Yes, I read this report It's good if they have a long-term vision and a plan. Minerva Punjab recently announced a tie-up with Borussia Monchengladbach, a Bundesliga club. Chennai City also announced a tie-up with FC Basel (though it is a Swiss club). Let's see whether these tie-ups benefit Indian football.
Indian and US Football in the same murky pool: Who will enforce the reforms first?
Similar to the ISL, the MLS too does not have a system of promotion and relegation.
Not just India, but almost the entirety of the world has tried to match the United States of America in most senses. Only one man truly has - Praful Patel. The USSF and AIFF stand at an equal podium, but the pedestal for the Westerners have already started to shake. Has India got a long enough rope, or is the time up?
There’s muddle in the football ecosystem in the States, and Indian administrators are probably covering themselves from the heat already. The Major League Soccer (MLS) is the top-tier and currently holds 23 teams, with a buy-in-your-way method of participation. Sounds similar?
It all started when Miami FC of the North American Soccer League and Kingston Stockade FC of the National Premier Soccer League, both plying their trade in the States, brought a claim to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), against the USSF, the CONCACAF, and FIFA for allowing the MLS to operate in a closed league system that prevents other teams from promotion/relegation on the basis of footballing merit.
The water has only gone murkier.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been called upon and was handed a letter earlier this week to enforce Article 9 of FIFA Regulations to US football. This letter was written to USSF President Carlos Cordeiro and was signed by hundreds of football clubs across the country who are waiting for the right reforms.
According to a report published by FIFA in 2017, 84.5% of top-tier football in the world follow the English football model of promotion/relegation, a system that has globally become the trendsetter with publicity breaking out of the roof. Deloitte estimates the value of Premier League promotion at a minimum of £170 million – one of the biggest prizes in world football financially. From the Premier League all the way to the Mid-Sussex Football League Division Nine is a journey for fans, players, and everyone associated with the game in the country.
Closer home, Indian football too is standing on a sinking ship. While clubs out of the Indian Super League (India’s complement to the MLS) haven’t managed to take the case to the CAS, the AIFF is still battling a deadline from the Asian Football Confederation, failing to adhere to which, India will lose recognition from the continental body and the already-slender chance to win anything in Asian football.
TV Presenter Joe Morrison last week tweeted the story and asked the Indian supervisors to take notice of the situation in the States. It bears an eerie resemblance. It just highlights that the closed league system is not just wrong in the sporting spirit, but also illegal. The AIFF, which has by now thrown its weight around the FSDL-operated league, will need to find a way to deal with the growing turbulence.
Research in the past have shown that some of the best disputations for abandoning the closed league system are commercial. Footballing merit, too, comes into play. It remains to be seen how the case ends at the court, and it will either be a shimmer of hope or the end of an adventure for Indian football’s extravaganza.
French Ligue 1 champion Paris Saint-Germain and its Qatari owners are assessing India as an option for investment, but will go ahead only if they "find the right partners", the club's Head of Communication Jean Martial Ribes said here on Wednesday.
"For us [PSG], the Indian market is very important. If you break into the Indian market, the potential for business is massive. The problem is the game is not well developed yet," he said.
Paris Saint-Germain players celebrate after winning the 2018 Coupe de la Ligue. - AP
Ribes noted that PSG had entered into the Indian market earlier, but found it difficult to establish a foothold. "We are looking closely at what the English and the other clubs are doing, and we will advance progressively. We were in India [before] and we found it difficult to develop the academies. For us, it's [India] one of our top markets, but it's not an easy one to break into.
"We need to find the right partners to build the academies, to develop even a PSG shop; because in Japan we opened one PSG shop and we are going to open a second one. Someday, it'd be great to have a PSG shop in Bombay [now Mumbai] or Delhi," he said.
He added that the Parisian club is looking for Indian sponsors who could represent PSG as a brand in India: "We have sponsors from China, we have sponsors from Indonesia, the United States, from many, many countries. We do not have sponsors from India, but it'd be fantastic for us to be able to have access to sponsors from India or to have Indian market people representing our brand. There are some very big companies in India but we need to have the access and right now, we are missing access."
PSG's star trio: Kylian Mbappe, Edinson Cavani and Neymar. - PASCAL GUYOT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Ribes also stated that PSG – which features some of the world's best footballers such as Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Edinson Cavani – would be open to playing a match in India if the right investment comes in.
"If we can find an Indian businessman who comes to us and says, 'I am ready to work with you and develop the brand' by opening stores or opening academies, we could bring in star players and we could imagine having a match in India with our team (PSG) some day. If we can find that person, we will definitely go. Just to go there and invest without knowing the right people is difficult," he said.
CFL club George Telegraphs ties up with German clubs Wolfsburg, plans to play in top division within 3 year. George Telegraph is an Victorian era club with an massive fan base.
Comments
It's good if they have a long-term vision and a plan. Minerva Punjab recently announced a tie-up with Borussia Monchengladbach, a Bundesliga club.
Chennai City also announced a tie-up with FC Basel (though it is a Swiss club).
Let's see whether these tie-ups benefit Indian football.
Indian and US Football in the same murky pool: Who will enforce the reforms first?
Similar to the ISL, the MLS too does not have a system of promotion and relegation.
Not just India, but almost the entirety of the world has tried to match the United States of America in most senses. Only one man truly has - Praful Patel. The USSF and AIFF stand at an equal podium, but the pedestal for the Westerners have already started to shake. Has India got a long enough rope, or is the time up?
There’s muddle in the football ecosystem in the States, and Indian administrators are probably covering themselves from the heat already. The Major League Soccer (MLS) is the top-tier and currently holds 23 teams, with a buy-in-your-way method of participation. Sounds similar?
It all started when Miami FC of the North American Soccer League and Kingston Stockade FC of the National Premier Soccer League, both plying their trade in the States, brought a claim to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), against the USSF, the CONCACAF, and FIFA for allowing the MLS to operate in a closed league system that prevents other teams from promotion/relegation on the basis of footballing merit.
The water has only gone murkier.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been called upon and was handed a letter earlier this week to enforce Article 9 of FIFA Regulations to US football. This letter was written to USSF President Carlos Cordeiro and was signed by hundreds of football clubs across the country who are waiting for the right reforms.
According to a report published by FIFA in 2017, 84.5% of top-tier football in the world follow the English football model of promotion/relegation, a system that has globally become the trendsetter with publicity breaking out of the roof. Deloitte estimates the value of Premier League promotion at a minimum of £170 million – one of the biggest prizes in world football financially. From the Premier League all the way to the Mid-Sussex Football League Division Nine is a journey for fans, players, and everyone associated with the game in the country.
Closer home, Indian football too is standing on a sinking ship. While clubs out of the Indian Super League (India’s complement to the MLS) haven’t managed to take the case to the CAS, the AIFF is still battling a deadline from the Asian Football Confederation, failing to adhere to which, India will lose recognition from the continental body and the already-slender chance to win anything in Asian football.
TV Presenter Joe Morrison last week tweeted the story and asked the Indian supervisors to take notice of the situation in the States. It bears an eerie resemblance. It just highlights that the closed league system is not just wrong in the sporting spirit, but also illegal. The AIFF, which has by now thrown its weight around the FSDL-operated league, will need to find a way to deal with the growing turbulence.
Research in the past have shown that some of the best disputations for abandoning the closed league system are commercial. Footballing merit, too, comes into play. It remains to be seen how the case ends at the court, and it will either be a shimmer of hope or the end of an adventure for Indian football’s extravaganza.
PSG assessing India as a market for investment
French Ligue 1 champion Paris Saint-Germain and its Qatari owners are assessing India as an option for investment, but will go ahead only if they "find the right partners", the club's Head of Communication Jean Martial Ribes said here on Wednesday.
"For us [PSG], the Indian market is very important. If you break into the Indian market, the potential for business is massive. The problem is the game is not well developed yet," he said.
Paris Saint-Germain players celebrate after winning the 2018 Coupe de la Ligue. - AP
Ribes noted that PSG had entered into the Indian market earlier, but found it difficult to establish a foothold. "We are looking closely at what the English and the other clubs are doing, and we will advance progressively. We were in India [before] and we found it difficult to develop the academies. For us, it's [India] one of our top markets, but it's not an easy one to break into.
"We need to find the right partners to build the academies, to develop even a PSG shop; because in Japan we opened one PSG shop and we are going to open a second one. Someday, it'd be great to have a PSG shop in Bombay [now Mumbai] or Delhi," he said.
He added that the Parisian club is looking for Indian sponsors who could represent PSG as a brand in India: "We have sponsors from China, we have sponsors from Indonesia, the United States, from many, many countries. We do not have sponsors from India, but it'd be fantastic for us to be able to have access to sponsors from India or to have Indian market people representing our brand. There are some very big companies in India but we need to have the access and right now, we are missing access."
PSG's star trio: Kylian Mbappe, Edinson Cavani and Neymar. - PASCAL GUYOT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Ribes also stated that PSG – which features some of the world's best footballers such as Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Edinson Cavani – would be open to playing a match in India if the right investment comes in.
"If we can find an Indian businessman who comes to us and says, 'I am ready to work with you and develop the brand' by opening stores or opening academies, we could bring in star players and we could imagine having a match in India with our team (PSG) some day. If we can find that person, we will definitely go. Just to go there and invest without knowing the right people is difficult," he said.