The phenomenon known as football or soccer is the most popular sport all over the world. Unlike any other sport, football is truly an international sport and is played in virtually every country. From Russia to Uruguay, each country can put up 11 players to play for world cup qualifiers. The extravagant life styles and the mind-boggling salaries per week of the players bring the charisma and celebrity status to the game. Player reputations on and off the pitch keep the fans totally involved in the game. The sport arouses passion and intense emotions among the fans. How many times have we seen the outcome of a game influenced by the enthusiasm of the fans!
What helps is that the rules are easy to follow, even for the newbies (except offside may be, which even the officials don’t get right on numerous occasions). To play, you just need a ball and a few players and an open space to kick the ball around. The game is played with very little breaks and at a quick and constant pace. There are different strategies with which the teams play the game and there is no limit to which one can improve in the game. At the highest level, the fluid effortless passing, aka the Tiki-Taka[/i], is a real treat to watch. Fame, money, scandals, controversies, passion or excitement- be it anything, this sport has something for everyone.
There are international events like the World Cup (an average of 400 million viewers watched each match in the 2010 WC) and then there are domestic leagues like the EPL, La Liga (Spanish League) which are as competitive and fierce as anything could be. The leagues allow players from different cultures and countries to play as a team on a level surface. It is a team sport in the true sense. There is a lot of fan following for the European clubs, both inside and outside Europe. Fans associate themselves with the identity and history of the club and relate to the way the game is played at the club.
Strategies- On and off the field
It is quite interesting how these clubs are managed- be it the way they play or financially. Each club has a sports strategy that influences the way the game is managed at the club. The sports strategy might depend on the management and the current flock of players at disposal. Continuity in management plays an important role in whether a club sticks to its long term ambitions for the team, independent of the performances on the pitch. So, a club might want to develop the young players of its youth academy and be more interested in building a team over the course of 3-4 years may be (the present Arsenal team or Barcelona during 2000-2003).While another club might be just interested in short term success like winning trophies and buying established star players (The Galáctico era at Real Madrid).
Besides this, there are a lot of business strategies to generate funds to fuel the domestic structure of any football association. The business strategy of a club usually doesn’t interest the fans or influence the playing strategy in the short run. As the sport has become more and more commercialized, gone are the days when the match day or season tickets were the only source of revenue for a club. Before TV and the Internet revolutionized the way the game was watched- keeping the interest of the fans in the club by winning trophies was paramount to the financial stability of the club, as loss of viewer/fan interest would reflect in lesser revenues from match day and season tickets. Now, broadcasting rights, sponsorships, merchandising distribution and licenses are the key source of finances for a club. So, Real Madrid, despite not winning anything from 2003-2006, was crowned the richest football club in the world.
While the two strategies may seem quite distinct in nature and purpose, a closer analysis will tell us that in the long run, the former heavily depends on the latter. The player’s and sporting staff’s wages and transfer activity of a club is entirely dependent on the funds a club has at its disposal. Many clubs get a part of these from the broadcasting and sponsorship rights, while the major part may be funded from the short and long term debts. Though a sound financial condition necessarily does not guarantee trophies, it is quite critical to maintain sporting success. Financial stability might not affect the short term success of a club but it clearly decides how the club performs over the years. We have had so many examples, where a club once at the pinnacle of the sport got bankrupt and was relegated to play in the lower leagues (Leeds United, for example).
Indian Football- The Sleeping Giant
Bringing these observations and facts into the perspective of Indian Football, the situation clearly seems quite miserable. The AIFF does not have proper funds to maintain decent sporting facilities and to ensure that the current squad performs better than before; leave aside developing the game at the grass root level. Most of the time these organizations and the sports enthusiasts take shelter beneath the popularity of cricket to avert the focus from the negligence on part of the government and poor management by the football organizations. Other issues like unacceptable infrastructure and no system for the development of youth are discussed, only to be forgotten later. The game has been marginalized to a few parts of Bengal and Goa. In the other parts, it lacks the intensity and quality to attract the fans. It is a matter of shame that a country with a population of over a billion cannot even field a playing eleven that we can hope will at least put a decent show at the international stage. Ranked at 145, we must take inspiration from the success of smaller countries like Trinidad or our Asian counterparts like Korea and Japan.
