DERBY DAYS/East Bengal Club v Mohun Bagan AC:It dates to the 1920s, and is one of the oldest rivalries to exist in football and even older than the India-Pakistan cricket duel

THIS WEEKEND’S sporting fixtures have several big city derbies in Europe down for decision, including Barcelona taking on Espanyol and Sporting Lisbon clashing with Benfica. But the biggest rivalry will take place far from the gaze of soccer fans in Europe.

It’s not just Slumdog Millionaire that should have us looking to India this month.

The Kolkata Derby involves two of the strongest teams in India meeting at their shared stadium, the 120,000-capacity Yuva Bharati Krirangan (Salt Lake Stadium) in the I-League, the country’s premier professional division.

The ground has the second-largest capacity in the world – after North Korea’s incredible 150,000 capacity Rungrado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang (incidently, Croke Park ranks 31st in capacity).

Soccer lags behind cricket in the league of the most popular sports in India, but leads the table in many parts of the country, including Kolkata. Formerly known as Calcutta, the city is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and is home to 15 million people. Along with West Bengal, Bangladesh makes up the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal.

Mohun Bagan Athletic Club – India’s oldest soccer club – derives much of its support from the western part of Bengal, with East Bengal Football Club, as the name suggests, finding its fan-base among the people who come from east Bengal (Bangladesh since 1971) – though, like so many other two-club cities in the world, the dividing lines have become blurred in recent years.

Mohun Bagan is, in fact, not only India’s oldest club, but Asia’s too, as the sport was spread in India during the days of the British Empire, though initially games were generally only played between army teams. In fact, league football was being played in Calcutta long before European heavyweights such as Real Madrid or even Manchester United were even born.

Mohun Bagan AC was set up in 1889 and the club achieved notoriety in 1911 when they became the first Indian team to defeat a European side, beating Eastern Yorkshire Regiment 2-1 in the final of the IFA (Indian Football Association) Shield. The IFA Shield is the fourth-oldest club cup competition in world soccer – after the English and the Scottish cups, and the Durand Cup (another Indian competition).

Their city rivals, East Bengal, etched their own piece of history in 1970 when they overcame Iran’s Pas Club in an international club final to become the first Indian club to beat a foreign side since independence.

Next Sunday’s clash between the fierce city rivals will be in round 16 of 22 in the 12-team top-flight of Indian domestic soccer.

This is only the second edition of the I-League, which replaced the National Football League at the beginning of the 2007/08 season.

Mohun Bagan AC have claimed the IFA Shield 22 times, Durand Cup on 16 occasions and the Calcutta Football League 28 times. They also have three NFL crowns.

East Bengal won the IFA Shield 27 times, Durand Cup 16 times and the Calcutta Football League on no fewer than 31 occasions. They also have topped the NFL on three occasions.

In fact, East Bengal FC were the reigning IFA Shield, Durand Cup and the Calcutta Football League champions when an Irishman arrived at the club with his football boots in 1991.

The current head coach of Sporting Fingal, John Devine, was, of course, one of several Irish players who made their home at Arsenal in the 1970s. The Dubliner returned to domestic soccer in Ireland in the late 1980s, and in between helping helping Shamrock Rovers to claim the 1991 FAI Cup and beginning his coaching career at Shelbourne a few seasons later, the defender finished his playing career with East Bengal during the 1991/92 season.

This season, there are four teams from Kolkata competing in the 12-team I-League, though the other two, Mohammedan Sporting Club and Chirag United Sports Club, only gained promotion this season and are minnows in comparison to the giants of Kolkata soccer.

There is a huge drive to promote the newly-formed I-League, which is India’s first serious attempt to create a formidable domestic professional soccer league – worthy of a nation of more than one billion people.

The clubs are required to be run on a professional basis and each side runs an under-19 development team, but the biggest prize is that which is exclusively handed to the winner of the division – a place in the following season’s AFC Champions League, with the runner-up qualifying for the AFC Cup.

Mohun Bagan – who registered their 10th league victory in a row last weekend – are currently sitting in that Champions League spot, 14 points clear of their main city rivals. The pair have already clashed this season in the I-League, with Mohun Bagan being held to a “home” draw last October.

Baichung Bhutia of Mohun Bagan – the captain of the India team – scored inside the first two minutes. But Syed Rahim Nabi equalised just before the interval, and East Bengal held on despite playing the second half with 10 men after a bizarre incident.

Following a foul by Mohun Bagan’s Rakesh Masi on Irungbam Surkumar Singh, the East Bengal player retaliated. Bhutia’s protestations against Surkumars conduct led to the defender slapping the Mohun Bagan goal-scorer (who previously played for East Bengal) across the face. The referee was quick to find his red card, though that didn’t prevent the game being played in an atmosphere of high tension, on and off the pitch.

It has helped raise the temperature even further in the build-up to this weekend’s big derby.