2003–04 East Bengal FC season
# 2003–04 East Bengal FC season

The 2003–04 season was East Bengal Football Club's 8th season in the National Football League, and also marked the club's 84th season. East Bengal successfully defended their league title from the previous season, competing in the 2003-04 NFL. They have also won the 2003 Calcutta Football League and the 2003 ASEAN Club Championship. They became runners-up in the 2003 Super Cup, 2003 Durand Cup and 2003 IFA Shield.

## First-team squad

East Bengal FC squad for the 2003–04 season.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | GK | IND | Sangram Mukherjee |
| 2 | DF | IND | M Suresh |
| 3 | DF | IND | Deepak Mondal |
| 4 | DF | IND | Mahesh Gawli |
| 5 | MF | IND | Malsawmtluanga |
| 6 | MF | IND | Kulothungan |
| 8 | MF | IND | Sasthi Duley |
| 9 | MF | IND | Alvito D'Cunha |
| 10 | FW | NGA | Mike Okoro |
| 11 | FW | IND | Bijen Singh |
| 12 | FW | IND | Bhaichung Bhutia |
| 13 | GK | IND | Sandip Nandy |
| 14 | MF | IND | Chandan Das |
| 15 | MF | BRA | Douglas Silva |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 16 | DF | IND | Debjit Ghosh |
| 17 | DF | IND | Surkumar Singh (c) |
| 18 | MF | IND | Subhash Chakraborty |
| 19 | FW | IND | Raman Vijayan |
| 22 | DF | NGA | Suley Musah |
| 26 | FW | BRA | Cristiano Júnior |
| — | GK | IND | Arpan Dey |
| — | GK | IND | Jitu Chhetri |
| — | DF | IND | Surya Bikash Chakraborty |
| — | DF | IND | Subhashish Roy Choudhury |
| — | DF | IND | Anit Ghosh |
| — | MF | IND | Dipankar Roy |
| — | MF | IND | Sujoy Dutta |
| — | MF | IND | Arunava Sarkar |
| — | MF | IND | Tushar Rakshit |

* Coach: Subhash Bhowmick
* Physical trainer: Kevin Jackson
* Team doctor: Dr. S R Dasgupta
* Team manager: Swapan Ball

## Stadiums

Kingfisher East Bengal F.C. have been using both the Salt Lake Stadium and the East Bengal Ground sense Salt Lake Stadium opened in 1984. As of today the Salt Lake Stadium is used for East Bengal's I-League, AFC Cup, and Federation Cup games. The East Bengal Ground is used for the Calcutta Football League matches.

## Competitions

### Overall

| Competition | First match | Last match | Final Position |
| - | - | - | - |
| Calcutta Football League | 20 June 2003 | 2 November 2003 | Champions |
| ASEAN Cup | 14 July 2003 | 26 July 2003 | Champions |
| Federation Cup | 31 July 2003 | 4 August 2003 | Quarter Finals |
| IFA Shield | 20 September 2003 | 28 September 2003 | Runners-up |
| Durand Cup | 4 November 2003 | 10 November 2003 | Runners-up |
| Super Cup | 14 November 2003 | 14 November 2003 | Runners-up |
| National Football League | 30 November 2003 | 12 May 2004 | Champions |

## Matches

Win  Draw  Loss

### ASEAN Club Championship

The ASEAN Club Championship is a friendly international football competition between domestic champion clubs sides run by the ASEAN Football Federation. Formerly known as the LG Cup, sponsored by LG Electronics. LG described the competition as a "social marketing experiment". Qualification to the competition was for champions clubs from AFF-affiliated countries only, plus the champions from India in 2003. After winning the 2002–03 National Football League, East Bengal was invited to the inaugural 2003 ASEAN Club Championship held at Jakarta, Indonesia. Top clubs from South-East Asia participated in the tournament which included the favourites BEC Tero Sasana from Thailand who already reached the 2002–03 AFC Champions League Finals. The star-studded team consisted of Golden Ball winner of 2002–03 AFC Champions League: Therdsak Chaiman. Other top teams like 2002 Malaysia Super League Champions Perak FC and Liga Indonesia 2002 Champions Petrokimia Putra participated in the tournament.

