Maidan gets its first lady CEO

KOLKATA: In a move that has surely broken the glass ceiling in Indian football, Emami East Bengal on Tuesday named a lady as the chief executive officer of its football team.
“This is to inform you that Emami East Bengal FC Pvt Ltd has appointed Ms. Namrata Parekh as its CEO,” the newly-formed company said in a brief statement.
Although East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have opened door to women administrators in their executive council in the past, no woman has ever been given a leadership role in managing a football team on the Maidan.
Valanka Alemao, hailing from the family which owns Churchill Brothers, has served the Goan club as its CEO. But the 33-year-old Parekh will be the first and only woman CEO of a football team participating in the Indian Super League.
This may be Parekh’s maiden foray into football administration, but she is not unfamiliar with sports management. She is one of the co-founders of a sport marketing and consulting agency and its clients include India cricket coach Rahul Dravid, tennis star Rohan Bopanna, gymnast Dipa Karmakar as well as a few football clubs in India.
Although currently working out of Bhubaneswar and Mumbai, Parekh also has strong roots in football in Bengal, having been brought up in her maternal uncle’s house in south Kolkata.