game, and a former ODI captain who is often described as the greatest fast medium bowl ...

had played for the club.

Hockey

The Mohun Bagan hockey team participates in various tournaments for varying age groups conducted by the Hockey Bengal. The team plays its home matches mostly at the SAI Sports Complex of Salt Lake Stadium and also at the

. The club participates in the

Calcutta Hockey League Calcutta Hockey League is a field hockey league organized by Hockey Bengal (formerly the Bengal Hockey Association). The first edition was held in 1905. It is a division based league held at Kolkata and is the oldest field hockey league in India. ...

and the Beighton Cup. The team have won 41 major state titles which includes 25 CHL and 14 Beighton Cup titles.

Athletics

Mohun Bagan has an

team, which is affiliated with the West Bengal Athletic Association, and participates in various tournaments of West Bengal. The club also organizes Annual Athletic meets at the club ground.

eSports

Mohun Bagan also took part in the inaugural season o
e-ISL
where the ISL teams competed to play the video game

FIFA 22 ''FIFA 22'' is a football simulation video game published by Electronic Arts. It is the 29th installment in the ''FIFA series'', and was released worldwide on 1 October 2021 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Windows, Xb ...

Club awards

Since 2001, 29 July is celebrated as ''Mohun Bagan Day'' in honor of the club's victory over East Yorkshire Regiment in the 1911 IFA Shield Final. To commemorate the day, the club organises an award distribution ceremony along with various festivities. ''Mohun Bagan Ratna'' is an award presented each year on ''Mohun Bagan Day'' to outstanding former players, irrespective of the sports played. The first recipient was former footballer

Sailen Manna Sailendra Nath Manna ( bn, শৈলেন মান্না; 1 September 1924 – 27 February 2012), known popularly as Sailen Manna, was an Indian football player who represented the India national team between 1948 and 1956. Predominantly p ...

. Apart from the ''Mohun Bagan Ratna'', other awards are also presented which often differ in categories each year, except for an award for the best footballer and cricketer of the season which were presented for most of the years.

Honours

* Banga Bibhushan: 2022 (the highest civilian honour in

given by the

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of West Bengal , created by the National Constitution as the state's legislative, executive and judicial authority. The ...

)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Multi-sport clubs in India 1889 establishments in British India