ATK Mohun Bagan gamers have a good time after successful the ultimate match of the Indian Super League 2022 performed between ATK Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC on the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Goa, Friday evening, March 18, 2023.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Budging to followers’ longstanding calls for, the stakeholders of Mohun Bagan on Wednesday introduced that they’d take away the prefix ATK from the identify of the 133-year city-based soccer giants.
The membership, which is principally owned by the R.P. Sanjiv Goenka Group, will now be identified Mohun Bagan Super Giant, a sample which follows the conglomerate’s naming philosophy of their sports activities groups. RPSG are additionally the homeowners of IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants. Their earlier IPL group was often known as Pune Supergiants.
“Subsequent to the Board meeting held today, the name of the club will be Mohun Bagan Super Giant (MBSG) from 1st June 2023,” the membership introduced.
ATK Mohun Bagan had grabbed their maiden Indian Super League title this season with a 4-3 win over former champions Bengaluru FC within the penalty shootout in March this yr.
Following their triumph, Goenka had informally introduced that the ATK prefix was lastly going away after three years and they’d be often known as MBSG, however the date was formalised after their Board assembly right here on Thursday.
“We are removing ATK, it will be Mohun Bagan Super Giant from next season. Well, it was something that was on the cards. I was waiting for the win to announce it,” Mr. Goenka had mentioned after their ISL triumph.
Two-time Indian Super League champions ATK was previously often known as Atletico de Kolkata due to their tie-up with the Madrid-based Spanish giants.
But Atletico Madrid parted methods after three seasons and offered its 25 per cent stake to the RPSG Group which then grew to become the principal homeowners of the ISL franchise that got here to be often known as ATK.
ATK then got here to the rescue of Mohun Bagan, who had been struggling to get into the top-tier ISL due to monetary woes.
The RPSG Group purchased a majority (80 per cent) stake in Mohun Bagan forward of the 2020-21 season as the 2 merged golf equipment got here into existence from June 1, 2020.
But the choice to prefix ATK with the century-plus outdated membership’s identify didn’t go properly with the followers, who alleged that the membership’s legacy and wealthy historical past had been being compromised.
They additionally hit the streets with protest march close to the membership ‘s tent in Maidan and CESC workplace, and “Remove ATK” placards can be seen in all places within the stands each time the group performed an ISL match on the Salt Lake Stadium.
