Lionel Messi may have duly mesmerised the crowds at the massive Yuva Bharati Krirangan Stadium at Salt Lake, Kolkata. But anyone hoping for the resurgence of football in India from the first international friendly to be hosted in the country would have been disappointed. For a match that had some sumptuous global talent on display — fans also got to watch Javier Mascherano, Angel Di Maria, Pablo Zabaleta, Gonzalo Higuain, and Sergio Aguero — fully 30 per cent of this stadium, with a capacity of 120,000, the world’s second largest, was empty. And the only big-ticket sponsor the organisers were able to rustle up was Pepsi. Otherwise, it was two Kolkata-based companies who picked up the tab. The organisers, the Celebrity Management Group (CMG), managed to earn revenues of Rs 16 crore from a mix of broadcasting rights, sponsorship money and gate money. This, however, is Rs 4 crore less than its target. CMG says it is delighted since the Rs 8 crore ticketing revenues was more than double the Rs 2.5 crore that it earned from an Indian Premier League match starring local team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) last year. But the comparison is not strictly valid: the international football friendly was a one-off; IPL matches occur on a regular basis. So, as anyone will attest, cricket continues to assert its stranglehold on the Indian sports fan.
The reason sports administrators should be worried about this trend is that football has the potential to be a far more socially transformational activity than cricket. The reasons are obvious: unlike cricket, a talented footballer requires little infrastructure beyond a ball and an empty field. A socio-economic profile of any leading team in Europe, centre of global football, will show how boys from poor backgrounds have become millionaires. No surprise, then, that some 265 million men and women choose to play the game today, according to global association Fifa’s Big Count. When countries in Latin America, which fall in the same economic grouping as India, and those in Africa, which fall well below it, can produce a seemingly endless supply of talent for the European clubs, it is inconceivable that India cannot. Although some Indian corporate groups — Tata, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Bharati — have been enlightened enough to launch programmes to promote young talent, the general disinterest among corporate India and the government is palpable. Except for a few years when the ailing Priya Ranjan Das Munshi was at its head — the expansion of the Salt Lake stadium was his initiative and the Indian team recorded some success in top Asian tournaments — the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has existed in a state of disorganised animation. Evidence can be seen in the numbers alone. According to Fifa, India has 20.6 million footballers; only 384,900 of these are registered, meaning they get to play for some organised club and earn a modicum of income. And India, which did not get past the first round of Asian qualifiers for the World Cup, can boast a ranking of 158 (behind Palestine at 157!) out of 203 countries. Going by his record, AIFF’s current head, minister for heavy industries Praful Patel is unlikely to initiate radically useful change. Yet Fifa chief Sepp Blatter has been exhorting Indians to develop talent, as a result of which two “Goal” programmes have been implemented with limited results. But Liverpool has actually set up an academy to promote local talent piloted by legends like Ian Rush and Steve McMahon. Have these foreigners spotted an opportunity that corporate India is missing?
