The 2020–21 season was the 101st season of Sporting Club East Bengal (EB or SCEB). Established in 1920, the club celebrated its centennial on 1 August 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian football season started on 1 August 2020 and is scheduled to end on 31 May 2021, with competitive matches occurring between November and March. The club competed in the Indian Super League (ISL) for the first time and finished their first ISL season in ninth place with 17 points.
Before the start of the season, East Bengal was very active in the transfer market. The club precontracted over 20 Indian players with many signing long-term contracts and being assigned to the reserve team. Only a few players were retained from the previous season. Of them, Prakash Sarkar and Boithang Haokip were not registered in the ISL squad. East Bengal and Quess Corp's joint venture was terminated, and the club inked a partnership with Shree Cement as their principal investor in September. Robbie Fowler was appointed as the team's head coach. Forward Bright Enobakhare was signed in the winter transfer window as the seventh foreigner. Another foreign player, Callum Woods, was also signed as a reserve defender.
Due to investor issues and COVID-19, East Bengal could not start its league preparation until October. The club began their campaign with a loss in the Kolkata Derby. East Bengal got their first point against Jamshedpur, after three consecutive defeats. They were undefeated for the next seven matches. They ended their campaign by losing against Odisha FC in an eleven-goal thriller, which was also the league's all-time highest scoring match. East Bengal's top goal scorer was Matti Steinmann with four goals in 17 matches. The club had six ISL Fans' Goal of the Week award from five players with four consecutive wins on week nine, 10, 11 and 12.
Background East Bengal officially announced that Balwant Singh had signed a two-year contract with the team on 12 April 2020. The next day the club signed former fullback Lalramchullova back from arch-rivals Mohun Bagan for the season as well as the services of Hyderabad defender Gurtej Singh.
On 18 April, the club announced a triple signing for the season: goalkeeper Rafique Ali Sardar from Jamshedpur, and Wahengbam Angousana and Loken Meitei from TRAU. The club announced the signing of three more Indian recruits: winger Bikash Jairu from Jamshedpur and midfielders Cavin Lobo and Sehnaj Singh from Punjab and ATK respectively, each on a two-year contract, on 28 April. After being stranded for more than a months due to lockdown all over India, the foreign contingent of the previous season squad started leaving for their home in the first week of May. The club announced four more signings: goalkeeper Sankar Roy from Mohun Bagan, defenders Mohammed Irshad from Gokulam Kerala, Keegan Pereira from Jamshedpur and Girik Khosla from Punjab on 5 May. The club announced three more signings on 15 May: midfielders Eugeneson Lyngdoh from Bengaluru, Mohammed Rafique from Mumbai City and Milan Singh from NorthEast United for the season. On 18 May, the club announced five more signings for the season: forward C. K. Vineeth from Jamshedpur, right-back Rino Anto from Bengaluru, left-back Pritam Kumar Singh from Kerala Blasters, defenders Anil Chawan from ATK and Vikas Saini from Mohammedan Sporting. Francisco Bruto Da Costa joined East Bengal as the interim assistant manager on 30 July 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown led to the postponement of India's football season. It was announced that the season would start on 1 August 2020 and would continue until 31 May 2021.
Indian Super League entry The club's previous club investor, Quess Corp, announced in Autumn 2019 that they would leave the joint venture at the end of the season. In January 2020, arch-rivals, Mohun Bagan entered the Indian Super League (ISL), the new top tier of Indian Football, by merging with the defending ISL champions ATK, adding pressure on the club on top of its financial woes. The club began searching for potential investors. Back in 2018, it chose Quess to participate in the ISL, but that did not materialise. There were rumours the club would merge with the Bhubaneshwar-based ISL club, Odisha FC, but the club owner denied them. In March, during the ongoing 2019-20 I-League, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown began halting everything. Quess unilaterally activated the force majeure clause and terminated all players' and staff' contracts a month before the official exit on 1 May 2020. This was the first time the clause was activated in Indian football. It was rumoured that American consumer goods company Procter & Gamble would be the principal sponsor of the club and with them, EB would play in the ISL.
