The club is mainly supported by the Bangals, i.e., the immigrant population from the eastern region of Bengal, who were forced to leave their homes (modern-day Bangladesh) during the partition of 1947.

[5] This led to rivalries among the immigrant and native population of West Bengal, popularly named as Bangal (বাঙাল) in every sphere of life, from jobs to schools and even on football, cricket and hockey pitches.

Jorabagan Club sent out their starting eleven but with the notable exclusion of defender Sailesh Bose, who was dropped from the squad for undisclosed reasons.

The then vice-president of Jorabagan Club, Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri, asked in vain for Bose to be included in the line-up.

They formed East Bengal Club as a Sports and Cultural Association in the neighbourhood of Jorabagan on 1 August 1920.

[9] Soon after, Nagen Kali, M. Talukdar, B. Sen, N. Gossain, Goshto Paul (on loan from Mohun Bagan), P. Bardhan, S. Das, S. Tagore, J. Mukherjee, Ramesh Chandra Sen, S. Bose, C. Bose, A. Roy, and A. Bannerjee were announced to be the members of the first team squad by the board.

Indian clubs boycotted the ongoing Calcutta Football League midway through the season.

And the hand holding flame torch (known as 'Mawshal' or 'মশাল' in Bangla) became the club emblem, which has remained to this day.

The founders, while searching, came across the red and gold color shirt hanging at the Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co. department store in Chowringhee, Kolkata.

[6] The men's football team is the most distinguished and revered department of East Bengal Club.

It won the Calcutta Women's Football League title in its inaugural season and was runners-up in 2002.

[20][21] In the first year of relaunch, the East Bengal women's team became runner's up of the 2020 Kanyashree Cup.

The team plays its home matches mostly at the Eden Gardens and Jadavpur University Campus Ground.

[23] Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Ajay Jadeja, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sourav Ganguly have played on the team.

[31] East Bengal also took part in the inaugural season of e-ISL where the ISL teams competed to play the video game FIFA 22.

[34][35] Currently the football rights are with a new merged entity, Emami East Bengal FC Pvt.

The Salt Lake Stadium hosts the home games of East Bengal in the Indian Super League and AFC competitions.

The stadium lies in the Maidan (Kolkata) area on the northern side of Fort William and near the Eden Gardens.

This stadium is used mostly for Calcutta Football League matches and by the academy, women's, and hockey teams.

For many games and seasons Eden Gardens served as the Home ground of the men's football team before the construction of Salt Lake Stadium.