East Bengal have appointed Franciso Jose Bruto Da Costa as their coach for the next season. Da Costa will replace last season’s interim coach Mario Rivera, under whose guidance the Red and Gold brigade had finished runner-up in I-League.

“East Bengal is delighted to confirm the signing of new coach Francisco Jose Bruto Da Costa,” the club said in a late night announcement on Wednesday on their official Twitter handle.

Da Costa has served as the assistant manager of the Malaysian national team. He was also Nelo Vingada’s deputy at the NorthEast United FC in the 2016 season.

Meanwhile, amid speculations of who their new investors will be, the Kolkata giants are all likely to miss the chance to enter the Indian Super League (ISL) in the upcoming season.

The development became quite evident after FSDL’s meeting with ISL clubs last week where the organisers presented the plan for the season featuring the ten teams.

FSDL’s presentation to the clubs made it quite clear that the upcoming ISL season will be played with the ten teams as last year and there is no scope of an extension of teams as far as 2020-21 season is concerned. FSDL is looking at starting the season — a curtailed four month competition due to COVID-19 scenario — from the third week of November.

East Bengal, who have got back their sporting rights in football-related affairs from their former investors Quess Corp after a lot of dilly-dallying from the latter, have repeatedly sounded optimistic about playing in the country’s top tier league this season.

But according to well placed sources in the know, the red and gold club arrived too late to the party and even if they rope in a sponsor/investor in near time, it will take them atleast 6-8 months to get the legalities sorted and get the ball rolling.

East Bengal officials had earlier even met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna to discuss about the club’s new investors.

The club has also been handed a lifeline by All India Football Federation (AIFF) as the governing body of football in the country decided to extend the I-League outfit’s deadline on the Club Licensing process till Friday.

With IANS inputs