The Rise & Fall of Indian Football Report

Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics

The Rise & Fall of
Indian Football
Main Guide: Dr. Rajas Parchure
Co Guide: Dr. Anurag Asawa

Shekhar Ibhrampurkar
MA 1019

The Rise & Fall of Indian Football

Acknowledgement
At the outset, I would like to extend my gratitude to my both my
guides Dr. Rajas Parchure & Dr. Anurag Asawa for their extremely
appreciated guidance and backing throughout the course of my
thesis. Interacting with them to understand better the various issues,
challenges and different approaches has been truly informative and
motivating. It was their persistent counsel regarding my draft that
made me understand, analyse and amend various aspects in my
work.

Lastly, I heartily thank all the other faculty members, office staffs
and my friends for their immense support.

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Shekhar.Ibhrampurkar@gmail.com


Declaration

I, hereby undersigned, affirm that this study has been done solely by

me, as Master‟s thesis course in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for the degree of the Master‟s in Arts in Economics

from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune.

April, 2012

Yours Faithfully

Shekhar Ibhrampurkar

MA II 1019

We, hereby undersigned, confirm that this study has been completed

by the above mentioned student independently under our guidance,

only for the fulfilment of Master‟s in Arts in Economics from Gokhale

Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune.
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Dr. Rajas Parchure Dr. Anurag Asawa
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Index
 Current Status……………………………………...………………….....5
 The Great Indian football revolution…………………………………..7
 Research Methodology……………………………………...……………8
 The Golden Era…………..…………………………….………………..10
 The Lost Decades…………………………………...…………………...12
 A New Beginning……………………………...………………………...14
 Factors leading to the fall……………...………………………………16
 Investment in football………………….………….……………………19
o National football league……………………………….……………….20
o Football clubs……………………………………………….……………21
o Youth academies………………………………………………………...23
o Stadiums………………………………………………………………….27
 Revenue structure……………………………………………………….29
o Sponsorships……………………………………………………………..31
o Prize money………………………………………………………………33
 Regional Biasedness…………………………………………………….34
o Club locations……………………………………………………………36
o National team composition…………………………………………….37
 Unstable national structure…………………………………………...38
 Conclusion………………………………………………………………..39
 The Road Ahead...……………………………………………………….42
 Bibliography……………………………………………………………...43

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“First of all, young men must be strong. Religion will come
afterwards. Be strong, my young friends… you will be nearer to
heaven through football than through the study of „Geeta‟….. You
will understand it better with your muscles a little stronger. You will
understand the mighty genius and the mighty strength of Lord
Krishna better with a little strong blood in you”

- Swami Vivekananda

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Current Status
The current state of Indian football in no way reflects the glory and
the strength of Indian football that once was unmatched in Asia.
Although no ranking system existed in the early 19 th century, India‟s
achievements cannot be ignored by simple comments or lack of data
claims. Before we go into the detailed analysis of India‟s golden era
let‟s have a look at where Indian football currently stands.
FIFA Ranking Men’s Women’s
Current 158 54
Asian 28 11
Highest 94 50
Lowest 165 100

The Indian men‟s football team that once dominated the Asian
competitions now languishes at 158 just 7 ranks away from their
lowest ranking of 165, which the Indian team was at during March
2007 under former English manager Bob Houghton, Even in Asia the
Indian team now ranks at 28 which clearly shows the dismal state of
Indian football.

The women‟s team on the other hand is in a much better position,
ranked at 54 in the world and 11 th in Asia.
The following table shows a clear picture of the performance of the
Indian football Team post 1992 when the FIFA rankings were
introduced.

Period FIFA Ranking
March 2012 158
February 2012 154
January 2012 158
2011 162
2010 142
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2009 134
2008 143
2007 143
2006 157
2005 127
2004 132
2003 127
2002 127
2001 121
2000 122
1999 106
1998 110
1997 112
1996 120
1995 121
1994 109
1993 100

As can be observed from the data given above India‟s ranking has
been falling since the establishment of the FIFA ranking system, but
a thing that shouldn‟t be ignored is the fact that the fall in ranking is
largely due to the no of games the Indian football team has been
playing each year compared to the other nations of the world.
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The Great Indian Football Revolution
“The victory of Mohun Bagan, the indigenous team, in the Indian
association football shield, held on Saturday last (July 29) has not
only been the cause of universal jubilation in the country, but has
demonstrated that Indians are second to none in all that manly
games….. The success of Mohun Bagan has turned over a new leaf in
the history of manly sport in Calcutta. The remarkable skill, courage,
and in fact, all that constitutes a good game, and of which Mohun
Bagan has given unmistakable proofs cannot fail to evoke the
sincerest applause from all lovers of football.”

