BCCI President Sourav Ganguly may find himself in a conflict of interest issue as the co-owner of a football team along with Sanjiv Goenka whose RPSG Ventures Ltd made a successful bid of Rs 7,090 crore for the Lucknow IPL franchise at the high-stakes auction in Dubai on Monday.

Sourav Ganguly is listed as a member of its Board of Directors with Goenka as chairman on the official website of the Indian Super League (ISL) football club ATK Mohun Bagan.

“The team was owned by Kolkata Games and Sports Pvt. Ltd. consisting of former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, alongside businessmen Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, and Utsav Parekh,” the website states.

A senior BCCI member confirmed to the Indian Express that it was “a clear case of conflict”.

“Ganguly is the president, he needs to understand. This is not the first time that he has been in this situation,” the member said.

In an interview Tuesday with CNBC TV18, responding to a question on whether his association with Ganguly could raise a potential conflict of interest, Goenka said: “Well, I think he (Ganguly) is going to step down from Mohun Bagan completely.”

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Even if Ganguly steps away from the football club, questions may still be raised over his connection in the franchise auction process as BCCI president despite his football association with one of the bidders. Ganguly has been BCCI president since 2019 and has a say in all important decisions taken by the board.

This is not the first time the former India captain has found himself in hot waters with the conflict of interest issue.

Last year, he had put out an Instagram post wearing a JSW Cement (Jindal Steel Works) T-shirt and claiming to be “at work” as the company’s brand ambassador.

JSW Sports, a wing of the business conglomerate JSW Group, is the joint owner of IPL’s Delhi Capitals. He was also the mentor of the Delhi Capitals IPL team which is partially owned by JSW.

At that time, Ganguly had insisted that his new role as the brand ambassador of JSW Cement did not overlap with his duties as BCCI president.

(Indian Express inputs)