Hope springs eternal for BMFC

The club has failed to live upto expectations after making a promising start.
It was launched amidst much fanfare on May 17, 1998, at the Cooperage. The club was touted as the country's second professional football team since independence (after FC Kochi of Kerala). And just as FCK enthralled football fans by breaking into the top rung, the Bengal Mumbai Football Club (BMFC) was also expected to whip up a football frenzy, at least in Mumbai.
The brainchild of Krishnendu Sen, Ajit Karmarkar and Shankar Maitra among others, BMFC made an emphatic start, delivering in its very first year in competition. The team coached by Iranian Jamshed Nassiri won both the Mumbai Super Division title as well as the prestigious Rovers Cup in 1998, and raised the expectations of football enthusiasts across the country. However, it has since faltered.
The club had star names like coach Syed Nayeemuddin and Nigerian forward Chima Okerie. Aloke Das, the former East Bengal player, too donned the club's colours. But star value apart, they could not produce the desired results.
BMFC's greatest failure is perhaps there inability to qualify for the National Football League (NFL) even after eight years of existence. So why has the club struggled to deliver after a bright start?
Sponsorship has not been forthcoming after 2000. "Gulf Oil sponsored our club for two years but there has been no income since," reasons Mohammed Shabbir Ahmed, Vice President and Manager.
"Our chairman has incurred all the expenditure in the last few years," he adds. Others have a different take on the issue. "We lost our sponsors and our members after failing to qualify for the National Football League," says Wali Mohammed, the club's Executive Director. "We're now considered a second rung club and hence the sponsors shy away from us," he adds.
However, club managing director, Krishnendu Sen prefers to look at the positives. He takes credit for the fact that the club managed to bring talents like Nassiri, Syed Naeemmuddin and Chima Okerie, among others to play in Mumbai. He blames Lady Luck for the team's failure to make it to top rung of the NFL.
"We have been doing quite well in the last eight years, particularly in the Second Division of the NFL. It's just plain bad luck that we are yet to qualify for Division One," says Sen.
Though the club is struggling to find a foothold in an increasingly competitive game, some are still proud to be a part of the club.
BMFC MD Krishnendu Sen concurs. "We're the only club to achieve the double in Mumbai that too in the first year of competition," he says.