Atlético de Madrid CEO Miguel Ángel Gil has spoken about the club’s lapsed ties with the ISL franchise previously known as Atlético de Kolkata in an interview to the club’s official website.
Gil stressed that since the club was not the majority stakeholder in the Kolkata-based franchise, the situation did not allow the Spanish club to bolster their image in the country through the ISL franchise, where the 2016 UEFA Champions League runners-up held a 25% stake.
He said:
“We are going to promote those franchises where Atlético has the majority of the capital that allows it to be able to develop the image of Atlético de Madrid through its Academy and the work in professional football.
This means putting an immediate stop to the franchise in India, since the majority holder of Atlético Kolkata does not allow the development of the image of Atlético de Madrid through our Academy in India.
India is an incredible country, with a great potential. Atlético has done a great job in Calcutta. We have managed to make Atlético de Madrid loved and recognised, but we need to develop it there, working, in addition to a professional team, with the children, through our Academy. And this is something that we cannot do with the majority shareholder of the franchise. But we want to continue being close to all the fans of Calcutta and of the whole of India.”
He went on to state that Atléti were looking forward to working with Mexican club San Luis de Potosí. Atléti have a majority shareholding, more than 60% in the Mexican second-tier club and Gil felt that having a majority stake would help them implement an Academy at the club.
There have been reports that the Kolkata franchise will be rechristened as just ATK, which could stand for ‘Amar, Tomar Kolkata’, to dissociate from the Spanish club, for the upcoming season.
