Chirag United staying in Kerala, says official

Good news for Kerala football fans as Rana Bandhopadhyay, the vice-president of Chirg Computers – the major stakeholder of the Chirag United Kerala FC – has stated that the the club management has no intention of shifting the team’s base to Kolkata. According to Bandhopadhyay’s words to a leading English daily, Chirag won’t be moving out of Kerala, no matter what.

There had been reports in the media from the time the Kolkata firm had bought the club that they might be planning to relocate the team to Kolkata. So, the clarification form the company’s vice president comes as a certain relief for the club’s fans. Bandhopdhyay also stated that the team’s greatest challenge is to escape the relegation this season and that is why the management has interfered in the functioning of the club and appointed Biswajit Bhattacharya to guide them for the rest of the season.

Chirag will face Shillong Lajong FC in their first match under Biswajit at Kochi on March 24. “We have a long break now it’s good but if injury happens we’ll be in big trouble,” Bandhopadhyay said. He added that he expects some of the key players in the team to regain fitness before the league restarts.

Bandhopadhyay stated that the club will not risk its players to injury by plying in any other tournament now and confirmed Chirag United Kerala won’t be playing the forthcoming EK Nayanar Gold Cup in Kozhikode in the first week of March 2012. The club has also decided not to send their team for the IFA Shield this season.

The Chirag Kerala squad are currently training at the Maharajas College Ground, Kochi under their new technical director Biswajit Bhaatacharya and goalkeeping coach Partha Chakraborty.

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Friday 24 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.