In fact, we can learn from how cricket over the span of just over 20 years has become the most popular sport in the country. Agreed that winning the 1983 Cricket WC and its broadcast, a first of such kind, on the TV helped the cause, but the contributions and initiatives of BCCI in making the sport popular, commercial and strengthening the domestic structure to develop more top quality players cannot be overlooked. The focused business strategies of the Board have clearly made the evolution faster. The AIFF has a similar duty to perform if Football has to be made popular in India.
Restructuring of football has to be done at the grass root level. Football camps for school and college kids must be started all over India. We notice that every state does not have football clubs. The next step should be to ensure that every state has participation in the I-league and each and every club has a proper management staff and sporting facilities. The coverage of the league should be of the top most quality like the coverage of EPL. The longer duration of the contract (15 years) of AIFF with IMG Reliance for the commercial (including sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising and league) rights of the Indian Football is the right step forward. The European leagues are quite popular among the urban youth and this fan base should be increased to grow the awareness and enthusiasm in India towards football as a sport. At the national level, the salaries of the players must be made more lucrative to promote interest among the youth who would like to see professional football as a career. The right management staff must be recruited at the top-most level and enough time must be provided to them to ensure that the sport takes the right course in its evolution in the country.
Even though the situation seems very unfavorable and no recognizable progress has been made over the last few decades, the moment has arrived when we should stop cribbing about how popular Cricket is or how the infrastructure is inadequate in the country or how poor the performance of the team has been in different competitions. Recently there have been some events to cheer about too. Some of the Indian players have gone out to play at a few European clubs. The presence of Soccer in advertisements (Big TV, IDBI) and movies (Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal[/i], for example) hints towards the same. Coca Cola has sponsored the Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy[/i]- a sub-junior level tournament involving 400 districts and 33 states. Most of these changes have been brought about by a few individuals or a big Corporates. What is required is a more collective effort towards the cause.
A sport and a team need the support of its fans to grow and the least we can do is to spread awareness about how enthralling, popular and exciting the game is. Once the sport is recognized and even the delta improvements in it, like SAFF cup 2009 and 2011 AFC Asian Cup, are thoroughly appreciated, only then can we hope that one day we might be able to see a future Maradona or an upcoming CR9 from a small town of Orissa.
What helps is that the rules are easy to follow, even for the newbies (except offside may be, which even the officials don’t get right on numerous occasions). To play, you just need a ball and a few players and an open space to kick the ball around. The game is played with very little breaks and at a quick and constant pace. There are different strategies with which the teams play the game and there is no limit to which one can improve in the game. At the highest level, the fluid effortless passing, aka the Tiki-Taka[/i], is a real treat to watch. Fame, money, scandals, controversies, passion or excitement- be it anything, this sport has something for everyone.
There are international events like the World Cup (an average of 400 million viewers watched each match in the 2010 WC) and then there are domestic leagues like the EPL, La Liga (Spanish League) which are as competitive and fierce as anything could be. The leagues allow players from different cultures and countries to play as a team on a level surface. It is a team sport in the true sense. There is a lot of fan following for the European clubs, both inside and outside Europe. Fans associate themselves with the identity and history of the club and relate to the way the game is played at the club.
Strategies- On and off the field
It is quite interesting how these clubs are managed- be it the way they play or financially. Each club has a sports strategy that influences the way the game is managed at the club. The sports strategy might depend on the management and the current flock of players at disposal. Continuity in management plays an important role in whether a club sticks to its long term ambitions for the team, independent of the performances on the pitch. So, a club might want to develop the young players of its youth academy and be more interested in building a team over the course of 3-4 years may be (the present Arsenal team or Barcelona during 2000-2003).While another club might be just interested in short term success like winning trophies and buying established star players (The Galáctico era at Real Madrid).
