Making a play for the right footfalls
SPORT
| First will come Bayern Munich in July. And now there is news of the English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspurs' likely tour of India. Amidst all this there has been talk about Chelsea, another English club, to promote and develop domestic football in the country. |
| Oliver Kahn, the Bayern Munich goalkeeper who is set to retire at the end of the season, will play his last professional match in Kolkata against Mohun Bagan. |
| Bayern's Asian promotional drive has already featured visits to Japan and China, and this year it will extend to India and Indonesia. |
| While the Spurs haven't confirmed their intentions yet, they too are looking to extend their promotional tour to India in the month of May. They might play an exhibition match against East Bengal. |
| "It's a great sign if world-famous clubs express their desire to play in our country," says Nirvan Shah, head of the Premier Indian Football Academy (PIFA). |
| Shah, through his academy, has tie-ups with clubs like Manchester United, AC Milan and Cruzeiro, and knows that playing against these clubs would give a major fillip to Indian football. |
| "The popularity of these clubs is immense," he says, "and Indian clubs can learn a lot from them on how to develop talent." |
| He feels that this could open a new avenue for Indian football. "We need more foreign clubs to come and there could be exchange programmes where kids can go and spend sometime abroad and learn more." |
| Meanwhile, Chelsea has a four year tie-up with Asian Football Confederation (AFC), under which it has become an official development partner for China. And the club is supposed to be keen on extending it to India as well. |
| Clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid have a huge fan base in Asia and regularly tour countries like Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. |
| "The clubs realise that the potential for football in India is huge and such tours will definitely be profitable for both parties," adds Shah. |
| Indian football needs such measures and hopefully this is the start of something new which would help the development of the game. |