Indian football talent is a goldmine that needs to be nurtured, says FIFA senior vice president

Influential voices of world football on Friday shared valuable insights on the sport in India and the necessity to drive a revolution in the women’s game during the second edition of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) Indian Sports Summit at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence here.

Nick Brown, senior vice president, Commercial, FIFA, revealed why the world body looks at India as a resource waiting to be tapped into. “I have had a chance to interact with the AIFF chief (Kalyan Chaubey),” he said before continuing, “Talent-wise, India is a goldmine that needs to be nurtured. Off the pitch, the population excites me—not just the scale but its make-up.

“If you look at Qatar 2022, India was in the top seven for ticket purchases and the top eight for hospitality (package) purchases. It was one of the highest-ranked when it came to digital viewership. India hosted the 2017 men’s U-17 World Cup across six cities, breaking China’s attendance records. All of these achievements make India super important as a market to invest in.”

Sarah Walsh, chief operating officer of next year’s women’s AFC Asian Cup in Australia, echoed Brown’s sentiments. “For the Women’s Asian Cup that we’re hosting in Australia next year, I can tell you that India is on top of my list as a priority in terms of a success factor for the tournament. There are 1.3 million people in Australia who identify with Indian culture. We have 850,000 tickets to sell, and I know India was influential in the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup being successful,” the former Matildas striker said.

Moya Dodd, one of the first three women ever appointed to FIFA’s executive committee in the organisation’s 108-year-long history in 2013, felt the media could do better to help popularise women’s football.

“The media is absolutely not doing enough. It surprises me why they haven’t advanced more quickly. There is a flawed assumption that people are only interested in the men’s sport… A really interesting stat came out after the FIFA World Cup in 2022 and 2023. Apparently, about 50 million people watched the men’s WC in the UK. And around 30 million watched the WWC. Of course, there was a big overlap there, but what I found most fascinating was that more than 11 million people watched the women’s World Cup exclusively.”

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Commercial and Marketing Director of Serie A, Michele Ciccarese, harked back to Serie A’s halcyon days when a certain Diego Maradona played in Italy before confessing the league went to “a deep sleep after that”.

To regain some of the lost glory, he has successfully started a viral campaign that sees the most popular faces of each club promote the culture of the associated city. He revealed to  Sportstar that he plans to enter a partnership with RCB to promote the competition in India.

“The conversation is on. Initial stages only. India is so wonderful and big. I would love to come back soon. There is a scope for cross-marketing the IPL with other leagues. An IPL-Serie A project will be great,” he said.