Besides this, there are a lot of business strategies to generate funds to fuel the domestic structure of any football association. The business strategy of a club usually doesn’t interest the fans or influence the playing strategy in the short run. As the sport has become more and more commercialized, gone are the days when the match day or season tickets were the only source of revenue for a club. Before TV and the Internet revolutionized the way the game was watched- keeping the interest of the fans in the club by winning trophies was paramount to the financial stability of the club, as loss of viewer/fan interest would reflect in lesser revenues from match day and season tickets. Now, broadcasting rights, sponsorships, merchandising distribution and licenses are the key source of finances for a club. So, Real Madrid, despite not winning anything from 2003-2006, was crowned the richest football club in the world.
While the two strategies may seem quite distinct in nature and purpose, a closer analysis will tell us that in the long run, the former heavily depends on the latter. The player’s and sporting staff’s wages and transfer activity of a club is entirely dependent on the funds a club has at its disposal. Many clubs get a part of these from the broadcasting and sponsorship rights, while the major part may be funded from the short and long term debts. Though a sound financial condition necessarily does not guarantee trophies, it is quite critical to maintain sporting success. Financial stability might not affect the short term success of a club but it clearly decides how the club performs over the years. We have had so many examples, where a club once at the pinnacle of the sport got bankrupt and was relegated to play in the lower leagues (Leeds United, for example).
Indian Football- The Sleeping Giant
Bringing these observations and facts into the perspective of Indian Football, the situation clearly seems quite miserable. The AIFF does not have proper funds to maintain decent sporting facilities and to ensure that the current squad performs better than before; leave aside developing the game at the grass root level. Most of the time these organizations and the sports enthusiasts take shelter beneath the popularity of cricket to avert the focus from the negligence on part of the government and poor management by the football organizations. Other issues like unacceptable infrastructure and no system for the development of youth are discussed, only to be forgotten later. The game has been marginalized to a few parts of Bengal and Goa. In the other parts, it lacks the intensity and quality to attract the fans. It is a matter of shame that a country with a population of over a billion cannot even field a playing eleven that we can hope will at least put a decent show at the international stage. Ranked at 145, we must take inspiration from the success of smaller countries like Trinidad or our Asian counterparts like Korea and Japan.
In fact, we can learn from how cricket over the span of just over 20 years has become the most popular sport in the country. Agreed that winning the 1983 Cricket WC and its broadcast, a first of such kind, on the TV helped the cause, but the contributions and initiatives of BCCI in making the sport popular, commercial and strengthening the domestic structure to develop more top quality players cannot be overlooked. The focused business strategies of the Board have clearly made the evolution faster. The AIFF has a similar duty to perform if Football has to be made popular in India.
Restructuring of football has to be done at the grass root level. Football camps for school and college kids must be started all over India. We notice that every state does not have football clubs. The next step should be to ensure that every state has participation in the I-league and each and every club has a proper management staff and sporting facilities. The coverage of the league should be of the top most quality like the coverage of EPL. The longer duration of the contract (15 years) of AIFF with IMG Reliance for the commercial (including sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising and league) rights of the Indian Football is the right step forward. The European leagues are quite popular among the urban youth and this fan base should be increased to grow the awareness and enthusiasm in India towards football as a sport. At the national level, the salaries of the players must be made more lucrative to promote interest among the youth who would like to see professional football as a career. The right management staff must be recruited at the top-most level and enough time must be provided to them to ensure that the sport takes the right course in its evolution in the country.
Even though the situation seems very unfavorable and no recognizable progress has been made over the last few decades, the moment has arrived when we should stop cribbing about how popular Cricket is or how the infrastructure is inadequate in the country or how poor the performance of the team has been in different competitions. Recently there have been some events to cheer about too. Some of the Indian players have gone out to play at a few European clubs. The presence of Soccer in advertisements (Big TV, IDBI) and movies (Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal[/i], for example) hints towards the same. Coca Cola has sponsored the Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy[/i]- a sub-junior level tournament involving 400 districts and 33 states. Most of these changes have been brought about by a few individuals or a big Corporates. What is required is a more collective effort towards the cause.
A sport and a team need the support of its fans to grow and the least we can do is to spread awareness about how enthralling, popular and exciting the game is. Once the sport is recognized and even the delta improvements in it, like SAFF cup 2009 and 2011 AFC Asian Cup, are thoroughly appreciated, only then can we hope that one day we might be able to see a future Maradona or an upcoming CR9 from a small town of Orissa.