East Bengal Women

Kolkata's women's side went into this season's AFC Women's Champions League and the qualifying round said as much: 12-0 against Guam's Rovers FC, then 2-0 past Sabah FA of Malaysia. Three matches, 18 goals, none conceded.

That run followed a year in which East Bengal took everything in front of them. The Indian Women's League came first, settled 1-0 against Odisha FC in the final. Then the Calcutta Women's Football League. Then, in December, the inaugural SAFF Women's Club Championship, where they beat Nepal's APF FC 3-0 in the final and left the tournament with 16 goals scored and their goal untouched across five matches. No Indian women's club had won it before.

The women's team was set up in 2001, won the competition at the first attempt with a 1-0 win over Mohun Bagan in the final, and was disbanded after the 2001-02 season. The revival came in 2019, the year the men's club turned 100: trials in October, and on 27 December a squad of 21 registered for the 2020 season.

Between those two points sits the 2023 Women's IFA Shield, taken 5-0 from Sreebhumi FC.

Home is the East Bengal Ground, which holds 23,500. When the fixture warrants it the club moves across the city to the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, the Salt Lake Stadium, and its 85,000 seats — red and gold, the colours that gave the Red and Gold Brigade its name.