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Kolkata giants East Bengal FC have announced Shree Cement as their new investor in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee at the West Bengal State Secretariate, Howrah on Wednesday.
The investment deal is expected to fulfil East Bengal's financial requirements in order to play in the Indian Super League.
East Bengal club secretary Kalyan Majumdar said:
"We are set to play the Indian Super League. There were problems but due to the intervention from the Chief Minister, we were able to close the deal."
Debabrata Sarkar, principal executive member of East Bengal added:
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"We are extremely thankful to Tarun Jhunjunwala and chief minister of West Bengal for all the support throughout the last six months. We will now appeal to Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) to enter the Indian Super League. We are now financially capable and only certain formalities remain to be fulfilled to achieve the dream of millions of supporters. We are honoured to be partnered with Shree Cements for this special endeavour."
Shree Cement is India's third-biggest cement company and has ranked 122 in the Economic Times' list of India's richest companies. Shree Cements Executive Chairman Benu Gopal Bangur was also touted as the 14th richest Indian in a 2019 edition of Forbes Magazine. Shree Cements also has considerable operations in energy generation, other than its principal sector of cement production.
A Shree Group official said:
"We are glad to be part of the association. This is our first investment in the sports sector. We are excited and extremely thankful to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for assisting in the deal. We are here to play as champions and hopefully play the Indian Super League."
Another representative from Shree Cement added:
"We are proud to be associated with such a prestigious football club. We will work with East Bengal in all sporting aspects."
East Bengal ever close to playing Indian Super League
After Mohun Bagan's entry into the Indian Super League, there was immense pressure on East Bengal to enter the league after I-League was stripped off their top division status in the 2019-20 season. East Bengal were in talks with several investors but no deal was finalised.
Tarun Jhunjunwala, the chief executive at Reliance, said:
"We will go about the further formalities regarding East Bengal's participation in the Indian Super League and hopefully the club will play in ISL in the current season itself."
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee concluded:
"Football in India is incomplete without teams from Bengal. Shree is a prominent company and have investments across India. we are hopeful that they will invest in West Bengal as well. At times of coronavirus, due to economic strains, it is great that Shree is investing in Indian football."
