When FC Barcelona came to India in a tie-up with a Gurgaon-based football club, not many noticed. When the FIFA (football’s governing body) president visited India this February to kickstart India’s campaign to host the under-17 FIFA World Cup in 2017, the expected cheers were resoundingly silent.
A quiet Dubai-based company, however, has been making waves on the international football circuit. After becoming one of the first Indian-origin investors in a European football club — FC (football club) Vestsjælland, a first-league European football club based in Slagelse, Denmark — early this year, it has recently acquired a 26 per cent stake in Shillong Lajong FC, a top-division I-league club in Meghalaya.
Anglian Holdings oversees a diverse variety of global financial vehicles based in the European Union, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and India. The difference between them and the top guns of international football is basic — while the top guns are looking eastwards to set up coaching centres and promote branded merchandise, Anglian Holdings plans to connect its clubs in Denmark and India in an attempt to provide Indian talent with a pipeline to Europe. Will it improve the state of Indian football?
Dhruv Ratra, CEO Sports of Anglian Holdings, certainly thinks so. “Before we invested in Lajong FC, we researched the football scene in India,” he says. “The research results surprised us: while there seemed to be a vast pool of unrecognised and football talent in the under-17 and under-13 age categories, this talent somehow just didn’t mature.” In Ratra’s view, India was not just a potentially huge market for sponsorships and football merchandise, it was also a storehouse of talent waiting to be discovered. “Nowhere can you see this talent better than in the North-east. Football is such a mania there that parents enroll their children for the game when they are barely four years old!” Lajong FC was a natural choice.
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This Shillong-based club, established in 1983, believes in training players at the grassroots level and is ranked among the 10 best clubs in India. “Unlike clubs like Mohun Bagan, Dempo and Mohammedan Sporting, we’ve always believed in developing young and promising players rather than in buying established names,” says Ming Larsing, general secretary of Shillong Lajong FC. The fiercely passionate club is now looking forward to Anglian sending two of its top-rated players and coaches this summer to FC Vestsjælland. “This exposure is going to be invaluable for players as well as coaches,” said Larsing. Anglian also plans to organise exhibition matches for FCs Vestsjaelland and Lajong across India in the coming year, which could prove useful in providing both teams with exposure and brand-building.
It’s early days yet, but the question on people’s minds is whether two clubs in two continents could have anything productive to offer one another. Ratra is optimistic. There are some basic similarities between FC Vestsjælland and Lajong FC which bode well for a long-term relationship via Anglian. They are both tightly managed and supported by their fans, sponsors and communities at the grassroots level. Lajong’s under-13 matches end up being watched by at least 2,000 supporters — proof of the community’s involvement with the club and the game. Similarly, Vestsjælland’s matches are also played in a carnival-like atmosphere, and players’ families come out in full force to cheer the team. Both teams are very inclusive: while Vestsjælland has players from all over the world, including two North Koreans, Lajong FC has players from all over the North east as well as some foreign recruits. They are also similar in their philosophy: both are focused on training new talent and on exploring different ways of developing the competitive edge. For instance, when Ratra and company first visited Vestsjælland, they found the team practicing yoga breathing exercises! “To us, these similarities mean a great deal,” says Ratra. “They tell us that the two clubs, so far apart geographically, could possibly work together in the long term for mutual benefit.”
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Anglian Holdings is generally optimistic about where Indian football is headed in the next few years. “The growing interest of sponsors and viewers in football will eventually translate to more and more good players taking the sport forward in the country,” says Ratra. “The way things are, we see the face of Indian football changing completely in the coming years.” Last year, an exhibition match between Venezuela and Argentina held in Kolkata earned over $1 million (Rs 4.5 crore) from broadcasting rights alone. “Such matches are going to spur many more,” says Ratra. “Clearly, Indian football fans are in for quite a treat.”
The mood in Shillong is upbeat. “Suddenly there’s an air of excitement and anticipation on the playing field,” says Larsing. “Our players are getting a wonderful opportunity to get international-level training and exposure, something that they as well as our supporters realise. They are all dreaming of making it to Denmark and playing in the European League.”
While the outlook is indeed exciting for the players, the value added by training Indian coaches is even more exciting from a long-term perspective. Ratra and his company firmly believe that developing coaching skills is key. “We believe that by training the coaches in Lajong, we can ensure that the team makes it to the next level,” he says. “It already has two players on the national side. Once Lajong’s standards improve, eventually so will those of the Indian team.”
Therein lies the crux. Clearly, the paradigm shift for the world’s most popular game will happen in India only when the national side starts winning matches in the global arena. Currently languishing in 158th place in the FIFA rankings, the Indian side needs better players, coaches and infrastructure. Most important, the football clubs now mushrooming across the country need to be able to convince younger players that the game offers a viable career path for deserving talent.
Whether Anglian’s plans for Lajong and Vestsjælland will actually pan out is tough to predict at the moment. But one thing is certain: the grass on the serene hills of Shillong is suddenly looking greener than ever before.
