East Bengal: Senior team to start training from March 23

Amidst the ongoing tiff between East Bengal and their investors Quess Corp, the senior team is all set to resume training on March 23 under Spanish head coach Alejandro Menendez Garcia.

The Spanish coach, who headed back to Spain on a 10-day holiday after the conclusion of I-League, will be reaching Kolkata on the early morning of March 23 to resume work.

There is still uncertainty over whether the club will take part in the Super Cup 2019 after nine I-League clubs had decided to boycott the tournament earlier this month due to All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) unfair treatment towards them. The AIFF president Praful Patel has since addressed the club and assured them that he will conduct a meeting in mid-April.

As a result, the clubs have agreed to take part in the competition but have on a condition that the Indian FA has to reschedule the qualifying matches for Minerva Punjab, Gokulam Kerala and Aizawl FC.

Quess Corp have had a disagreement with the club officials regarding the Super Cup boycott. While the investors had decided to join the unison of the I-League clubs, the East Bengal club management wanted to take part in the tournament.

On March 18, the club officials, after an executive committee meeting, had sent a letter to the chairman of Quess Corp, Ajit Isaac and had informed the club’s decision of taking part in the competition. They had even given the investors a 48-hour window to respond.

On Wednesday, with Quess yet to respond the club’s query, senior official Debabrata Sarkar had mentioned that they have decided to field a separate team named East Bengal President’s XI in the Super Cup and that the team will comprise of the players from the reserve side and the player who were released on loan. The team was supposed to start training from March 22 under East Bengal Football School coach and former player Chandan Das.

But with the players of the senior team regrouping on March 22 and start training the day after it will be interesting to see whether the club officials finally go ahead with their decision to field a separate new team.