-The Times of India, Bombay, July 30, 1911

Winning the IFA shield in 1911 by Mohun Bagan symbolized the
Great Indian revolution in football.

Jatindranath Roy, Habul Sarkar, Abhilash Ghosh, Bijoydas Badhuri, Shibdas
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Bhaduri, Rajendranath Sengupta, Nilamadhab Bhattacharjee, Hiralal
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Mukherjee, Monmohan Mukherjee, Sudhir Kumar Chatterjee & Bhuti Sukul.


Research Methodology
To analyse the causes that led to the fall I have divided the period in
three categories, namely

 The Golden Era, 1950- 1964

 The Lost Decade‟s, 1965- 1991

 A New Beginning, 1992- present

As to the reasoning based on which I have divided the period into the
three specific periods, I shall explain it as I speak more on the time
period and give more statistics on the performance of the Indian
men‟s football team.
Just to give a simple idea behind the division, the 1950s and 1960 s
was undoubted the best time to be a footballer in India. The Indian
national team consisted of quality players like
Pradip Kumar Banerjee, Padma Shri (1990), FIFA Indian footballer
of the 20 th century
Neville D‟Souza, first Asian player to score a hattrick in Olympics,
joint top scorer 1956 Olympics
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Salien Manna, Padma Shri (1971), named among the 10 best
Captains in the world by the English FA, Footballer of the
millennium by the AIFF

Chuni Goswami, Padma Shri (1983), Best striker of Asia (1962)

Peter Thangaraj, Asia‟s best goalkeeper (1958), Arjuna award (1967)

Jarnail Singh, Captain Asian All-Star team (twice)

Gostha Pal, Padma Shri (1962)

& many others

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The Golden Era, 1950-64
India stepped into the world of international football in 1948, playing
their first ever official international football match against France in
the London Olympics, India lost the game 1-2 but only after missing
two penalties which might be due to the cold English weather and
the fact that the Indian team played bare foot.
After the loss against France, India continued her journey playing 3
successive Olympics, 1952, 1956, 1960, finishing 4 th in the 1956
Melbourne Olympics, her highest finish in the Olympics, Indian
forward Neville D‟Souza also became the first Indian and Asian
footballer to score a hattrick in a game in the Olympics a feat that
remained in the Indian trophy chamber for a long time.
The Indian team continued their exploits winning the Asian games/
Asiad gold in 1951 & 1962 and also the Quadrangular Cup four times
in a row from 1952-55.

Competition Success

 Olympics

 4th place- 1956

 Asian Games/ Asiad

 Gold- 1951, 1962

 Silver- 1954

 Bronze- 1970

 Asian Nations Cup/ AFC Asian Cup

 Runners up- 1964

 Quadrangular Cup

 Winner- 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955
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 Merdeka Cup
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 Second- 1959, 1964

 Third- 1965, 1966

Win Ratio: 63%

Played: 49, Won: 31, Draw: 4, Lost: 14

Going through India‟s record in this period clearly shows the reason
for calling this the golden era of Indian football and analysing it
separately.
The Indian football team has played in the Olympics only four times
and it was in this period, another major achievement for the Indian
football team was the runners up position in the Asian nations cup
which is now the AFC cup, a feat that the Indian team never
repeated again and had failed to qualify for a long time, it was in the
1984 Asian nations cup that India qualified and then in 2012.

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The Lost Decades, 1965-91
As the title suggests, this was indeed a time that was lost, a period
where Indian football was completely ignored and the stars of the
golden generation completely forgotten.

Unlike the period from 1950-64 when the Indian team dominated
Asian football and was competitive beyond Asia, this period saw the
Indian team fail against Asian opponents, team whom India had once
dominated.

 Competitions

 1982 Asian Games (Hosts)

 1984 Asian Nations Cup/ AFC Asian Cup

 SAF Games/ South Asian Games

o Gold- 1984, 1987
Taking a look at India‟s performance in competitions shows a true
picture of India‟s failing football culture, the Asian games, a
competition which the Indian team won twice and was always one of
the favourites to win every time the competition took place in the
period from 1950-64, but in the period 1965-91 not only did Indian
never win it again but even failed to qualify by itself, it was only in
1982 that India played the tournament on account of being the host
nation.

The Asian nation‟s cup which was India‟s show of strength when she
was placed second back in 1964, had now become an unconquerable
territory for India and it was only in 1984 that India had qualified for
this tournament.

