Mohun Bagan A.C.

Mohun Bagan Athletic Club (English pronunciation: /mohon begən/) (Bengali : মোহন বাগান) is a professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Established in 1889, it is the oldest football club in India. The club plays in the I-League, the top-flight domestic league of Indian football. One of the most decorated clubs in Indian football, Mohun Bagan were awarded the distinction of being the National Club of India by former Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi as well as by AIFF in 1989. This was during the clubs centenary celebration in commemoration of the club's famous victory over East Yorkshire Regiment during the 1911 IFA Shield Final, becoming the first Indian club to defeat a British club in the process and also contribute to the Indian independence movement.

Mohun Bagan is the winner of four national league titles and has also won thirteen Federation Cup championships. This makes Mohun Bagan the most successful professional club in India. The club has also won several other accolades, including the Durand Cup, IFA Shield, and the Calcutta Football League.Till 2015 Mohun Bagan has won 246 trophies, which is highest by any Indian club.

Bagan

Bagan (Burmese: ပုဂံ; MLCTS: pu.gam, IPA: [bəɡàɴ]; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city located in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar . From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas still survive to the present day.

The Bagan Archaeological Zone is a main draw for the country's nascent tourism industry. It is seen by many as equal in attraction to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Etymology

Bagan is the present-day standard Burmese pronunciation of the Burmese word Pugan (ပုဂံ), derived from Old Burmese Pukam (ပုကမ်). Its classical Pali name is Arimaddana-pura (အရိမဒ္ဒနာပူရ, lit. "the City that Tramples on Enemies"). Its other names in Pali are in reference to its extreme dry zone climate: Tattadesa (တတ္တဒေသ, "parched land"), and Tampadipa (တမ္ပဒီပ, "bronzed country"). The Burmese chronicles also report other classical names of Thiri Pyissaya (သီရိပစ္စယာ) and Tampawaddy (တမ္ပဝတီ).

East Bengal

East Bengal (Bengali: পূর্ববঙ্গ Purbobôngo) was the name used during two periods in the 20th century for a territory that roughly corresponded to the modern state of Bangladesh. Both instances involved a violent partition of Bengal which made one half East Bengal or Bangladesh and the other today's Indian state of West Bengal.

The area compromises roughly two-thirds of the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal.

First partition, 1905–1912 (British period)

The first instance of the name was during the British rule of India. British governance of large swathes of Indian territory began with Robert Clive's victory over the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The victory gave the British East India Company dominion over Bengal, which became the headquarters of British administration in the sub-continent. After the Indian rebellion of 1857 (known as the "Mutiny"), the British government took direct control away from the East India Co., and established its imperial capital at Calcutta, the city founded by the Company. By 1900, the British province of Bengal constituted a huge territory, stretching from the Burmese border to deep into the Ganges valley.

Kolkata Derby

Kolkata Derby, locally known as Boro (means big in Bengali) match, is the football match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. The two clubs currently meet at least 3 times a year, twice in the I-League and once in the Calcutta Football League. Often these two clubs meet in other competitions like the Federation Cup, the IFA Shield, the Durand Cup etc. The rivalry between these two teams is almost 100 years old, and features in the FIFA's classic derby list. The matches witness large audience attendance and rivalry between patrons.

Both the Kolkata superpowers have huge fan base across spreading all over the world. Both the clubs represent a specific class of Bengali people, Mohun Bagan represents people existing in the western part of Bengal while East Bengal is primarily supported by people hailing from the eastern part of the pre-independence Bengal province (now Bangladesh).

Culturally, this derby is very similar to Scottish Premier League's Old Firm derby, since a majority of the Mohun Bagan supporters represent the 'nativist' population (similar to Rangers FC) and a majority of the East Bengal fans represent the immigrants (similar to Celtic FC). However, a lot of people having origin in Bangladesh also support Mohun Bagan as it is one of the oldest football club in India. Similarly, some people of West Bengal origin support East Bengal considering it is one of the Kolkata giants. So there is an existence of cross-ethnic support base.

2017 AFC Cup

The 2017 AFC Cup is the 14th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Association team allocation

The AFC Competitions Committee proposed a revamp of the AFC club competitions on 25 January 2014, which was ratified by the AFC Executive Committee on 16 April 2014. The 46 AFC member associations (excluding the associate member Northern Mariana Islands) are ranked based on their national team's and clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions, with the allocation of slots for the 2017 and 2018 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2016 rankings: