Interest in domestic football is on the wane. That hasn’t stopped India’s most famous footballer from launching the United Sikkim Football Club. Aabhas Sharma examines the strategy
If anyone has seen how club football works in India, then it has to be Baichung Bhutia. India’s most famous footballer — he has been on the rolls of top clubs like Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and JCT Mills, has played over 100 matches for India, and got the Padma Shri in 2008 — has been around for close to two decades now and understands what it takes to make a football club work, at least on the field. So it was no surprise when, in March this year, he decided to launch his own football club — based out of his native state — called United Sikkim Football Club. “I always had this dream of having a football club and making it an example for others to follow,” says the 34-year-old Indian striker.
But turning a dream into reality is a monumental task, especially in Indian sports. Bhutia acknowledges this and says he is not living under any illusion that his name alone will be enough for the club to work. That’s why he has roped in Fidelisworld, a Dubai-based sports management company run by Navneet Sharma. Sharma, who has worked with IMG and World Sport Nimbus, is aware that the iconic status of Bhutia in the North-east is a big pull. “Football in this region has always been popular and we want to make sure that we build a club which the people of Sikkim are proud of,” he says.
The most visible sign of that pride is the stadium at Namchi, in south Sikkim, named after the footballer. The state, where the majority of the population is Nepalese, has contributed players to various clubs and teams in the past. The people of the hill state are sturdy and football is their favourite sport. United Sikkim will begin its sojourn in the second division of the I-League (the league run by the All-India Football Federation, which replaced the National Football League in 2007-08) and, Bhutia says, there is a three-year plan to make it to the I-League.
It will rely on local talent and will make sure there’s a plan in place to train young players. But the team will have a mix of youth and experience. It has roped in former internationals like Renedy Singh and N S Manju. “Youth development and having a professional structure in place are a must for any football club to succeed in the long term,” says Bhutia. Apart from the top clubs of India, Bhutia, nicknamed the Sikkimese Sniper, also had a tryst with English club FC Bury (1999-2001). “The emphasis over there is on getting young players trained and working hard with them,” says Bhutia — something Indian clubs haven’t been able to do so far.
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There are examples of newly formed clubs doing well. Essel-backed Mumbai FC, which was formed in 2008, has done well in the I-League. Meghalaya-based FC Lajong has done very well in recent years, as well. “There’s no reason why, with sustained effort and long-term vision, we can’t be a big club in the next decade,” says Bhutia.
In fact, Bhutia had launched a club in 2008 along with the Sikkim Football Board. It participated in the amateur leagues in the region. The response that club received from fans was good. “We had a lot of difficulties, though,” says Bhutia. Then he met Sharma this year and the idea to float a proper football club came about.
However, getting money into the club remains a challenge, largely because the popularity of domestic football is on the decline. International football is keenly followed by millions on television and the Internet, but domestic clubs have a minimal fan following and are restricted to their regions alone. “The European clubs have marketed themselves brilliantly in South-east Asia,” says Sharma. Thus, Manchester United has more fans in India than Mohun Bagan does.
Running a football club in India requires Rs 8-10 crore annually. This includes the wages of players and management, infrastructure and operational costs. Most clubs run on a shoestring budget. And this is after corporate support in some form or the other. It’s not that they want to follow the European model, says Sharma, but there are a lot of lessons to be learned. Bhutia and his partners don’t want to reveal their financials as of now, but say they have enough to make sure the club enters the top tier of Indian football. Till then, they will promote themselves in Sikkim by holding training camps in schools and building a bond between the fans and the club.
The club’s training ground is Pajilor stadium. Fidelisworld also has plans for community development in the area. Bhutia knows how passionate people in Sikkim are about football, but he himself might not play for the club as he is on the East Bengal rolls. “My job will be to get players for the club and coach the young ones,” he says. He clarifies that he is not calling it quits, saying “There’s some football left in me.” He recently said he wants to take India to the 2014 FIFA World Cup!
Snow Lions is the nickname of United Sikkim. There are plans to launch music videos and theme songs to ensure the name becomes a familiar one. Bollywood composer Shankar Mahadevan is part of the team. “It’s all part of making United Sikkim heard and seen all over the country,” Sharma says. At the end of the day, however, it is football the players want to be known for and not just for being Baichung Bhutia’s club.
Meanwhile, Bhutia has plans to promote football elsewhere in the country. Late last year, he launched the Baichung Bhutia Football Schools in association with Football By Carlos Queiroz, the Portuguese football academy run by Carlos Queiroz. These schools aim to train children in the age group of 5-15 years under the guidance of senior coaches from Portugal. Twenty per cent to 30 per cent of the students will be taken from the poorer sections of the society. The first such school has opened in South Delhi.