Packir Ali fired; Biswajit Bhattacharya to take charge

In what has come as a shock to the Chirag United Kerala players and supporters alike, the team’s Kolkata management has decided to sack their Sri Lankan coach Nizam Packir Ali and appoint Biswajit Bhattacharya as the technical director. The firing comes as a surprise as Chirag looked at their season’s best in their last match against Air India defeating them 2-0 to close their gap with Mumbai FC to three points.

Biswajit Bhattacharya, who is currently the coach of Calcutta Football League club George Telegraph SC is expected to take charge of the Kerala club this week and help the club to secure its place in the top division for next season. Along with Bhattacharya, Partha Bhattacharya will take charge as the goalkeeping coach and Dipesh Mukherjee will come in as a physical trainer. The club are also in search for a coach with ‘A’ license, but the technical director will be at the helm of the club’s affairs.

Packir Ali who is now back at his home in Sri Lanka is scheduled to arrive in India on February 23, when he will meet the team management after which they are expected to break the news about his future as the Chirag United coach.

Biswajit Bhattacharya is a former Indian international and has the experience of coaching top clubs like McDowell Mohun Bagan AC. He has played for India in the AFC Asian Cup 1984 and played most of his club career at East Bengal FC.

There are also reports that the sacking of the Sri Lankan coach comes a result of strings pulled by the team’s out of favor Bengal midfielder Suman Dutta who has close relationships with the club management.

It would be interesting to see if the sacking of the coach would help Chirag to better performances under Biswajit Bhattacharya or break the club’s momentum that was sustained by Packir Ali in the later stages of his coaching stint. The team’s next match will be against Shillong Lajong FC on March 24, 2012 at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, Kochi.

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Monday 20 February 2012. The database copy of this article was lost; it was recovered in 2026 from the Internet Archive's saved copy of the live page.