Win Ratio: (32%)

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Looking at the win ratio clearly shows the drastic change in India‟s
change in fortunes, a drop from a 63% win ratio to almost half of it
32% in the period 1965-91.
This was a critical period for Indian football, had India carried
forward the momentum that was generated by the golden generation
by winning competitions and building Indians reputation in world
football we could have seen a different picture of Indian football
today, but unfortunately the potential that Indian football had was
never recognized and the achievements of some of India‟s greatest
athletes was forgotten and this occurred largely in the period 1965-
91, and it is hence that this period has been analyzed separately to
provide precise inferences and caused for the fall of the giant that
once Indian football was.

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A New Beginning, 1992- present
The year 1991 marked a new beginning for the Indian economy with
the “New economic policy” and it also saw the introduction of one of
India‟s greatest footballers, not just for his on the pitch performance
but majorly for the fact that he made Indian footballers believe that
they were in fact good enough to be playing in the best football
leagues in the world, ladies and gentleman this period was the rise of
the sikkimese sniper and in the world of another Indian legend
I.M.Vijayan “God‟s gift to Indian football”, Bhaichung Bhutia.

 Competitions

 SAARC Cup/ SAFF Cup

Winner- 1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011

Runners up- 1995, 2008

Third Place- 2003

 Afro Asian Games

Silver- 2003

 LG Cup

Winner- 2002

 Nehru Cup

Winner- 2007, 2009

 AFC Challenge Cup

Winner- 2008
A lot had changed in Indian football when compared to the period
1964-91, the Indian team had again started winning competitions at
Asian level, winning the Nehru cup has now become a habit for the
Indian team, but some of the major achievements of the Indian team
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since 1992 till date has been the silver medal at the 2003 afro Asian
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games under Englishman Stephen Constantine where the Indian


team beat African teams ranked like Rwanda which were ranked
quite higher than India.

Win ratio: (37%)

Compared to the lost decades the Indian football team improved their
win ratio slightly to 37% from the previous 32%, but in terms of
performance there was drastic change given the many competition
victories even if at only Asian level, the Indian team also qualified for
the 2012 AFC cup by the virtue of winning the AFC challenge cup,
but the Indian team failed to make a mark for themselves in the
competition which they were runners up back in 1964 and lost all
three of their group stage games and failed to qualify for further
rounds.

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Factors leading to the fall
The reasons that were responsible for the strangling of Indian
football in the lost decades from 1965-91 are pretty obvious but to
really analyse the impact of each cause has been the objective of this
master‟s thesis, but unfortunately due to lack of availability of data,
incomplete records the analysis that I would present further is more
of a qualitative analysis rather than the preferred quantitative
analysis.
Many reasons can be pointed out for the decline in Indian football
from the glory years of 1950-64, to put it simply in worlds
 Lack of infrastructure, proper planning and support system for
junior level footballers
 International exposure
 Government and sponsor backing
 Closure of popular tournaments and public sector teams
 Politics behind football
Were the crude reasons for the fall of Indian football but the scope of
this thesis has been beyond such crude reasons.
The factors that I have analysed in great detail in the later part of
this report are
 Investment in Indian Football

 Revenue Structure

 Regional Dominance

 Unstable National structure

Although various other reasons might be or should be considered
when talking about the decline in Indian football but specifically due
to limitations on the data available on Indian football, only the above
noted reasons will be discussed in detail as we proceed.
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Before we go in analysing each factor presented I present a
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comparative analysis of two sports, cricket & football and the role


played by the government, media& corporates and their attitudes
towards the two sports.
This is one of the most crucial elements in understanding the reasons
for the state of development at which each of the sport has reached.
Each section of society has played a part in the development of sports
in India, at one end is the cricket, which has been the favourite
brown eyed boy of all Indians including the government, media and
the corporates, their intentions and attitude clearly shown in the way
cricket is managed, funded and covered in India and on the other
hand is crickets poor cousin, football, who has been ignored by a
majority of the population in India.
The following table aims to show the vast distinctions between the
two sports and their culture in India.
Football Cricket
Association Gatekeeper CEO

The apex body for football The BCCI on the other
in India, the AIFF has hand has been like a
been always acting as a shrewd CEO. Knowing
gatekeeper where it only where to look for
decides whom it wants to resources, how to take
let go and who not, it has advantage of
failed to take up a opportunities and how to
proactive role in the build a strong brand. The
development of football in sharp management has
india. lead the way for Cricket
and played a pivotal role
in its success.
Government Indifferent Nurturing Parent

The government's For Cricket, the
negligence and government has always
indifference to the been there. Whether it is
development of football the State Governments
can be observed at offering free houses for
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multiple times during the cricketers or the Central
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history of the sport even Government rewarding


when the team has been the players even when
doing well. they failed to perform.
Media Mythical God

Media for domestic Media has always kept its
football has been like a blessing hand on the head
mythical creature. All the of Cricket, with separate
veterans have always TV channels becoming
hoped and expected dedicated to a single
media to come in and sport.
support the sport but
media's support for the
game has never ever
existed.
Corporate Partner Sweetheart

Corporates' presence in Pouring money into
domestic football has Cricket has been the
always been there biggest PR/ad campaigns
whether to gain mileage for the corporate in the
or out of management's country.
own interest in the game.

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Investment in Indian Football
Looking at the tenth five year plan that covered 2003/04- 2007-08,
the budget allocation for sports was $500 million, about
5,00,00,00,000 i.e. 500 crores per annum for all sports in India and
this included the expenditure to spent on sports infrastructure as
well as all other expenses.
For the year 2009/10 the budget allocation was $500 million but
again this was largely to finance the expenditure related to the Delhi
commonwealth games and by now everyone knows the efficiency at
which those funds were spent.
To focus directly on the government expenditure on football in India,
the annual budget allocation to the AIFF is presented below.
Year Budget Allocation
2007/08 0.68
2008/09 0.52
2009/10 0.42
2010/11 1.25
*Rs. In Crores
Looking at the figures above clearly shows the lack of interest and
commitment shown by the government of India towards the
development of football in India.
Since due to unavailability of investment data of prior years,
investment in Indian football shall be analysed based on the growth
of football infrastructure.

To understand and interpret the investment in football and its
efficiency I have categorized it in the following categories.
 Competitions
 Clubs
 Youth Academies
 Stadiums
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National Football League
It was in 1996/97 that an all India football league was started in
India, prior to the national football league the only major
tournaments that clubs participated in were the
 Durand cup
 Federation cup
 IFA Shield
 State football leagues
Other than these competitions, football clubs in India had no major
competition to take part in, also Indian football clubs got the
opportunity to play against other Asian football clubs only after
establishment of the national league in competitions such as the AFC
Champions league and the AFC Cup, although the IFA shield had
foreign teams participating, it had very limited exposure with only a
handful of Indian clubs able to participate in the competition and the
no of foreign teams being just about one each year.

The lack of a proper national level football league was one of the most
important reason for the under development of a football structure in
India.
Lack of national level football league>>Under
developed football clubs>>Inadequate
facilities>>Unsatisfactory performance in
competitions>>Absence of stable revenue
streams & sponsorships>>No investment in
development of clubs
The lack of a stable and a year round football league till 1995/96 was
a key reason for the lack of investment in development of the sports
at grass root level by the private sector, which in the process reflected
in the dismal growth and performance of Indian footballers in the
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period 1965-1991.
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Football Clubs
Till date a total of 41 football clubs have taken part in the national
level league that was established back in 1995/96 under the name of
the Indian national football league.

Club Established
1 Dempo SC 1968
2 Churchill Brothers SC 1988
3 Salgaocar SC 1956
4 Vasco SC 1951
5 Sporting Clube de Goa 1999
6 SESA 1999
7 East Bengal FC 1920
8 Mohun Bagan AC 1889
9 Palian Arrows 2010
10 Mohammedan SC 1891
11 Prayag United 1927
12 Bhawanipore FC 2010
13 Kalighat FC 1922
14 Southern Samity 1945
15 Techno Aryan 1884
16 Air India 1952
17 Mumbai FC 2007
18 Mahindra United 1962-2010
19 Pune F C 2007
20 Kenkre 2000
21 PIFA 2006
22 JCT FC 1971-2011
23 HAL SC 2006
24 KGF Academy 2011
25 FC Kochin 1998-2002
26 Chirag United Club Kerala 2004
27 Eagles FC 2010
28 Golden Threads FC 2010
29 Quartz SC 1976
30 Shillong Lajhong FC 1983
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31 Ar-Hima 1987
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32 Langsning 1900


33 Royal Wahingdoh FC 2006
34 Indian Bank NA
35 Gauhati Town Club 1906
36 Green Valley FC 2010
37 Simla Youngs 1936
38 Aizawal FC 1984
39 Luangmual 1955
40 Samaleswari SC NA
41 United Sikkim 2008

Looking at the date of establishments of football clubs supports my
hypothesis on investment in Indian football.
The fact that India didn‟t have a national level football league had
deep repercussions than one could imagine, the absence of a football
league limited investment in the development of sports
infrastructure in the sense that there was no incentive to inve st in
building new football clubs as there were hardly any competitions
that the clubs would participate in and the possibility to break-even
the investment seemed remote.

