JE Sports Desk: Inter Kashi, the first professional football club from the state of Uttar Pradesh, was launched at the Taj Ganges Hotel in Varanasi on Thursday.
La Liga side Atletico Madrid have returned to league football in India through a partnership with the latest I-League side Inter Kashi, the club announced on Friday.
“Atlético de Madrid has reached an agreement with the RDB Group of Companies to collaborate in its project to create the first national football club in the State of Uttar Pradesh, which will be based in the capital, Varanasi,” the club said in a statement.
Atletico had previously partnered with the Kolkata Games and Sports Pvt. Ltd which is a consortium consisting of former India cricket team’s captain Sourav Ganguly, businessmen Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, and Utsav Parekh to own the Indian Super League (ISL) side Atletico de Kolkata.
Atletico de Madrid in a statement said: “The club is managing the final permits to compete from September in the second division of Indian football, the I-League, while it is already drawing up the first team squad."
“Our club will contribute its long experience in the world of football in the start-up of this new club, both in the sporting part of the first team and in the development of grassroots football with the creation of the Bharat Athletic Academy, since the talents from this state must look to other areas of the country for their football development as there is no club at the national level,” Atletico de Madrid added.
From the 2023-24 season, Indian domestic football will have a chance to promote I-League teams to the ISL. As a result, RoundGlass Punjab, the winner of the I-League last season, will play in the ISL 2023-24.
With the paperwork under process, Inter Kashi will be eligible to compete in the I-League, the second tier of Indian domestic football, from September 2023 and is also preparing a first team for the tournament.
Carlos Santamarina, who has been working in India for four years as head of the project at the Atletico de Madrid academy in partnership with the TATA Group, will be guiding the new club as the Manager.