August has been a special month for London based organisation Bengal Heritage Foundation who along with fan club East Bengal the Real Power (EBRP) organised the “100 years, 100 cities,100 flags” – a tribute to East Bengal Club on their 100 years completion.
This was announced at the Nehru Centre, London, of the India High Commission, UK on 10thMay 2019. To celebrate the club’s centenary, fans from all over the world hoisted the club flag across 50 cities in India and 50 cities outside India at mid-day local time on 3rd August. Not only that, it was a proud moment for Bengal Heritage Foundation when on Independence Day, Quess East Bengal FC shared on social media, the Centenary Flag hoisting photo by BHF in front of the Tower Bridge in London.
The flag hoisting ceremony kicked off from Shahid Minar, Dhaka on 3rd August at 12pm local time followed by Dhakeswari Temple, then moved on to India and covered 50 locations across India at 12pm local time. Then the flag hoisting moved to Middle East, Muscat, Oman, Bahrain followed by Africa, Zambia then further into Europe and covered multiple countries in Europe at their local time 12PM. After Europe, the flag hoisting shifts to England where Bengal Heritage Foundation team along with other football lovers from the UK will be present to hoist the flag in front of the Tower Bridge. Ex- East Bengal football player Chima Okorie was present with the group in London.
Flag hoisting then continued in Dublin, Douglas, Brazil, USA and Canada – all 12pm local time. The flag hoisting ceremony then crosses the international dateline and continues in Japan, New Zealand, Australia then crosses South east Asia and finally the ceremony closes in Kolkata on 4th Aug at 12pm completing a full circle. The initiative will denote how huge and deep rooted the global fanbase is and how capitalising on this untapped fanbase can be of a huge benefit.
The undying love for the “Red and Gold” was so strong that fans were ready to overcome any hurdles – be it the heavy incessant rain in Mumbai, where fans were seen holding big umbrellas, wearing raincoats over the EB jerseys yet having EB flag held high or at Hong Kong , where there was a general disturbance yet Sahin Mondal and few others were seen to hoist the flag at a desolate part of the marina.
On another part of the world, in Bangkok which was facing a curfew, Udayaditya Shome went to the Bangkok Police stadium to hoist the flag. Incidentally, they were known as Bec Tero Sassana whom East Bengal had beaten in the final of Asean Cup. Saugata Ghosh from Dhaka, had to seek police permission to hoist the EB flag at Shahid Minar. Chiradeep Ghosh and others in Bahrain chose Al Bajma beach on a hot sunny day. Kuala Lampur based Subhashish Roy Choudhury gathered with a big team in front of the famous Petronas Twin Tower to hoist the flag. Same was the enthusiasm of Sanjib Chakraborty, who in spite of being the only EB supporter in Lusaka, still had the same zeal and passion towards his favourite club.
New Jersey had the largest number of fan turnout, as almost 60 EB fans were present at a local clubhouse of Kallol (a non-profit organisation in USA) andwere seen dancing to the beat of dhaak and enjoying Hilsa and Rosogolla. Nalinava Sengupta from Oslo, Norway was present with few other fans at the Town Hall to proudly hold the East Bengal flag at 12PM local time. Anirban Mukhopadhyay (President of London Sharad Utsav and Trustee of BHF) along with other UK based East Bengal fans gathered in front of the Tower Bridge to hold the Red-Golden flag. Like Chima in England, there were other former EB players who were present at various locations during the flag hoisting – Mike Okoro and Majek Bolaji were present in New Jersey, Philippe De Ridder (former EB Coach) was present in Belgium, Douglas De Silva in Brazil and Sula Musa in Ghana.
This magnificent initiative led by Anirban Mukhopadhyay kicked off planning from early this year and in a short spanfans of the Red-and -Gold brigade from all over the worldjoined hands to make this happen – notable were London based BHF member and ardent EB fan Bhaskar Bhattacharya , Tanmoy Ghosh and Raj Adhikary from Japan and Suparno Chakraborty from EBRP who contributed majorly in co-ordinating and making this plan a huge success.