After the football season was declared complete, the club signed around 20 players to precontracts for the following season, but all of them were considered void, as the club did not have the sporting rights to compete in any league. In June, AIFF asked about the club's ownership status post-Quess separation for club licensing criteria, or East Bengal might not be able to play in any recognised tournament. The final termination, No Objection Certificate and sporting right transfer was delayed, but on 17 July, the joint venture with Quess East Bengal Pvt. Ltd was officially terminated, and the club got back the sporting rights from the firm . In the meantime, the former owner of Punjab FC, Ranjit Bajaj, expressed interest in buying the 70% outstanding shares. That month, a Singapore-based company, USEL also showed an interest in the club but later backed off because of uncertainty of playing in the ISL. By the end of July, Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), unofficially stated there would be no expansion in the seventh season during a meeting with the ten ISL clubs. Club officials asked FSDL to consider the club's participation in this season and allow more time for the team to finalise its investors. The players of East Bengal's ASEAN Club Championship-winning team wrote to the club saying its priority should be to support COVID-19-affected people and not playing in the ISL. This led to a controversy in the club. After the club's foundation day, AIFF secretary, Kushal Das aroused speculation over EB joining the ISL saying, "I want to say nothing is impossible. What steps East Bengal should take – I think it is very important that you have to change with time, you have to get professional people. You have to have different departments. You need to have a sponsor servicing department. The fact that Quess and East Bengal had to part ways was not a good thing." On the 1 August, the club's assistant general secretary said on a chat show, "Whenever it is possible, we will play in the ISL. But we cannot say when we can join ISL. It is a legacy club and it has its heritage. But we have to change ourselves a bit and we are trying to reach that point and when that happens we will join ISL. But we cannot say when it will happen.” On 12 August, the expansion of the I-League was announced and AIFF vice-president mentioned 12 teams in the league which included East Bengal. This increased speculation further.
On 2 September 2020, the club and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced at the state secretariat Nabanna that Kolkata-based firm Shree Cement was the club's new investor. The next day, FSDL invited bids for interested clubs from Delhi, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Siliguri and Bhopal. On 15 September, the club officially confirmed that they had submitted their bid papers for entry to the 2020–21 Indian Super League. The participation of East Bengal in the ISL was also unofficially confirmed. The club was rebranded as Sporting Club East Bengal. On 27 September, FSDL announced East Bengal's move from the I-League to the Indian Super League for the 2020–21 season.
After entering the Indian Super League The club announced former India captain Renedy Singh would be the team's new assistant coach and Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler was signed as the team's new head coach on 9 October. He would be assisted by Anthony Grant, who was alongside him at Brisbane Roar last season. The backroom staff would include former Tottenham Hotspurs' goalkeeper Bobby Mimms as the goalkeeper coach, and former Blackpool manager Terry McPhillips as the set-piece coach. Robbie Fowler would be assisted by Michael Harding, the former physio of Newcastle United. Jack Inman, Former sports scientist from Bury, and Joseph Walmsley, an analyst from Preston North End joined management. The team became the first club in India to appoint a set-piece coach.
East Bengal announced the signing of Australian defender Scott Neville on loan from Brisbane Roar for the season as their first official signing. He was also to be registered as the Asian foreigner for the Indian Super League campaign. SC East Bengal announced the signing of four more foreigners: Aaron Amadi-Holloway from Brisbane Roar, Anthony Pilkington and Danny Fox from Wigan Athletic and Matti Steinmann from Wellington Phoenix. The club announced the signing of the India national football team forward Jeje Lalpekhlua for the season. On 19 October, East Bengal announced the signing of their sixth foreigner, Congolese winger Jacques Maghoma, who had played for EFL Championship side Birmingham City in the previous season. The club announced the signing of former left-back Narayan Das from Odisha.
During an online interaction on the club's social media, coach Robbie Fowler said: "We will look to develop a competitive team and try and develop Indian talent as well. We all hope the league can get better, the ISL and as management, we think we can better." Later, the team management hired sports psychologist Nicola McCalliog to assist the team for the season. McCalliog had previously worked with several English Premier League sides and was also the Head of Player Welfare and Psychology at the Robbie Fowler Academy.
Transfers
Incoming