NEW DELHI: All India Football Federation president Praful Patel believes that the sport is headed in the right direction in the country. In an interview with Indian Express, he said that the Indian Super League is playing a big part in bringing about this change.
Speaking about the perceived lack of investment in developing the game at the grassroots, Patel told the daily: It’s a chicken and egg situation. Football will grow in India if there is an investment. Earlier, we didn’t even spend Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) annually on Indian football. Now, there is an investment of Rs 1,000 ((Rs 10 billion) crore in Indian football. That money is coming from somewhere, no?”
Asked as to how he arrived at that figure, the businessman politician said: “Yes, if you add everything, Rs 1,000 crore is spent on Indian football in a year. I am talking about the total ecosystem of Indian football. By that, I mean academies, coaches getting jobs, coaches educations, referees, technical. The whole system was very narrow earlier – whatever the 5-10 clubs spent, along with one TFA (Tata Football Academy), that was it. When I took over, it was not even Rs 100 crore. It may still be a speck. But it’s moving, no? People are investing because we are moving in the right direction.”
On charges that he supported the “monied” Indian Super League clubs to the detriment of the I-League, Patel argued: “People criticise ISL but the league brought in big corporates who invested money, television coverage is better than before, clubs are bringing more people to the stadium.
“It’s moving in the right direction. Ultimately, the quality of players will also improve.”
However, the 63-year-old slammed the notion that he ‘sold Indian football’ by accepting big investments by corporate companies and handing them power in return.
“To whom? Who is saying this? It’s a very myopic approach to a large problem,” said Patel. “When you look at the larger picture, has Indian football grown or shrunk? In the larger picture, is Indian football headed in the right direction or not?”
He added: “And what is this ‘sold Indian football’? Does anybody have a solution to undo what has been done in the past? Why should we sell Indian football?”
Patel also explained why he “can’t help it” if football isn’t growing as a sport in smaller cities in India.
“It’s a big problem. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are not able to come up in Indian football. I can’t help it. There are no local sponsors, the local federations have to take more interest. As a federation, you can’t do everything for every state and say that the whole country will function in the same breath,” he said.
