NEW DELHI: Tata Steel sold all its stake in Indian Super League side Jamshedpur FC to Goa-based club Churchill Brothers for a token amount of 100 Indian rupees ($1.05) on Friday, two weeks after the conglomerate announced it was pulling out of the ISL. Twice national league champions Churchill Brothers will take over Jamshedpur’s sporting license to play in the top-flight ISL, and the contracts of 12 players and two coaches, Tata Steel said in a statement. “We are glad that this agreement gives our players and coaches the opportunity to continue playing club football,” D. B. Sundara Ramam, Tata Steel’s vice president of corporate services, said in a statement. Earlier this month, Jamshedpur players issued an emotional plea to the club’s owners to reconsider closing down the club, which won the ISL League Winners’ Shield in 2021-22 and the domestic Super Cup last year. In the following days, Jamshedpur fans took to the streets to appeal to the Tata Group, one of India’s biggest conglomerates, to keep the club going. But Friday’s announcement ended their hopes. The city of Jamshedpur, in the Eastern state of Jharkhand, has lost its sole top-flight team, with Churchill Brothers based in the soccer-mad state of Goa, nearly 2000 km south. Jamshedpur are still playing in the Durand Cup, where they will face Mohun Bagan in the quarter-finals on Monday.
