The much anticipated Hero Indian Super League (ISL) finally kicked off yesterday in a glittering ceremony in Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium.
In a country obsessed with cricket, the ISL is being looked upon as the tournament which could change the fortunes of the Beautiful Game in the second most populous nation in the world.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter called India a ‘sleeping giant’ when he was there in 2007. However, a majority of fans would believe that the sport is still in deep coma. Ranked 100th in the world when the FIFA Rankings were first introduced in 1993, India has continued to remain in a freefall, and is now 158th among 208 nations.
Barring a few pockets in the country – West Bengal and the north eastern states, Kerala in the south and Goa in the west – interest dwindled to a bare minimum.
The situation is changing slowly, especially as the millennials started getting interested in the various leagues around the world. Football is now the third most watched sport in India after cricket and wrestling (mainly WWE and UFC).
According to a TAM (Television Audience Measurement) report, football attracted 108 million male viewers above the age of 15 in 2013, which compares well to 227.5 million for cricket. And yet, 94.4 per cent viewers only tuned in to international leagues and tournaments like the European Championship.
What is very evident though is that there has never really been an organised push for the sport in India. The national tournaments were held just because they needed to be, and there were no new initiatives on the part of the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
The first real impetus came in 2007, when the AIFF finally decided to revamp the National Football League and create what is now known as the I-League.
And then, in 2010, they signed a $140 million (Dh514m) deal with IMG-Reliance, which introduced new thinking and ideas in the organisation.
That agreement gave IMG-Reliance all commercial rights to professional football in India. And the ISL, which has been talked about for almost three years now, is their brainchild – obviously borrowed heavily from the successful model of Indian Premier League (IPL).
Apart from IMG and Reliance, the tournament is promoted by AIFF and STAR Sports, the Rupert Murdoch-owned broadcast company that has shown tremendous interest in acquiring Indian sport rights. Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest manufacturers of two-wheelers, have been signed up as the title sponsor for the first three years, reportedly paying Rs500 million ($8.3m, Dh30m).
The Hero Indian Super League will feature eight franchises and has rolled out a 61-match schedule over a period of 70 days. The top four teams in the league will advance to the semi-finals and the final is slated for December 20.
The stated mission of the ISL is ‘to engender an entertaining and high-quality football league that engages hundreds of millions of fans, drives improvement in playing standards and delivers value for all partners’, while the vision is ‘for India to become a global football power and qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup’.
Although there are more doomsayers at the moment, a better picture of the impact of ISL on Indian football will only emerge after a couple of years. But what cannot be denied is that football has become a part of daily conversation and a new initiative like this is surely ramping up the interest of corporate houses in the sport, which is a fantastic beginning.
What the ISL is doing right
There are two things India is crazy about – cricket and Bollywood movies. And realising it is a much better option to use these two to grow rather than struggle and compete against them, the ISL has embraced both.
Past and present cricketers and some of the leading Bollywood stars have been drafted in as co-owners of the teams. So, you have Sachin Tendulkar with Kerala Blasters FC and Mahendra Singh Dhoni as co-owner of Chennai-based Chennaiyin FC, as well as superstar actors like Hrithik Roshan (FC Pune City), Ranbir Kapoor (Mumbai City FC) and John Abraham (Northeast United). Most of these celebrities are putting in sweat equity, although some reports suggest that former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly (Atletico de Kolkata) and Abraham have also invested money into their teams. (See box on team owners)
The involvement of these stars has not only raised the profiles of the teams, it has also made it an attractive proposition for corporate houses to associate with them.
Secondly, the organisers have made it mandatory for each franchisee to spend Rs20 million ($326,000, Dh1.2m) on grassroot development in their cities. Already, plans are in place for an Atletico Madrid academy in Kolkata, and development programmes involving two of India’s football stars – Bhaichung Bhutia and Sunil Chhetri.
Kushal Das, AIFF general secretary, said: “I hope this will go a long way towards the development of professional football in India. It hasn’t been easy… we have suffered from a lack of money, lack of visibility, lack of infrastructure. And we do not have iconic players.
“But with this new league, people in India are getting interested, everyone has heard about it.”
The tie-up with STAR Sports is another huge step, given their enormous reach into the Indian household and the brilliant ways in which they promote their properties.
While STAR is not paying any right fee for the association, they have a 35 per cent stake in ISL and have committed an investment of around Rs20 billion ($326m) towards the league, including television production expenses.
The finances
The organisers are tight-lipped about the finances involved, but they have revealed that each franchisee have paid close to $25 million to own the team for a period of 10 years.
The franchisees would be spending, on an average, close to Rs400 million ($6.5m) per year on the team, including players and staff salary, travel and accommodation.
Their revenue streams would include localised team sponsorships, ticket sales, merchandise and earnings from the centralised revenue. With STAR Sports not paying any right fee, bulk of the central revenue will come from the profits realised by the broadcasters and sponsorships.
A week ago, ISL announced it had signed up six brands as sponsors and partners for the league. Again, no figures were divulged, but an industry insider pitched it to be in the range of Rs20 to Rs50 million ($326,000 to $816,000), apart from television spends by them.
These companies are car makers Maruti Suzuki, which came in as the associate sponsor, Amul, Pepsi, Puma, Muthoot Finance and Dr Reddy’s – six cash-rich and diverse businesses.
Jefferson Slack, senior vice president (global business development – football) of IMG, believes that the ISL franchisees will be able to break even by the fourth season, but Kolkata owner Ganguly wasn’t so sure.
“We are projecting that by year three or four, there would be operation break-even for the franchisees. I think some of them are already doing ahead on the sponsorships which is good,” Slack said.
And ahead of their opening match on Sunday, Ganguly said: “I don’t know when we will break even, doesn’t seem so in the near future. There is also a possibility we may never break even. Nobody knows what the future has got in store for any sport in India, other than cricket.
“That is why I say this is not just about money. Hopefully, there will be a future in this.”
