Barely two days after Mohammedan Sporting's ISL entry was made official, the Kolkata heavyweights ran into trouble as their principal investors, Bunkerhill, announced that the deal was off due to "wrong expectations", even as the club remained confident of reaching an agreement through "amicable discussions".
The century-plus old club earned a promotion to the ISL after clinching the I-League 2023-24 and their entry was made official on Saturday. They are slated to begin their campaign by facing NorthEast United FC on September 16 in Kolkata.
Gurgaon-based Bunkerhill Pvt Ltd has 61 per cent stake in the club through their deal in 2020 and after the team got a new investors in Shrachi Sports, the two firms had agreed to split the shares with 30.5 per cent each by signing a term sheet earlier this month.
But founder and chairman of Bunkerhill Dipak Kumar Singh has announced in a video post on social media that the deal was not happening because of "some wrong expectations".
"I've a message from Bunkerhill side. We had made a deal with Shrachi Sports regarding investment in ISL. A term sheet was signed on that basis. When it came to the final agreement, the club made several changes that were not acceptable," Singh said in his Facebook video post.
"Originally, it was planned that all three parties have two members each in the Board of directors, but now the club wants five members in it and two each from Bunkerhill and Shrachi." "Secondly, the club wants the board chairman to be from the club, who will run the football operations. In such an environment and under these conditions, I don’t think I can bring any investor to the club." He also claimed that their portion of the shares were still not transferred to them.
"As of today, 61% of the shares have not yet been transferred to us and are still allotted in the names of some club individuals. This can be checked in the ROC." "Over the last four years, we have put in a lot of investment and hard work to bring the club to this stage. Now, in this final stage, due to some wrong expectations, this deal is not happening." Mohammedan Sporting is the second club after Punjab FC to earn promotion to the ISL.
Singh added, "I am very sad to say that the coming days will be very tough and difficult for Mohammedan Sporting to participate in the ISL.
"I just extend my best of luck. They are capable of managing the club and, even in this time, they will find some solutions." "But it is my duty to say that we had promised to play in the ISL and, for that, we worked very hard and provided the club with whatever they wanted -- financial support and the right investors.
"We were ready to participate, but under these conditions, the agreement will not be signed. The deal between Bunkerhill and Shrachi will not happen now," he threatened.
Club general secretary Ishtiaque Ahmed, however, dismissed any apprehensions and said they would "sort this out amicably".
"We have already agreed for Rahul Todi of Shrachi Sports to become the chairman. There was no need to put this out in a public domain. He could have just written to us and we could have sorted this out amicably," Ahmed told PTI.
"I completely understand that they have put in a lot to play ISL we will just request them to sort this out by an amicable discussion." On share transfer, he said: "It's in the process and the shares are in the escrow account it will take some time to reflect in their name." He further said the club just wants five members in the board of directors as "we still are the major stakeholder (39 per cent)." "We are a fan-based club and we just can't sell the club completely to the investors."
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