ISL 2017/18: After split with ATK, Atletico de Madrid looking to start new academies in India

Despite having a successful on-pitch partnership, where they won twos out of the three ISL seasons completed so far, Atletico de Madrid had parted ways with Kolkata Games and Sports Pvt. Ltd, in their ownership of the Atletico de Kolkata football club (now known as ATK).

While there was a lot of speculation as to why this split took place, Atletico de Madrid commercial director Inigo Aznar revealed to Sportskeeda that the La Liga giants wanted to create an environment where the club would work with a model similar to that of the rest of the franchises throughout the world, with which Atletico are affiliated with.

“We wanted to create a model on the way we work and the way we manage a team and this is what I think I did for the last three years. We were extremely successful and we wanted to keep on doing that. For different reasons, that was not possible,” said Aznar.

“Then we thought that if they wanted to manage the club in some other way, we are fine with that and respect that. We’ll try other ways to try and establish ourselves in the country, by starting new academies,” added Inigo Aznar.

Atletico de Kolkata performed well in the first edition of the ISL, which they won, defeating Kerala Blasters in the final, in 2014. They followed that up with another good performance in the 2015 season, when they came up with a semifinal finish before they won the trophy again in 2016 beating old foes Kerala in the summit clash yet again.

However, their performance has been below par this season, and the defending champions are currently lying second from bottom on the table, after suffering 10 losses from 17 matches.