The executive committee of East Bengal, after a meeting on Tuesday, unanimously decided not to sign the final agreement with investor Shree Cement. The committee members also threatened to resign if they are pressurised to sign the agreement.

Later on Tuesday, SC East Bengal, the club’s ISL entity, suspended all its social media activities until further notice. It was not clear whether the development was coincidental or if it was related in any way to the club executive committee’s stand, but the cloud of uncertainty certainly grew gloomier.

On Tuesday, a recorded statement, purportedly of club football secretary Saikat Ganguly, said: “We had our executive committee meeting today. We discussed in detail all the points and differences which exist between the term sheet and the definitive document of Shree Cement.

“Every member of the committee has agreed that the club will not sign the definitive document in its current form. Also, the committee has decided that if the club is forced to sign this document under any kind of pressure, then everyone will resign.

“The general secretary (Kalyan Majumdar) has also agreed with the decision of the committee and conveyed it to the club president (Pranab Dasgupta). He has informed that nobody has to sign anything at the moment.”

During the last few days, the club and the investor have been on a mailing spree, the last of which was sent on Monday, where Shree Cement asked the club about their stand on signing the final agreement.

Though officially nothing was confirmed, sources claimed that East Bengal sent their reply late on Tuesday night.

Shree Cement had earlier made their stance clear that “without the final agreement, there would be no further investment”. So what’s next?