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Current Indian Super League champions Atletico de Kolkata are the most successful ISL franchise since its inception in 2014, but the relationship between the Indian partners and Atletico Madrid looks over.
While Spanish sports publication Marca says that the final decision of separation or continuation has not been taken, the Indian side have publically said that they are looking at new partners for the club with their relationship having ended.
Atletico de Kolkata is owned by Kolkata Games and Sports Private Limited which has had Sanjiv Goenka as the biggest stakeholder alongside former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly alongside Harshavardhan Neotia, Utsav Parekh and Spanish La Liga side Atlético Madrid.
Speculation in recent weeks had linked Spanish LaLiga rivals FC Valencia to the Kolkata based side besides English Premier League sides Liverpool FC and Manchester City being linked with ATK.
Interestingly after three successful years of Spanish influence on the club, Atletico de Kolkata have appointed former Bengaluru FC head coach Ashley Westwood of England as the new technical director with former England striker Teddy Sheringham linked to the vacent head coaches position.
The fascination of the Kolkata owners with English football is known, but the question remains if any Premier League team would want to invest and partner an Indian Super League franchise given the current scenario and the continued unclear commercial model.
Atletico Madrid meanwhile says even if its partnership with Atletico de Kolkata is over, its relationship with India would grow in the years to come.
It seems like the ISL Kolkata team ATK ( Atlético de Kolkata ) is now having a real bad time. After creating all kinds of obstacles for the playing of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan in the ISL from their home town Kolkata , ATK is now in a big soup. The foreign partner of ATK , Atlético de Madrid , who owned 25% of the club share and supported ATK over the last 3 seasons have terminated their relationship with ATK. Today major newspapers of India have reported that Atlético de Madrid has stated that the reason for dumping ATK is the fact that they are unhappy with ATK and have observed no development effort from ATK. No wonder ATK owners have failed as of now to convince any other foreign club to support team in spite of lot of talks with multiple clubs from EPL.
What would be now challenging for ATK is to retain their multiple Indian co-sponsors. Its now clear to most that 80% of the people who crowded the stadium on the match day of ATK are actually hardcore supporters of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. Nearly all of these 80% fans now terribly hate ATK. They terribly hate ATK because ATK had not co-operated with EB and MB.So, because of this strong hatred among the local folks of Bengal , ATK owners now need to work hard to retain their existing co-sponsors and attract new ones.
On his birthday, Saurav Ganguly , the face of ATK , told the press that he wants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan to play in the ISL. However, this damage control may be too little and too late.