KOLKATA: LaLiga’s India head Jose Antonio Cachaza has opined that reaching out to fans through digital platforms and public viewings are LaLiga’s main focus areas.
“We are here to reach out to our large following. We have been successful – in the last one year we have reached from 800,000 to 2.5 million,” Cachaza said in a media interaction here Monday.
Further, as part of its efforts to connect with the fans and spread its activities in India, LaLiga is planning to hold some matches in the country soon.
“LaLiga has its LaLiga World Challenge. Of course, India is clearly in our sights. Not just in Australia, but it is there in Malaysia, China, US, Mexico, Argentina – all over the place. Hopefully, soon we will be giving good news about bringing La Liga teams here,” Cachaza told Sportstar.
Cachaza said the next step of development for LaLiga would be to expand its activities beyond Delhi and Mumbai. “Kolkata is the capital of football in India. We have plans to bring some LaLiga excitement to Kolkata in the future. We have done it Delhi and Mumbai and are starting to develop our contacts here,” he said.
Speaking about the parting of ways between two-time Indian Super League champions ATK with Atletico Madrid, Cachaza rather than calling it off entirely, the ISL franchise should look to work on their partnership with the LaLiga giants.
ATK was previously named as Atletico de Kolkata, before its co-owner Sanjiv Goenka announced that their partnership with the Spanish club was terminated.
Cachaza suggested that the move was a crucial factor in the team finishing at the bottom half of the table last season, a year after winning the title.
“They went from being champions with the Spanish model and (when they said) ‘we go British’, they were almost last. This is not good news. Whatever problem they have with Atletico Madrid, they should solve it. I think it is a huge mistake to say ‘I don’t want to know anything about Spanish football now’. It proved to be a huge mistake on the pitch. Given the characteristics of Indian players, the physical British game is not the best,” Antonio told Hindustan Times.
For Cachaza though, the decision dented LaLiga’s plans to expand its presence in India to a huge extent.
“Had the relationship stayed, it would have been better for us. Theirs would have been a strong presence and it would have been a strong relationship for us… What we will have to do is try to understand what happened and avoid making the same mistake,” Antonio told HT.
However, Cachaza did not consider ATK’s move hampering ISL as a brand, believing that the tournament needs to grow organically in the first place by attracting fans to the stadiums.
“The ISL needs to grow organically and you need to give it time. It needs European know-how and not branding. If we can help them, we will,” he noted.
