User:ArsenalFan700/ATK Mohun Bagan FC

ATK Mohun Bagan Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. The club competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. Founded on 10 July 2020 as part of the merger between the football-department of Mohun Bagan and ATK, the club will begin playing competitive matches in November 2020.

The club will play its home matches at the Salt Lake Stadium in Bidhannagar. The stadium was host to both Mohun Bagan and ATK and has a capacity of 65,000. The official colours for the club are maroon and green, these were the colours adopted from Mohun Bagan. ATK Mohun Bagan has a rivalry with neighbours East Bengal, with whom they will contest the Kolkata derby.

The club is owned by ATK Mohun Bagan Private Limited and RPSG Group chairman Sanjiv Goenka serves as principle owner. Former India cricketer Sourav Ganguly and Utsav Parekh also serve as co-owners, along with Mohun Bagan. Former ATK coach Antonio López Habas is the current head coach of ATK Mohun Bagan.

History
ATK Mohun Bagan was founded on 10 July 2020, as part of a merger between ATK and the football-department of athletic club, Mohun Bagan. Mohun Bagan was founded on 15 August 1889 as Mohun Bagan Sporting Club before changing to their current name prior to 1891 when the athletic club relocated within Calcutta to Shyampukur. For over a century, Mohun Bagan was run as a public club, with supporters able to buy membership into the club. During that period, Mohun Bagan became one of the biggest clubs in Indian football. One of the club's biggest achievements occurred on 29 July 1911 when Mohun Bagan defeated East Yorkshire Regiment in the IFA Shield final. This was the first ever title won by an all-Indian club over a British side and was also a part of India's eventual push for independence.

After being fan-owned for over a century, in 1998, Mohun Bagan entered into a joint-venture with United Breweries Group to run the footballing operations of the club. The joint-venture company was named United Mohun Bagan Private Limited with United Breweries and four directors on Mohun Bagan owning 50% each of the company. As part of the joint-venture, the name of the football-department for the club was changed to McDowell's Mohun Bagan.

The relationship between Mohun Bagan and United Breweries Group fluctuated throughout their association. In 2003, the UB Group threatened to cut funds from the club due to the team not being registered as McDowell's Mohun Bagan and for overspending on player salaries during the 2002–03 season. In 2012, the group hesitated on confirming the club's budget for for the 2012–13 season and rumors started that the company would sell some of its stake in United Mohun Bagan Private Limited.

In 2013, Mohun Bagan had agreed to a new 10-year deal with United Breweries Group. However, two years later, the deal was ended early. By 2017, it was revealed that Mohun Bagan were in active negotiations with other companies for sponsorship after not being given any funding by United Spirits since November 2014.

ATK were founded on 7 May 2014 as Atlético de Kolkata. The club was an inaugural member of the Indian Super League, a franchised based football league started in 2014. The bidding rights to the Kolkata franchise were won by former India cricket international Sourav Ganguly, businessmen Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, and Utsav Parekh, and Spanish La Liga club Atlético Madrid. After three seasons however, Atlético Madrid dropped out as co-owners and Goenka bought the Spanish club's 25% stake in the team. The club was then renamed to ATK.

Stadium
The club will play most matches at the Salt Lake Stadium in Bidhannagar. The stadium has a capacity of 65,000. The stadium was opened in 1984 and hosted league matches for both ATK and Mohun Bagan. Prior to renovation in 2011, the Salt Lake Stadium was the second largest stadium in the world, with a reported capacity of 120,000. The stadium was only behind the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in North Korea for capacity. In February 2015, the stadium was closed by the state government as additional renovation work began in preparation for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. As part of the two-year renovation, the stadium was given a brand new track, new bucket seats, redesigned and expanded dressing rooms, and a new natural grass turf. The whole renovation of the stadium costed around 100 crore.

The club will also play some matches and train at the Mohun Bagan Ground in the maidan region of central Kolkata. The stadium hosted matches for Mohun Bagan in the I-League and Calcutta Football League. In a press release on 10 July 2020, the club announced that investments will be made to make sure that the stadium is renovated and upgraded so that it can host Indian Super League and AFC Champions League matches.