THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect of the media release issued by Premier Futsal Tuesday is the absence of any mention of brand ambassador Virat Kohli.
The other aspects worth mentioning are the announcement of hurriedly-gathered marquee players and owners for the franchises, which have dropped from the original eight to six for the inaugural edition. All this just three days before the first match of the ‘league’ will be played.
It is no secret that every sport in the country and elsewhere have utilised the template of the successful Indian Premier League (IPL) to start a “league” for their sport. Hence we have innumerable national-level and regional-level leagues being played every week across the country. Each of them, barring a few, have managed to even sustain themselves, some for multiple seasons.
Hence it came as no surprise when, three months ago, Futsal Association of India (FAI), announced a futsal league. And to add weight to the league, they roped in India’s cricket superstar Virat Kohli as the brand ambassador. The alarm bells should have gone up then itself, as this strategy of utilising the brand equity of a superstar sportsman to attract franchise owners has been tried before unsuccessfully.
CONFLICT
What the Premier Futsal organisers and Cornerstone, the management company of Kohli, did not take into consideration was that there was a small ‘conflict of interest’ issue with the All India Football Federation (AIFF). It refused to recognise Premier Futsal, saying that it is the sole governing of body of football and futsal in the country. Premier Futsal responded by saying that it has nothing to do with the AIFF and conducting the tournament is legally permissible. The problem being that Kohli is a co-owner of FC Goa, the football franchise in the Indian Super League (ISL), organised by AIFF.
Who is right here doesn’t matter, but anyone associated with the sports industry in India would know that ‘conflict of interest’ is a very important aspect, even to the Supreme Court of India. This because the BCCI, IPL, Chennai Super Kings and its owner N. Srinivasan have ensured that ‘conflict of interest’ won’t go unnoticed and be tolerated.
It seems that the power of the establishment has prevailed as there is no mention of Kohli anywhere – media release, social media. And to think that just few days ago he released the anthem along with A R Rahman and even tweeted about it.
OVER-CONFIDENCE
However, the Kohli issue would have not been a major impediment in the success of Premier Futsal. What went against them was the over-confidence that appointing Kohli would drive in the necessary interest levels to rope in investors to buy franchises.
As per the initial schedule, franchise sale was to have been completed in early June through a sealed bid process. Franchise owners were to be announced by mid-June. Though that itself would have been late, it would have at least given each franchise 30 days to do the basic aspects related to launching a team — name, logo, jersey, anthem, player camps, logistics, ticket sales etc.
But even then there was just one franchise sold, and everyone connected with sports was being approached for selling teams. What the organisers probably did not take into calculation was that the base price of Rs 100 million per year with a minimum commitment for 5 years for a franchise would not attract enough bidders who were unsure of a new sport. There was also the additional investment for the franchise for execution costs of matches in their city.
Once the process moved from a bidding war to open selling, it was always going to be difficult. It only meant telling potential investors that there were no takers during the bidding process, and that we are willing to negotiate on the franchise fee and even tenure. This meant first finding investors with an interest to buy a team and then waiting patiently as they beat the organisers on price.
All this has finally culminated into six owners announced only yesterday — Mumbai franchise with car designer Dilip Chhabria, Goa and Kochi franchises bought by Viiking Ventures Pvt. Ltd. and Dubai-based Yes Events Management respectively. Kannada film star Puneeth Rajkumar is the owner of the Bengaluru franchise, while the Kolkata franchise was bought by Bengali superstar Jeet. Janani Ramesh of the Hindu Group was the first to pick the Chennai team.
The confidence/over-confidence of the organisers can be seen from the fact that they even had a two-stage bidding process planned. In this, losers in the first stage could actually give a fresh bid at a fixed multiple of the winning bid, and the winners from the first stage could still wrest control back by giving a second bid. All this came to nought as there were no bidders, as is evident now. Even the marquee players were announced with a base price and were to be auctioned after the team owners were finalised.
BUSINESS MODEL
One needs to understand the business model for the current owners as their revenue streams included ticketing, team and ground sponsorships, merchandising, apart from central revenue share. All of this is unlikely to fructify in two days and before one can blink an eye the two-city tournament will be over.
This means the organisers have decided to underwrite a large amount to conduct the event and prove a point to detractors. Rather than focusing on hand-picking interested owners, educating them about the sport and its potential, working with them on a viable business model, it is clear that Premier Futsal tried the age-old tactic of “big-bang” entry by roping in Kohli and trying to entice wannabe sports team owners with his superstar aura.
Riding on Kohli might still have worked, if they had kept the price points affordable and built the format over the years. But the thought of making quick money from one more “league” blinded them from obvious perils associated with such an exercise. It now seems Premier Futsal is left without the services of Kohli and a huge financial hole.
