2014 was a memorable year for Indian football. In this year, the Indian women’s football team won the SAFF Women’s Championship for the third time. Baichung Bhutia, the football icon of Indian football, was honoured with the ‘AFC Hall of Fame Award’ at the Asian Football Confederation’s Annual Awards Night on the occasion of AFC’s 60th Anniversary. Moreover, the Asian Football Confederation recognized the efforts of India in promoting football at the grassroots level by awarding the country the AFC President Recognition Award for Grassroots Football. However, in my opinion, the most important incident that took place in Indian football in 2014, was the Indian Super League (ISL). The league created hype of football among the Indian mass by successfully creating the concept of ‘footballtainment’ which is a combination of football and entertainment.
The
concept of ISL was first introduced by IMG-Reliance, a joint venture between IMG, a subsidiary of the
world’s biggest Sports and Entertainment Company, and Reliance, the biggest and
one of the most successful conglomerates of the country. The All India Football
Federation (AIFF) played an instrumental role in making the league successful
in the inaugural edition.
The first edition of the league is unique in many
respects. It has created a franchisee system in Indian football and attracted
the sporting icons across the globe to participate in the league. It was undoubtedly
a rare opportunity to the Indian football fans to witness the prowess of the
superstars of the world football in India. It was reported that the inaugural
edition of the league was watched by 429 million viewers throughout the country,
which was more than the viewership of the FIFA 2014 Football World Cup. According
to the organizers, 57% of the viewers were women and children. The franchisee-wise
attendance figures are also impressive.
ISL
successfully ropes in commercial partners for making the league commercially
viable. On 18th July
2014, it was announced that the Hero MotoCorp signed a three-year deal with the
ISL to become the title sponsor of the league. It was reported that the title
sponsorship was secured at an approximate amount of INR 20 crores per anum. The
other prominent sponsors of the league are Puma (official ball partner), Muthoot
Capital Services (referee’s jersey), Dr. Reddy's Nise Gel, Amul, Maruti Suzuki and PepsiCo.
The organizers of ISL and the
franchisees are committed to develop football at the grassroots level. ‘ISL Grassroots Football Movement’ is one of these
initiatives, which is introduced with the objective of reaching to millions of
football talents of the country and providing them the best practice available
in global football. The franchises will also start this kind of developmental
initiatives to make an overall change in Indian football.
The first edition of ISL has successful in
attracting the people of India towards Indian football. A new era has already
been introduced. We may hope that the second edition of the league will come
with much more promises for football of this country. This will certainly be a ‘game
changer’ for this sport of India.
Note: An elaborate report on ISL and other events of 2014
is available in my Knowledge Report on ‘Indian Football Yearbook 2014’, jointly
published by Libero Sports and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and
Industries (FICCI) during GOAL 2015.