Period No of football clubs %
Pre 1964 14 37%
1965-1995 6 16%
Post 1996 16 42%

Of the total 41 clubs that have participated in the national level
football league till date, 3 are now defunct, 14 of them were created
prior to 1965, and 16 post 1996, only 6 football clubs were created in
the period 1965-96, which supports my hypothesis of the lack of
investment in football infrastructure by the private sector.
The figures also support the hypothesis that, after the establishment
of a national level football league investment in Indian football rose
and is shown in the increased number of football clubs established
post 1996.
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Youth Academies
Before we go into the details of youth academies in India it is
important to understand the importance of investing in building
football youth academies and to understand their importance I
present a case study of Barcelona football clubs youth academy, La
Masia.

La Masia: the story of Barcelona's Swordsmith
In an age when Clubs across Europe are run by American tycoons,
Russian & Arab oligarchs, player transfer have become the whole and
soul of team building, the success of a Club now depends on the money
that a Club can spend and even after millions of dollars are spent
rarely has a Club enforced its domination. But in recent years
Barcelona has redefined success and has been a Dominant Force in
World football by winning the La Liga five times in seven years and
thrice in a row, the Champions League three times in six years and
Barcelona did it with the strength of the players from their youth
academy, La Masia.
In 2010, La Masia achieved a record breaking honour becoming the
first Youth academy in the World to have all three finalists for
the Ballon d'Or in the same year, with Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi &
Xavi Hernández, This was only the third time in the history of
the Ballon d'Or that one team has provided all three players for the
final three positions, and the first time that all three finalists came
from one Youth academy, Messi then became the first player from La
Masia to win the Ballon d'Or , and also went on to win the FIFA
World Player of the year.
La Masia has not just benefitted Barcelona but also Spain with seven
player, and six of them in the starting eleven: Gerard Piqué, Carles
Puyol, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández, Sergio Busquets & Pedro
Rodríguez when Spain won the World Cup 2010. A Reuters report
suggested that Spain's World Cup success was possibly due to La
Masia, other factors mentioned were Economic Development and luck.
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Joachim Löw, coach of Germany after his side's defeat by Spain in the
World Cup 2010 said “how Spain plays is how Barcelona plays”.
Player from the La Masia in the current Barcelona squad include
Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Bojan Krkić, Lionel
Messi, Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Pedro Rodríguez & Víctor Valdés,
some other notable players from La Masia playing football currently
are Mikel Arteta (Everton), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Thiago Motta
(Internazionale) & Pepe Reina (Liverpool).
It all began when Barcelona legend and honorary president Johan
Cruyff in 1979 proposed to then president Josep Núñez to develop a
Youth academy in line with the Ajax Academy. Guillermo Amor was
one of the first to graduate from La Masia, he went on to play 311
League games for Barcelona, other to follow were Carles Busquets and
Josep Guardiola who then became part of the Barcelona Dream Team
under Johan Cruyff .
La Masia was an old country residence built in 1702, purchased by
Barcelona in 1954, La Masia was then used as a workshop for the
architects and builders of its new stadium, Camp Nou, After the
Camp Nou was inaugurated on 24 September 1957, La Masia was
closed down, later the building was remodelled, extended and
reopened as an office for the club's headquarters but it could not keep
up with the Clubs growth and it was remodelled to house a youth
academy for players coming from outside of Barcelona an then finally
converted into what it is now.
Though La Masia has been an integral part of Barcelona’s recent
success the credit must also in large go to current manager Josep
Guardiola. It was back in 2007 when Guardiola was appointed the
coach of Barcelona B when the team was relegated to the fourth tier of
Spanish football and was in complete disarray, by the time Guardiola
had completed his reorganization, Barcelona B was playing in the
second tier Segunda, the top-tier for a reserve team. La Masia then
made a name for itself with Barcelona B’s success thanks to the
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strength of home grown players, The Daily Telegraph claims that La
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Masia has replaced the fabled Ajax Academy as football's foremost


production line. In over 30 years of it inauguration LA Masia has
provided for more than 500 youngsters from all over the world but
mostly from Catalonia & about 10% of them have made it to the
Barcelona first team.

Guardiola was later appointed the Manager of Barcelona to replace
Frank Rijkaard in 2008/09. Guardiola guided Barcelona to a
Spanish treble in his first Season, a first in Spanish football history
and also became the youngest manager then to win the Champions
League. Guardiola continued his winning ways with two La liga’s, 2
Champions Leagues, one Copa del Rey, one UEFA super cup and a
Fifa Club World Cup.

