ATK Mohun Bagan to be renamed Mohun Bagan Super Giants from next season

Sanjiv Goenka has announced that starting from next season, ATK Mohun Bagan will be known as Mohun Bagan Super Giants.

Indian Super League champions this season ATK Mohun Bagan are set to be called Mohun Bagan Super Giants from next season. The announcement was made by the Chairman of the RPSG Group, Sanjiv Goenka, on Saturday. The RPSG Group owns the majority share in the club.

His announcement couldn’t have come at a better time as Goenka decided to make this revelation after his side’s win in the final over Bengaluru on penalties. ATK Mohun Bagan trumped Simon Grayson’s side 4-3 in the penalty shootout after the two sides couldn’t be separated in 120 minutes with the scoreline ending at 2-2.

"It's a very simple but substantive announcement. That is from the next season, the club will be known as Mohun Bagan Super Giants. We are removing ATK. Well, it was something that was on the cards. I was waiting for the win to announce it," Goenka said.

The announcement is obviously also in respect to intense fan clamour and backlash that has plagued the side over the last couple of years. Fans have repeatedly asked the management to show respect to the history, heritage, and legacy of Mohun Bagan by removing the ‘ATK’ in its name. In fact, the #RemoveATK campaign had also gotten extremely popular among fans on social media.

The club was originally founded as Atletico de Kolkata, based on its partnership with Atletico de Madrid in Spain for the first few ISL seasons. After the partnership ended, they were known as ATK and were the most successful team in ISL, having won three titles until 2020. ATK then entered into a merger with Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan, who were the playing in the I League and formed a merged entity that would take part in the ISL.

The RPSG Group, which owned and ran ATK FC, acquired majority shares in Mohun Bagan Football Club (India) Private Limited. The merged club came into existence on June 1, 2020, with RPSG Group owing 80 per cent, while Mohun Bagan Football Club (India) Private Limited owned the remaining 20 per cent.

Although the newly formed club retained the colours and logo of Mohun Bagan, a large part of the Mariners fanbase perceived it to be a clever ploy to pander to the strong fan sentiment surrounding the over century old club. As a result, they took offense with the usage of the name ATK at the beginning and also started to fall out of love with the club and its identity in recent years.

It will be interesting to see how that part of the fanbase responds to this change going forward.