Advent of Indian Soccer League (ISL) has created new energy in the football sports. In India, if cricket is considered as a religion due to its popularity, then football is the largest played sports. After cricket, the economics of the business of football is multiplying day by day. Business of players’ representation, running five alike small football grounds academy, conducting football matches and championships, creating leagues at different levels are some of the big business around football sports.
Knowledge about economies of scale and mergers, setting up of ticketing in the matches, pricing of players, advertising, media rights in and around events are the new areas, which are gaining importance in the business of football sports.
Almost all the top football clubs from Europe have already set up their business in India. They understand the importance of fan based popularity of their players and clubs in India. If some of them started training at grassroot level then others have invested in ISL teams. These have helped Indian football to adopt best international practices.
Learning from the world’s popular events, leagues and best practices are critical, which needs to be implemented across India. Events and business around smaller playgrounds are in vogue but at the same time there are legislative and regulatory issues which need to be addressed at various levels. Similarly, big events like Soccerex to provide a learning platform at economic prices is also equally important in India.
Hence, to provide a platform to discuss and conduct various activities, CSRI has a plan to set up this vertical.