ISL: East Bengal's investors Shree Cement Foundation to submit bid for team's top-flight entry

Kolkata: East Bengal’s investors have registered a new company named Shree Cement Foundation to pick up and submit bid documents for one franchise slot in the upcoming Indian Super League. The new company was registered from Jaipur in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on Saturday with Sanjay Mehta and Prakash Narayan Chhangani as its directors. The Board of the new entity will eventually have eight directors from Shree Cement Limited which acquired a majority stake of 76 per cent in the joint venture with East Bengal. Two directors will be from East Bengal. “We should make it (to the ISL). After all, the entire process is being done for this (East Bengal’s inclusion) only,” advisor of Shree Cement Srenik Sett, who is also a Life Member of East Bengal, told PTI. Asked about the new name of the team, Sett said there will be a prefix to East Bengal. “It cannot be Shree East Bengal as per the FIFA rules. It has to be something else. We are toying up with the ideas. It’s still in the process.” A leading city-based businessman with a deep knowledge of football, Sett was the ‘catalyst’ in East Bengal’s tie-up with Shree Cement who are new to the sport. It is learnt that Sett will be one of directors of the Board but he said his company would only announce the names only after Football Sports Development Limited announces the 11th team. “It was just a formality to register the company giving names of two directors. The company is in the process of formation. Once it’s formed, we will submit the bid documents by 14 September (deadline to submit soft document),” he said. “FSDL has to register the team first then only we will be able to play ISL. Unless that process is over everything else is useless. Once, all the due diligence is done, and FSDL confirms the team, we will announce the Board.” On the structure of the Board, he said they may not have eight members initially but there will be a “fixed two members” from East Bengal. “East Bengal have got no role to play here. They will be there in the Board. Everything the new management will decide keeping in the best interest of the team. As of now there is no hiccup. We are very hopeful (of playing ISL),” Sett concluded. Regarding the two directors of the Shree Cement Foundation already named, Chhangani is full time director of Shree Cement, while Mehta is president (commercial). With an annual turnover of over Rs 12,000 crore, the Kolkata-headquartered Shree Cement is owned by chairman Benu Gopal Bangur and son Hari Mohan Bangur who is the managing director of the company. One of the largest cement manufacturers of the country, the company was founded in Beawar, in Ajmer district of Rajasthan in 1979.