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Rs 700 crore boost for Indian football

In a major development on the Indian football circuit, the All India Football Federation has inked a whopping 15 year- Rs. 700 Crore agreement with private partners IMG-RIL. The AIFF confirmed on the sidelines of their Annual General Body Meeting on Thursday. A 15-year agreement took place between both parties where IMG-RIL is handed the responsibility to carry out promotion, broadcasting and infrastructure development, which will lay additional impetus upon bestowing world class facilities for the grass root level in India.

AIFF’s previous partner was Zee Sports, who still had five of a ten years contract remaining. However IMG-RIL had given a buyout amount of Rs 70 crore for Zee to exit before the expiry of their agreement. Admiting that football had not developed in the manner expected under Zee, Praful Patel the president of the AIFF said, “We felt the need that Indian football requires a much stronger partner that can invest a lot in the development of football in India. Our cooperation with Zee has been really fruitful but somewhere it could not fulfill what we desired. With IMG-RIL coming into the picture, I am confident we will witness real development of football in India”.

While Zee was also the broadcasting partner of the AIFF, IMG will deal in arranging all these dimensions for the football body. The ongoing I-League, which has completed its second round without a title sponsor, might well turn out into a transformed edition for the next round. “For the first time, we were without a title sponsor the best football leagues in India. It was a phase, finally things look pretty sorted. You might see the I-League with a new name— basically, it depends on what IMG-RIL decides to do with the existing structure,” explained Patel.

He also clarified that while the AIFF was doing its best to promote football by providing better facilities to the players and sending them to foreign countries for advanced training, the deal would also enable AIFF to concentrate on its main role as a governing body for football in the country. “IMG-RIL is already doing a wonderful job of selecting players and sending them to train in foreign countries. We can expect that Indian players would now be able to get similar facilities in India,” said Patel.

Patel also confirmed that AIFF has succeeded in its talks with the authorities over the development and construction of new stadiums. The deal seems to be a good one for the Indian football— which hasn’t been a force on the world map— and might well be the stepping stone that the country needs.