Read the explosive Qalam Times report on how Mohammedan Sporting Club was pushed to financial ruin under Amiruddin Babi, sparking an intense movement for accountability.
The Shocking ₹14 Crore Debt of India’s Only Minority Football Institution Sparks an Unprecedented Movement for Ultimate Accountability and Institutional Resurgence
Qalam Times News Network
Kolkata | June 9, 2026
The historic Maidan has witnessed many victories, but today it bleeds from a self-inflicted wound of systemic corruption, political opportunism, and outright betrayal. Mohammedan SC, a 134-year-old monument to the identity, culture, and deep-seated emotions of the Muslim community, has been pushed into a catastrophic financial abyss. With a staggering debt of nearly ₹13.97 crores, the recent dramatic shift in leadership—where MLA Humayun Kabir took over the presidency following the abrupt resignation of Amiruddin Babi—is not just a routine administrative transition. It is the explosive climax of a dark era of institutional plunder. For generations of fans, this crisis has ignited a fierce community movement demanding to know how a priceless cultural asset was systematically hollowed out while its custodians flourished.
The Illusions of Splendor vs. The Reality of Ruin
For months, the previous management hid behind emotional slogans, grand celebrations, and carefully curated photo opportunities. But behind this mask of prestige laid a devastating reality: the process of building a team for the upcoming season has ground to a complete halt, and the club’s very survival is in jeopardy.
While the historic institution was being choked by bad governance, a parallel trajectory of immense wealth accumulation was taking place outside the club gates. The community is now asking the burning questions that the mainstream sports media ignores:
- How did the elite leadership transform themselves into owners of multi-billion empires, boasting luxury hotels, high-rise buildings, and commercial plazas across Kolkata?
- How did public service as a Councillor and Member of the Mayor-in-Council (MMIC) seemingly morph into a lucrative enterprise where every square foot of urban development yielded personal fortunes, while the club was left completely bankrupt?
The Deliberate Alienation of the Millat: A Calculated Betrayal
The ultimate tragedy of this crisis is the deliberate alienation of the Millat (the community), despite the fact that Mohammedan Sporting Club possesses one of the largest and most passionately emotional support bases in Indian football. Its global network of supporters spans influential businessmen, corporate professionals, former players, entrepreneurs, expatriates, and countless ordinary families spread across India and abroad who view the club as a priceless cultural crown jewel.
When Mohammedan SC began sinking into debt, the previous leadership stubbornly refused to leverage this immense collective strength. Today, those spearheading the community movement and millions of devastated supporters are demanding answers to critical questions:
- Why was a transparent, large-scale community fundraising campaign never launched before the crisis escalated to a point of catastrophic ruin?
- Why were millions of dedicated supporters never invited to participate in a collective institutional rescue mission?
- Why were audited accounts, balance sheets, and clear financial roadmaps hidden from the public instead of being presented openly to encourage widespread community participation?
To those fighting for the club’s survival, the answers are painfully clear. Turning to the community for financial backing would have legally and morally required absolute transparency. It would have meant opening up the audited financial statements, balance sheets, and internal registries to strict public scrutiny and exposing years of administrative decay. To avoid this inevitable accountability, the previous regime chose to keep the club isolated, vulnerable, and completely bankrupt—preferring to beg at the doorsteps of corporate investors and political figures rather than face the people. There is a widespread, unshakeable belief that if complete honesty and transparency had been offered, monumental financial support would have emerged from within the community itself, rendering this humiliating debt crisis entirely non-existent.
The desperation has reached such a humiliating peak that the Board of Trustees even floated an alternative plan to bypass the state administration and directly approach the central government for a bailout. For a national minority institution to be used as a pawn in a game of political brinkmanship—especially with assembly elections just months away—is a calculated insult to the club’s historic legacy. It proves that the administrative failures were not just incompetent, but deeply manipulative.
The Mandate for the New Era
Humayun Kabir now steps into a position defined by crisis. While his promise to clear at least half of the debt within two weeks offers a glimmer of hope, he has rightly noted that there is “no Aladdin’s lamp” to erase years of financial destruction overnight. The road ahead cannot be paved with the same political compromises that caused this damage in the first place.
Historical institutions do not perish merely from poor performance on the pitch; they die when they lose the trust of the people. If the new leadership truly wishes to honor the traditions of this great club, it must move past empty rhetoric. The community does not want more celebratory events or political optics. They demand a complete financial audit, total administrative transparency, and an absolute rejection of the parasitic governance that brought India’s greatest minority sporting institution to its knees.
