Kolkata Derby

Kolkata Derby

Locale	Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Teams	Mohun Bagan East Bengal
First meeting	1921
Latest meeting	East Bengal 1-1 Mohun Bagan (23 January 2016)
Next meeting	1 April 2016
Statistics
Meetings total	340
Most wins	East Bengal (125)
All-time series	East Bengal leads 125-93-112 (W-L-D)
Largest victory	East Bengal 5-0 Mohun Bagan (1975)

Kolkata Derby, locally known as Boro (means big in Bengali) match, is the football match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. The two clubs currently meet at least 3 times a year, twice in the I-League and once in the Calcutta Football League. Often these two clubs meet in other competitions like the Federation Cup, the IFA Shield, the Durand Cup etc. The rivalry between these two teams is almost 100 years old, and features in the FIFA's classic derby list.^[1] The matches witness large audience attendance and rivalry between patrons.

Both the Kolkata superpowers have huge fan base across spreading all over the world. Both the clubs represent a specific class of Bengali people, Mohun Bagan represents people existing in the western part of Bengal while East Bengal is primarily supported by people hailing from the eastern part of the pre-independence Bengal province (now Bangladesh).

Culturally, this derby is very similar to Scottish Premier League's Old Firm derby, since a majority of the Mohun Bagan supporters represent the 'nativist' population (similar to Rangers FC) and a majority of the East Bengal fans represent the immigrants (similar to Celtic FC). However, a lot of people having origin in Bangladesh also support Mohun Bagan as it is one of the oldest football club in India. Similarly, some people of West Bengal origin support East Bengal considering it is one of the Kolkata giants. So there is an existence of cross-ethnic support base.

Origins

Mohun Bagan is Asia’s oldest club having been established in 1889 in the city, then known under its anglicized name, Calcutta. The significant British influence in what was, until 1911, the nation’s capital, ensured the game flourished, drawing players from other regions, and it is against this backdrop in which today’s rivalry took root.

Like many great rivalries a schism, albeit in this case an indirect one, led to the birth of a local challenger. In 1920, the Jora Bagan club took field against Mohun Bagan who chose play without their star halfback Sailesh Bose, much to the chagrin of club vice-president Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri. Such was the industrialist's displeasure, he decided to form a new club and East Bengal was born. As Chaudhuri and his co-founders hailed from East Bengal, essentially now modern-day Bangladesh, the club is now generally supported by people who migrated from that region. This resulted in the clubs being backed by two different socio-economic groups, although this has largely changed over period of time. Unknown to many, these two clubs actually met for the first time in the final of the Khagendra Shield in 1921 which East Bengal won by 2-1.^[2] However, the Calcutta League match on 28 May 1925 is widely considered to be the first derby, which East Bengal won by 1-0 with Nepal Chakravarty scoring the solitary goal. The first Derby outside Kolkata was held on 28 December 1957 in the Semifinal of the Durand Cup at New Delhi in which the rivals played out a barren draw. In the replay held two days later, East Bengal won 3-2; Tulsidas Balaram, Balasubramaniam and Moosa scored for the winners while Chuni Goswami and N.Mukherjee reduced the margin for the losers.^[3]

Facts and figures

Though exact figures are disputed, the Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal clash reaches a historic milestone of 300 derby matches. Till now, the Kolkata rivals East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have played 340 matches against each other. East Bengal has won 125 matches, Mohun Bagan has won 93 matches and 112 matches have been drawn. East Bengal has scored 299(+50) goals and Mohun Bagan 268(+48) goals. All competitive matches and walk over matches have been considered in the aforesaid fact. Indian international Baichung Bhutia has tallied the most goals in derby matches (19 goals - 13 for EB and 6 for MB), with the diminutive forward transcending the city’s football divide by representing both clubs. Nigerian Edeh Chidi in 2009 became the first foreign player to score a treble in the Kolkata derby and became the first player on behalf of Mohun Bagan in history to score four goals in a single encounter and Mohun Bagan won the match 5-3. The fastest goal in a derby was scored by Mohammed Akbar. On 24 April 1976 Mohun Bagan beat East Bengal 1-0 with a goal scored in 17 seconds by him.

Tales of derbies past

The 1960s proved a golden period for Mohun Bagan and it concluded in perfect fashion for the Mariners. Having already won the league, Mohun Bagan then did the double, defeating their rivals on their own ground in the IFA Shield final. The 3-1 victory credited to the then revolutionary 4-2-4 formation employed by innovative coach Amal Dutta.

The wheel eventually turned, as happens in most such rivalries, and the 1970s was East Bengal’s decade. They lost only 1 derby in six years which culminated in a 5-0 IFA Shield win over their great rivals. The Red and Golds roared to a record 5-0 scoreline and, with it, a record of five consecutive Shield victories. Such was the ignominy surrounding the heavy defeat that several Mohun Bagan players spent the night holed up on a boat in the Ganges trying to escape the wrath of shell-shocked supporters. Umakanto Palodhi, an ardent Mohun Bagan fan, committed suicide.

A fatal pandemonium occurred in the derby on 16 August 1980 taking a toll of 16 young lives. This marks the darkest day of Indian football. As the referee gave Dilip Palit and Bidesh Basu the marching orders in the second half, the gallery burst into agitation. A stampede at the Eden Gardens resulted in the disaster.^[4]

The most memorable Kolkata derby of all took place in 1997 when a remarkable crowd of 131,000 – a record attendance for any sport in India – filled a heaving Salt Lake Stadium. Appropriately enough, India’s most recognizable footballer, Baichung Bhutia, took centre stage, scoring a hat-trick as East Bengal triumphed 4-1 in the semi-final of the Federation Cup. Another memorable match took place on 9th December,2012 when Mohun Bagan team,supporters and officials fled from the stadium because of the fear of conceding more than seven goals in a single match. Later Mohun Bagan was banned by the AIFF from I-League.^[5]

In the most recent derby, East Bengal drew 1-1 with Mohun Bagan.

References