Bengali diaspora in UK organises football tournament to celebrate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

It is organised by Heritage Bengal Global (HBG), an all women run not-for-profit organisation of the Bengali diaspora in Britain. The 5th edition of the tournament this year also commemorates the 75th year of Indian independence and the event is supported by the High Commission of India London, UK.

This year the century old ‘bangal-ghoti’ (Bengalis from undivided India's East Bengal side are called Bangals while those from West Bengal are called ghotis) rivalry of the Kolkata maidan, the fervour of East Bengal – Mohun Bagan derby would be played amongst EB-MB fans not only in UK, but also at Atlanta (USA) on Aug 14 and at Sydney (Australia) on Nov 26.

The acting Indian High Commissioner in UK Mr Sujit Ghosh will lead a team for Aidias Super Shield playing against an East Bengal and a Mohun Bagan Fans' team.

The Royal Air Force has also agreed to send two of its officers to attend the event as a goodwill gesture.

This year the event has received heartiest support from the English Football Association (FA), Berks & Bucks FA endorsing IFASUK as a community event.

Several diversified business entities from Bengal like Sister Nivedita University, IIHM, Aditya Academy, Aidias Consulting, IEAD, Acquist Reality, Chess Solicitor and George Telegraph institute have supported the tournament, along with the clubs East Bengal and Mohun Bagan themselves who have provided match jerseys. Pointers Business Forum of Kolkata, a growing ecosystem of MSME businesses has
also extended support.

The Indian Football Association’s hony. secretary, Anirban Dutta has sent his best wishes for the tournament with a message praising the efforts of IFASUK to spread the sporting tradition of Bengal globally, mixed with the emotion of the Bengali diaspora in three continents and connecting them over football, creating a healthy rivalry with a passion.

Like previous years, the theme song of the tournament this year is sung by noted Bollywood singer Amit Kumar with music composition by Sunjoy Bose.

The song has turned out to be an international Project, with the lyrics written by fans from UK, US and Australia.

The unique feature of this year’s event is compliance to global standards of environment, social and governance (ESG) and the tournament will be ‘net zero’ and ‘carbon neutral’ compliant, wherein organisers are working in tandem with a Kolkata based consulting firm Futurestation to achieve the same.

At the suggestion of the Mohun General Secretary Debashis Datta, this year the Aditya Academy IFA Shield for Kids is being started. The

Women folk will have their own penalty shootout contest, pitching for East Bengal and Mohun Bagan for the IIHM IFA Shield UK. And the SNU IFA Shield UK for men has now turned out to be the most coveted diaspora football tournament of the day.

The organising committee is led by HBG Vice President Mahua Bej and other members namely Sourav Pal, Sayantan Chakravorty, Rajib Saha, Ramita Ghosh, Poushali Bera and Anuran Sarkar, who are busy attending last minute challenges, which has caught the imagination of the UK Bengali diaspora!

Heritage Bengal Global Director Anirban Mukhopadhyay is ecstatic at this year’s euphoria, "This will serve multiple purposes. The ghoti-bangal rivalry across three continents will encourage younger generations to play football and keep healthy, thereby creating awareness and generating global support for ‘saab khelar sera Bangalir tumi football’ back home, to develop young talents in Indian football."

"That’s the dream run we at IFA and HBG jointly aspire to achieve."