Guardiola & Barcelona have shown the importance of building a
team with home grown players rather building a team by buying
world class player and UEFA, Michel Platini was right when he said
"Barcelona represent my philosophy, not only for the game, but also
for the training of athletes”.
The following article clearly shows how a football club and a nation
could benefit from a world class football academy, to put the benefits
in bullets form

 Home-Grown Players

 Transfer Fee Gains/ Savings

 Domestic fan base

 Club Performance

 Trickle-down effect on the national team performance
Now taking a look at the youth development programs in India, the
major youth academies in India are

 Tata Football Academy*, 1987

 JCT, 1998
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 Sesa, 1999
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 Pune FC, 2011

 Mohun Bagan AC, 2003, 2009

 Dempo
In a country with 1.2 billion people India lacks the number of youth
academies to develop football at grass root level in India, with just a
handful of youth academies India has a severe shortage of mediums
to develop football talent in India. Ironically none of the football
academies that exist in India are financed or managed by the
government to make matters worse only a handful of clubs that
participate in the National league have their own academies which is
again opposite of traditional football club culture around the world,
on average almost all football clubs in major football nations have
their own football academies to provide for youth talent.
Taking a closer look shows that only one football academy namely the
Tata football academy was established in the period 1965-91 which
again supports put hypothesis of lack of investment in the lost
decades and the hypothesis that the establishment of a national
league incentivised investment in football in India.

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Stadiums
The next major components of football infrastructure are the
stadiums. According to traditional football club culture football clubs
normally own their own stadiums but in the Indian context the
trends changes again, none of the 41 football clubs that have till date
participated in the national league own their own football stadiums.
The national football league is played at the following six venues all
build by the government. Of the 6 venues only 2 are certified by FIFA
& AFC for the facilities and condition, another thing to notice is the
fact that the two venues that are certified were only recently
upgraded and renovated.

Stadium Location Capacity Pitch Tenants
Type
Balewadi Pune 20,000 Grass Pune FC
Sports
Complex
Jawaharlal Kochi 60,000 Grass Chirag United
Nehru
Stadium
Fatorda Margao 27,300 Grass Churchill
Stadium Brothers,
Dempo,
Salgaocar,
Sporting Clube de
Goa
Salt Lake Kolkata 1,20,000 Astro Mohun Bagan,
Stadium turf East Bengal,
Palian Arrows,
Prayag United

Bangalore Bangalore 15,000 Astrot HAL
Football urf
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Stadium
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Jawaharlal Shillong 25,000 Grass Shillong Lajhong
Nehru
Stadium

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Revenue Structure
Before we go into analysing the revenue structure of Indian football
clubs it is important to understand the working of a football club i.e.
the business cycle of football clubs.

Crowd
Performance
Support

Future
Sponsorships
Prospects

Investments

As the business cycle clearly shows good performance by football
clubs in the sense that winning matches and competitions will
increase their fan base which will make them attractive destinations
for investments by corporates and gain sponsorships, this in turn will
increase the revenues of the football clubs by which it can reward its
player with high salaries, better non playing staff and other facilities
and also make available funds to invest in developing and attracting
youth talent at the football club which would in the future translate
into better performance and thus the cycle would continue.
Given below is the breakdown of revenues of English, Italian and
German football clubs.
English Italian German
Commercial 28% 25% 53%
Match Day 35% 14% 25%
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Broadcasting 37% 61% 22%
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Now taking a look at the break down of revenues of Indian football
clubs.

 Commercial
 No Club store/ Café/ Commercial Infrastructure

 No Merchandising

 Minimal sponsorship revenues
 Match Day Revenues

 0- negligible Season Ticket Sales

 Ticket Price: Rs.50-200

 Average Attendance: 3913
 Broadcasting

 2007: Zee Sports 10 year deal, Terminated in 2010
 2010/11: TV deal only for Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, United
Sports Club

 2011/12: Ten Sports, Live Telecast: 75/182 Games (41%)
 Defunct Clubs

 Mahindra United (2010)

 JCT (2011)

 FC Kochin (2002)
This clearly shows how Indian football clubs struggle to make ends
meet, Indian football clubs do not have a stable revenue structure.
Indian football clubs unlike other football clubs have negligible
match day and broadcasting revenues unlike their European
counterparts who have these sources contributing a major part of
their revenues.
30
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Sponsorships
In terms of commercial revenues again Indian clubs struggle to
attract sponsors and a major reason is their performance which again
is a function of investment in football.
Although the trend has been changing in recent times, still Indian
football clubs have a long way to go in terms of becoming profitable.
It is estimated that 80% Indian football club revenues come from
sponsorships, given below are the sponsorships of some major football
clubs in India.

