Boost for Indian football

PANAJI: The All India Football Federation (AIFF), it appears, is gearing up with grandiose plans to speed up the popularity of the game in the country. And the man pushing for that extra acceleration is none other than the one at the helm of the nation's biggest conglomerate, the Reliance Group.
Mukesh Ambani spent close to three hours at the AIFF's executive committee meeting at a five-star hotel in south Mumbai on Saturday as hotshots of IMG-Reliance (a joint venture between Reliance Industries and IMG Worldwide) gave a power-point presentation.
IMG-Reliance have tied up with the AIFF for a 15-year sponsorship and marketing rights deal of all football tournaments and activities organised by the AIFF, including the commercial rights to the national team and the I-League. Also present at the meeting were AIFF president Praful Patel, general secretary Kushal Das, I-League CEO Sunando Dhar, AIFF vice-presidents Subrata Datta and Joaquim Alemao and a huge IMG-Reliance marketing team.
"This was our first big meeting and we exchanged a lot of views on how to take Indian football to the next level.
"Mukesh Ambani was very forthcoming with his views and is keen to popularise the game in the country and conjure up developmental programmes for India to step on to the big stage as early as possible," Kushal Das told TOI.
"We discussed the improvements necessary to make the game more viable, popular and how it could be made as a first-choice sport. We also discussed grounds we need to identify and get them on a long-term lease, changing the timing of the I-League matches and making the venues flood-lit. We need to make it more spectator-friendly," added Das.
According to a source, Ambani, who participated in all the discussions, felt that the AIFF needed to attack the grassroots and take youth development more seriously. "Accelerate coach education. It is a win-win situation for all of us if we start marketing the game aggressively." Get better training facilities and good international-standard stadiums," Ambani is said to have told the gathering.
"Give the clubs and states more money for their role as they are spending a lot to make it a better place for football. They deserve better returns to make up for their expenditure."
Ambani spoke of the 2022 World Cup, to be hosted by Qatar, and said the event should be kept in mind and how "today's generation" was not keen on seeing old films. "Give them something new to throng the stadiums. Make it a TV product and popularise it like the English Premier League (EPL)," he's believed to have told the gathering.