ATK Mohun Bagan is the reigning champion of the ISL, having won its maiden tournament title. Meanwhile, its owner Sanjiv Goenka announced that the club would be rebranded to Mohun Bagan Super Giant, which will come into effect from June 1.
Budging to fans' longstanding demands, the stakeholders of Mohun Bagan on Wednesday announced that they would remove the prefix ATK from the name of the 133-year city-based football giant. The club, principally owned by the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, will now be known as Mohun Bagan Super Giant (MBSG). This pattern follows the conglomerate's naming philosophy of their sports teams. RPSG owns the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Its earlier IPL team was known as Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS).
"After the Board meeting held today, the club's name will be Mohun Bagan Super Giant (MBSG) from June 1, 2023," the club announced. ATK Mohun Bagan (ATKMB) grabbed its maiden Indian Super League (ISL) title this season with a 4-3 win over former champion Bengaluru FC (BFC) in the penalty shootout in March this year.
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Following its triumph, Goenka had informally announced that the ATK prefix was finally going away after three years and would be known as MBSG. Still, the date was formalised after Thursday's Board meeting in Kolkata. "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," Goenka had said after their ISL triumph.
Two-time ISL champion ATK was formerly known as Atletico de Kolkata because of its tie-up with the Madrid-based Spanish giant. But, Atletico Madrid parted ways after three seasons and sold its 25 per cent stake to the RPSG Group, which then became the principal owner of the ISL franchise that came to be known as ATK.
ATK then rescued Mohun Bagan, which struggled to get into the top-tier ISL because of financial woes. The RPSG Group bought a majority (80 per cent) stake in Mohun Bagan ahead of the 2020-21 season, as the two merged clubs came into existence on June 1, 2020.
But the decision to prefix ATK with the century-plus-old club's name did not go well with the fans, who alleged that the club's legacy and rich history were being compromised. They also hit the streets with protest marches near the club's tent in Maidan and CESC office, and "Remove ATK" placards would be seen everywhere in the stands whenever the team played an ISL match at the Salt Lake Stadium.
(With inputs from PTI)