 Air India- Air India, Star Impact

 Chirag United- Chirag Computers

 Churchill Brothers- Churchill, Adidas

 Dempo- Dempo, Nike

 East Bengal- Kingfisher, Nivia, Bluechip Projects, Saradha Realty,
CMRI, Pearless, Rose Valley

 HAL- HAL

 Mohun Bagan- McDowells, Adidas, Amra Remedies

 Mumbai FC- Ten HD, Adidas

 Palian Arrows- Palian

 Prayag United- Prayag Group
 Pune FC- Piramal Group, Peninsula, Adidas, Infosys, HerbalLife,
Golds Gym

 Salgaocar- Salgaocar

 Shillong Lajhong- Aircel, Adidas, Kingfisher

 Sporting Clube de Goa- Models, Adidas
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As can be seen clearly most of the major Indian clubs fail to attract
good sponsors and have been struggling to balance their annual
statements.

32
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Prize Money
Given below is the prize money structure of the national league.

 Prize Money

 Winner – Rs.50,00,000

 Runners up- Rs.28,00,000

 Rs.2,50,000 for participation in U19 League

 Rs.2,50,000 for Administrative Staff

 90% Gate Receipts

 Rs.35,000 for Match win

As can be clearly seen from these numbers, the prize money is
negligible in terms of the expenditure the football clubs undertake in
the running the club.
A under prized competition fails to attract competition which in turn
affects the visibility and exposure of the competition and this in turn
affect the competitions sponsorship which then affects the prize
money.

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Regional Biasedness
A key factor behind the dismal state of Indian football has been the
lack of fan following in the sport. Unlike traditional football clubs
which have huge fan following which result in better sponsorships,
Indian football clubs fail to attract the attention of the majority of the
population.
This has been a constant phenomenon in Indian football, there have
always been only a handful of football clubs and some particular
regions where there had been a strong fan base in India, the rest of
the country had been literally ignorant of the sport in India.
The most important parameter based on which a clubs fan base can
be measures is the success that the club has achieved. It has been
observed traditionally that clubs based in Goa and Bengal have
always had a stronger fan base as compared to all other clubs in the
country, to understand the reason behind this phenomenon let‟s look
at the success stories of the Goan & Bengal clubs.
Season Winner
1996/97 JCT FC
1997/98 Mohun Bagan
1998/99 Salgaocar
1999/2000 Mohun Bagan AC
2000/01 East Bengal
2001/02 Mohun Bagan
2002/03 East Bengal
2003/04 East Bengal
2004/05 Dempo
2005/06 Mahindra United
2006/07 Dempo
2007/08 Dempo
2008/09 Churchill
2009/10 Dempo
2010/11 Salgaocar
2011/12 Dempo
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 National Level Football League Winners

 Goa: 7

 Bengal: 6

 Maharashtra: 1

 Punjab: 1

 Last 5 Seasons: Goa
It can be clearly seen from the above numbers why the Goan and
Bengal clubs attract such strong fan support. Of the 15 seasons of
national football league that took place till date 13 have been won by
clubs based in Bengal and Goa.
 NFL: Mohun Bagan (3/11), East Bengal (3/11), Dempo (2/11)

 I League: Dempo (2/5)
 Federation Cup: Mohun Bagan (13/33), East Bengal (7/33),
Salgaocar (4)
 Durand Cup: Mohun Bagan (18)

 IFA Shield: East Bengal (27)

The above statistics clearly show why only a handful of football clubs,
the likes of Mohun Bagan, East Bengal & Dempo have managed to
attract strong fan support and sponsorships.
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Club Locations
Another factor that has also influenced regional dominance in Indian
football is the locations of the football clubs.

Overall Post 2000
North 1 (3%) 0
South 7 (18%) 5 (36%)
West 11 (29%) 4 (29%)
East 10 (26%) 2 (14%)
North East 9 (24%) 3 (21%)

Not only have most of the successful clubs based in the west (Goa)
and the east (Bengal) regions but also in absolute terms majority of
the clubs are based in these regions.