East Bengal was grouped alongside BEC Tero Sasana and Philippine Army in Group D. They lost the first match against the favourites BEC Tero Sasana 1–0, courtesy of a solitary goal from Therdsak Chaiman. The Red and Gold brigade bounced back in style as they defeated the Philippine Army 6–0, with Bhaichung Bhutia scoring all 6 goals, becoming the only Indian player to score a double hattrick in an International game to date. In the Quarter Finals, East Bengal faced Persita Tangerang of Indonesia. Goals from Bhaichung and Bijen Singh ensured a 2–1 win for the Kolkata side. Bhaichung was again on the scoresheet when East Bengal faced Petrokimia Putra in the Semi-Final. The score was 1–1 after 120 minutes and the Red and Golds won 7–6 in the shootout. On 26 July 2003, East Bengal made history as they defeated the favourites BEC Tero Sasana 3–1 with goals from Mike Okoro, Bhaichung and Alvito D'Cunha, hence becoming the first Indian club to win a top-level officially recognised tournament in foreign Soil. Bhaichung became the top scorer of the tournament with nine goals. Sandip Nandy was adjudged as the Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament.

**Group stage**

| Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| BEC Tero Sasana | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | +4 | 6 |
| East Bengal | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 3 |
| Philippine Army | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | −9 | 0 |

### Bracket

| Quarter-Finals | Quarter-Finals | Semi-Finals | Semi-Finals | | Final | Final |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 20 July 2003 | 20 July 2003 | | | |
| Petrokimia Putra (a.e.t.) | 3 | | | |
| Petrokimia Putra (a.e.t.) | 3 | 24 July 2003 | 24 July 2003 | | |
| Singapore AF | 2 | 24 July 2003 | 24 July 2003 | |
| Singapore AF | 2 | Petrokimia Putra | 1 (6) | |
| 21 July 2003 | 21 July 2003 | | Petrokimia Putra | 1 (6) | |
| 21 July 2003 | 21 July 2003 | East Bengal | 1 (7) | |
| Persita Tangerang | 1 | East Bengal | 1 (7) | |
| Persita Tangerang | 1 | | | | 26 July 2003 | 26 July 2003 |
| East Bengal | 2 | | | | 26 July 2003 | 26 July 2003 |
| East Bengal | 2 | | | | East Bengal | 3 |
| 20 July 2003 | 20 July 2003 | | | | | East Bengal | 3 |
| 20 July 2003 | 20 July 2003 | | | | BEC Tero Sasana | 1 |
| Perak | 2 | | | | BEC Tero Sasana | 1 |
| Perak | 2 | 24 July 2003 | 24 July 2003 | | | |
| Samart United | 0 | 24 July 2003 | 24 July 2003 | | | |
| Samart United | 0 | Perak | 1 | | | |
| 21 July 2003 | 21 July 2003 | | Perak | 1 | | | |
| 21 July 2003 | 21 July 2003 | BEC Tero Sasana | 3 | |
| BEC Tero Sasana | 2 | BEC Tero Sasana | 3 | |
| Hoàng Anh Gia Lai | 1 | | | |

**Matches**

Win Draw Loss

## Statistics

### Top Scorers

Goal Scorers for East Bengal FC in 2003–04 season :

| Rank | No. | Pos. | Name | CFL | ASEAN | Fed Cup | IFA Shield | Durand Cup | Super Cup | NFL | Total |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 12 | FW | Bhaichung Bhutia | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 32 |
| 2 | 10 | FW | Mike Okoro | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 17 |
| 3 | 26 | FW | Cristiano Júnior | — | — | — | — | — | — | 15 | 15 |
| 4 | 22 | DF | Suley Musah | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 |
| 5 | 6 | MF | Dipankar Roy | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| 6 | 11 | FW | Bijen Singh | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 7 | 9 | MF | Alvito D'Cunha | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 7 | 15 | MF | Douglas De Silva | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| 7 | 5 | MF | Shylo Malsawmtluanga | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| | | | Own Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

## Sponsors

* Main Sponsor: Kingfisher (Parent Company United Breweries Group is 50% stake holder in the club).
