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Wari Athletic Club is an Indian multisports club based in the city of Kolkata,[2] that competes in the Calcutta Football League.[3][4] The club was established in the year 1898 as Wari Club in Dacca in East Bengal (now modern Bangladesh).[5] Following the partition of India, the Calcutta-based members of the club shifted a branch of the club in the city,[1][6] where it continues to participate in the IFA competitions.

Wari AC

Full name	Wari Athletic Club
Founded	1898; 124 years ago (1898) (as Wari Club) 1949; 73 years ago (1949) (as Wari Athletic Club)[1]
Secretary	Indranath Paul
League	Calcutta Premier Division B

History

Formation and journey in Dacca

When the Wellington Club was discontinued, a few of its sports-loving members in 1898 went on to form the Wari Club at Dacca and thus was established the oldest club in Dhaka.[7][5] Zamindar Rai Bahadur Surendranath Roy played a key role in the formation of the club.[8][5] The first success came in 1910 at Cooch Behar, when Wari defeated the British Kings' House club at a tournament.[5] After gaining popularity, the club in 1930, found their playing field at Paltan ground in Dacca. They also had moderate success in the prestigious IFA Shield tournament until 1945.[5]

From 1931, Wari also expanded to other sports like cricket, hockey, tennis, volleyball, table tennis and indoor games.

Later years after partition in Calcutta

Following the partition of India, while the main Wari club remained in Dacca, a branch of the club shifted its operations as Wari Athletic Club in Calcutta by 1949. The founders of the club, Bhupendra Mohan (Pakhi) Sen (played for East Bengal) in 1939), Tejes (Bagha) Shome and Dinesh Dutta were all members of the Dacca Wari Club before the Partition. Through the initiative of the AIFF official Pankaj Gupta, they were inducted into Calcutta Football League third division by 1949. By 1952, they got promoted to First Division[9] and even reached the semi-finals of 1953 IFA Shield. The next year in 1954, Wari AC finished as runners up in the Calcutta Football League.[1] The club achieved fame when they defeated East Bengal 1–0 in the CFL in 1978, which prevented the "red and gold brigade" from retaining the title it won seven times between 1970 and 1977.[10] 1984 season was disastrous for the club as they finished in bottom of the league table consisting of twenty seven teams,[11] and was relegated to third division.[12] In 2003, Wari appointed legendary Iranian-Indian footballer Jamshid Nassiri as its technical director.[13]

After getting promotion from the CFL First Division (third tier) in 2019, the club on 28 July 2022, unveiled their new jerseys and announced new sponsors Maco Chicken and Hotel Royal Bengal, ahead of the CFL Premier Division B kickoff.[14] Wari got relegated to the third tier again in 2022 Premier B season with sixteen points in fourteen matches.[15]

Other departments

Wari AC has its field hockey and cricket divisions since its foundation. Club's cricket team participates in the tournaments of the Cricket Association of Bengal,[16] and competed in First Division League.[17] The hockey team competed in Beighton Cup, one of the oldest field hockey tournaments in the world.

Jersey

Wari AC is among the few clubs playing in CFL whose club name on their official jersey is written in Bengali, compared to most clubs whose name is usually written in English.[18]

Club tent

Wari AC's club tent is situated on Mayo road in West-Coast Paper Maidan in Kolkata Maidan area near Esplanade. In the morning on 1 April 2019, the club tent went up in flame after a fire broke out due to short circuit.[19][20] Four fire engines rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control when damage was done. In April 2022, new club tent was unveiled after a three-year long restoration works.[21][22]

Notable players

The club is known for bringing up talents in Kolkata football. Players like Tushar Rakshit, Ashim Shome, Tapas Shome, Nimai Goswami, Santo Mitra began their playing career in Wari.[10] Legendary goalkeeper Pradyut Barman started his playing career with the club in 1957.[23] Bhabani Ray was one of the earliest known stars of the club who later went on to represent India at the 1970 Asian Games.[20][24] Parimal Dey played for Wari from 1961 to 1963, when Bhaga Som was coach, while Samaresh Chowdhury appeared from 1967 to 1969.[23] Pritam Kotal, who represented India at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, played for Wari until 2010.[25]

Honours

League

• Calcutta Football League
  • Runners-up (1): 1954[1]
• CFL Third Division
  • Champions (1): 1949[26]

Cup

• Trades Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 2005[27]

See also

• History of Indian football
• List of football clubs in India
• Football in Kolkata

References

Further reading

• Mitra, Soumen (1 January 2006). In Search of an Identity: The History of Football in Colonial Calcutta. Kolkata: Dasgupta & Co. Private Ltd. ISBN 978-8182110229. Archived from the original on 21 October 2022.
• Kapadia, Novy (2017). Barefoot to Boots: The Many Lives of Indian Football. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-143-42641-7.
• Martinez, Dolores; Mukharjiim, Projit B (2009). Football: From England to the World: The Many Lives of Indian Football. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-88353-6. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022.
• Dutta, P. L., Memoir of 'Father of Indian Football' Nagendraprasad Sarbadhikary (Calcutta: N. P. Sarbadhikary Memorial Committee, 1944) (hereafter Memoir)
• Majumdar, Boria, Bandyopadhyay, Kausik (2006). Goalless: The Story of a Unique Footballing Nation. Penguin India. ISBN 9780670058747.
• Ghosh, Saurindra Kumar. Krira Samrat Nagendraprasad Sarbadhikary 1869–1940 (Calcutta: N. P. Sarbadhikary Memorial Committee, 1963) (hereafter Krira Samrat).
• Roselli, John. Self Image of Effeteness: Physical Education and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal. Past & Present (journal). 86 (February 1980). p. 121–48.
• Sinha, Mrinalini. Colonial Masculinity, The Manly Englishman and the Effeminate Bengali in the Late Nineteenth Century (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995).
• Mason, Football on the Maidan, p. 144; Dimeo, Football and Politics in Bengal, p. 62.
• Nath, Nirmal (2011). History of Indian Football: Upto 2009–10. Readers Service. ISBN 9788187891963. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022.
• D'Mello, Anthony (1959). Portrait Of Indian Sport. P R Macmillan Limited, London.
• From recreation to competition: Early history of Indian football Archived 9 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine. pp. 124–141. Published online: 6 Aug 2006. www.tandfonline.com. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
• Sharma, Nikhil Paramjit; Gupta, Shantanu (4 February 2019). India's Football Dream. SAGE Publications India. ISBN 9789353283063. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
• Majumdar, Boria; Bandyopadhyay, Kausik (2006). A Social History Of Indian Football: Striving To Score. Routledge. ISBN 9780415348355. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021.
• Basu, Jaydeep (2003). Stories from Indian Football. UBS Publishers' Distributors. ISBN 9788174764546. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022.

External links

• CFL clubs at IFA (archived)

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