The Bengal football team is an Indian football team representing West Bengal in the Santosh Trophy. They have appeared in the Santosh Trophy finals 43 times, and have won the trophy 31 times,. Prior to 1972, the team competed as 'Bengal'.
Full capacity of these ground are 23,500, 22,000 and 15,000 respectively. Mohun Bagan/CFC Ground has floodlight facilities.
Most of the League Matches of Premier League and First Division are played here. But these grounds are available for Football only during the period from 16 May to 10 January every year.
10 Open Grounds in the Maidan
Only matches of Junior Division and other ordinary competitions are played here. These grounds are available for football only during the period from 16 May to 30 September every year.
Grounds available at various places in Kolkata and Howrah are used for conducting Nursery League Matches. Besides above, small stadiums are also available in almost all the Districts towns and some Sub Divisions. Most important and mentionable stadium is at Siliguri – Kanchenjunga Stadium, where International Tournament like Jawaharlal Nehru Cup was also played. Khardah, Kalyani, Burdwan, Durgapur, Midnapur, Haldia, Malda, Raigunje, Balurghat and a few other District Towns also have Stadium.
Yuva Bharati Krirangan, commonly known as Salt Lake Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal. The stadium is the second largest non-auto racing stadium in the world and the largest in the Indian sub-continent. It is currently used for football matches and athletics. The stadium was built in 1984 and holds 120,000 people in a three-tier configuration. It is situated approximately 10 km to the east of the Kolkata downtown and is elliptical in shape. The roof is made of metal tubes and aluminium sheets and concrete. There are two electronic score boards and control rooms. The lighting is uniformly distributed to facilitate nocturnal sports. There are special arrangements for TV broadcasting. The stadium covers an area of. It was inaugurated in January 1984. The salient features of the stadium are unique synthetic track for athletic meets, electronic scoreboard, main football arena measuring 105m x 70m, elevators, VIP enclosures, peripheral floodlighting arrangement from the roof-top, air conditioned VIP rest room and Conference Hall. Other features of the stadium are also commentary boxes for All India Radio and TV along with several platforms for TV cameras, press boxes, dormitories and AC. rooms, player's changing rooms, practice grounds for football, cricket and khokho, volleyball field and an ultra-medium gymnasium. The stadium has its own water arrangements and standby diesel generation sets. The floodlights which illuminate the stadium consist of 624 bulbs of 2 kW each and two electronic scoreboards consisting of 36,000 bulbs of 25 watt each. The four underground reservoirs have unique fire-fighting arrangements with a capacity of 10,000 gallons. The architectural and structural design of the stadium was the work of the Joint Consultants viz., M/S. Ballardie, Thompson & Matthews Pvt. Ltd. and M/S. H.K. Sen & Associates – both from Kolkata, West Bengal. The track was prepared by Reckortan Tartan Track, Germany. The electronic scoreboards were supplied by Electro Impex of Hungary. After its inauguration in January 1984 with the Jawaharlal Nehru InternationalGold CupSoccer Tournament, the Salt Lake Stadium has hosted several important international tournaments or matches such as The Pre-World Cup Tournament in 1985, Super-Soccers in 1986, 1989, 1991 and 1994, 3rd S.A.F. games in 1987, U.S.S.R. Festival in 1988, Charminar Challenger Trophy in 1992, Jawaharlal Nehru International Gold Cup in 1995. The chief engineer of the stadium is Somnath Ghosh. The stadium also hosts different kinds of cultural programs such as dance and music concerts.