Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: With the last matches of the Super Six to determine the championship of the Kolkata Football League remaining, the IFA has announced the schedule of the 2026 Shield. Kolkata's two major teams, Mohun Bagan Super Giant and East Bengal, are in two different groups. Each group has three teams. In Group A, East Bengal has been placed with Kolkata's third major Mohammedan and a team from another state, Punjab FC. In Group B, Mohun Bagan Super Giant has Srinidhi Deccan and North East United.
In the proposed schedule, the Shield starts on September 22 with the East Bengal-Mohammedan match. However, the schedule does not mention the venue where the match will be played. Although the match date against Mohammedan and Punjab FC in Group A is September 25, no venue has been specified in this case. East Bengal and Punjab FC will face each other at the East Bengal ground in the last match of the group on September 28.
In the first match in Group A, Mohun Bagan Super Giants and Srinidhi Deccan will face each other at the Mohun Bagan ground on September 23. In the second match, Srinidhi Deccan and North East United will face each other on September 26. However, the venue for this match is not mentioned in the schedule for now. Mohun Bagan Super Giants and North East United will fight in the last match of the group on September 29 at the Mohun Bagan ground.
The first two ranked teams from the two groups will play in the semi-finals. Although the proposed schedule mentions the Mohun Bagan and East Bengal grounds for the Mohun Bagan and East Bengal matches, there is no mention of any venue for Mohammedan, Mohammedan's own or other matches. However, from what is known, the IFA is trying to hold the remaining matches at the Kishore Bharati Sports Ground. Secretary Anirban Dutta is in talks with the state Sports Ministry regarding this. It can be said for sure that since the Indian team has matches against Brazil on October 3 and Uruguay on October 6 at Yuva Bharti, it is not possible to get a ground for any other match there till then. For this reason, although the date of the Shield semi-final has been given on October 2, the ground is not mentioned in the proposed schedule. And since if the Shield final is a Kolkata derby, the IFA is not going to announce the date of the final in advance keeping that in mind. Because in that case, the match may have to be played at Yuva Bharti, which is not possible except after October 6.
Meanwhile, on September 19, 5 teams will compete to win the league title at the grounds of Barrackpore, Barasat and Kalyani. Coal India is not in the title race. After losing the first match by a big margin to Mohun Bagan Super Giant, they also lost the second match by 0-3 goals to Bhavanipur on Tuesday. Naturally, the teams in the running to win the league are Mohun Bagan Super Giant (4 points from 2 matches), East Bengal (2 points from 2 matches), Mohammedan (4 points from 2 matches), Bhavanipur (3 points from 2 matches) and United Sports (2 points from 2 matches). Mohun Bagan will face Mohammedan in the last match. Mohun Bagan is in a much better position than Mohammedan on goal difference. East Bengal's opponent is Coal India. And Bhavanipur's fight is against United Sports. The other 3 teams will be looking at the result of the Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan match, even if they win the match themselves. Because if one of Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan wins, that team will automatically become the champion with 7 points. But if the match is drawn, any team will have a chance to become the champion in front of them in various numbers.