To further look into this factor of regional dominance

 Football Clubs in only 13 states

 No clubs in Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, UP, Bihar, AP, etc. 15 states

36
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National Squad Composition
 State wise

o Goa: 13

o Bengal: 12

o Maharashtra: 4

o Sikkim: 1

 Club wise

o Dempo: 5

o Salgaocar: 3

o Churchill Brothers: 4

o Mohun Bagan: 6

o East Bengal: 4

o Prayag United: 1

o Palian Arrows: 1

o Pune FC: 3

o Air India: 1

o United Sikkim: 1
These statistics clearly show that specific regions have dominated
football in India and this has led to the uneven growth of the sport in
India. The fact that there clubs from only 13 states have participated
in the national league show the ignorance that exists in india
relating to the sports and this in turn has been hampering the
development of the sport in the country.
37
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Unstable National Structure
One of the major reasons for the decline or the stunted growth of
Indian football has been the absence or rather the unstable structure
of Indian football competitions especially the national league.

The absence of a national league has been a major reason for the
stunted growth of Indian football in the period 1965-91. The absence
of a national competition affected the investment in the sport which
in turn affected the development of talent which was then the key
reason for the dismal performance of the Indian club and national
football teams in domestic and international competitions.
To take a look at the unstable structure of competitions in India let‟s
take a look at the changing pattern of the national league since its
inception in 1995/96.

 National Football League

 1996/97- 2 Stage, 12 Teams

 1997/98- 10 Teams

 1998/99- 2 Stage, 12 Teams

 1999/2000- 2004/05 - 12 Teams

 2005/06-2006/07- 10 Teams
 I league

 2007/08: 10 Teams

 2008/09: 12 Teams

 2009/10- 2011/12: 14 teams

 2012/13- Expected to Change
In the 15 seasons of the national league, the competition has been
changed 8 times. This structural inconsistency has affected the
38

performance of clubs as well as sponsorships.
Page



Conclusion
It was the victory of the Mohun Bagan team in 1911 that sparked the
football revolution in India through Bengal and till date Kolkata
remains the Mecca of Indian football.

The football revolution that followed the first victory by an Indian
team over a foreign team which then went on to win the IFA shield
led to an outburst of talent in Indian football with fantastic players
and coaches. This outburst of talent is clearly seen in the golden era
of Indian football in the period 1950-64 but the post this period
Indian football saw a steep decline and it was only after 1992 that
Indian football started to recover from a long period of ignorance.

India doesn‟t have the talent or the resources to make the scoreboard
shine, we lack quality at each section of the field, but we certainly
qualify to be a team or a nation gifted with decent sporting talent.
The Indian football national team is not going to qualify for the world
cup if we do not let go of our obsession with the problems at the grass
root level structure. Our biggest problem is not that we haven‟t got
talent but rather that we fail to use optimally what lies in our
backyard, we think only a super talent can change our fortunes and
for his birth we wait, we hope for the next Maradona or Pelé to be
born in India and so we keep dreaming.
The key ingredient to winning games in sports is not talent, its team
work, a word that only stays on our drawing boards and our
criticisms.
Why is Barcelona the best team in the world at the moment? And
why is Manchester city the most hated club in the world? well
Barcelona‟s got Messi is what everyone would think, everyone fails to
see what a wonder pep Guardiola has built, the Pique-Puyol wall in
defence, Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets creating magic in the midfield,
everyone fails to see the chemistry he‟s build in the team, Barcelona
for me is the best way to define a team willing to die for each other
39

and Manchester city is what you get when you get inspired my Bill
Page

James‟s work on baseball. Statistical analysis is a great way to build


teams and predict the future but it‟s important to put heart into
numbers because football isn‟t just about how many goals you can
score or concede… it‟s about grits. You can‟t just buy eleven players
who will concede the least and score the most goals, you have to build
such a team and it can be done without a monstrosity o f talent you
just need to make the right moves.
Remember Greece winning the Euro, take a look at teams like
Everton who have always been in the top ten in the Premier League
consistently, better yet take a look at Newcastle this season, they
haven‟t got best talent in England but yet you'd find them in the top
6, wonder why?

Getting back to India, we cannot build a thousand youth academies
to develop talent from its birth, nor can we improve the
organizational structure to match the world‟s finest, what we can do
is rather than adopting the world acclaimed formations or match
strategies and instead of running after the football culture of
successful nations and try to replicate their models, build a culture of
our own use statistical analysis and mix it up with some
psychological fine tuning.
We haven‟t got world class technique at our disposal but we can win
games just by simply improving the team passing rate and for that
you get back to the magic word team chemistry, yet again rather
than pushing all eleven players at one go, tear the team in to pieces
and then aim at efficiency. Develop the center backs-goalkeeper,
winger-full back, center midfielders and lastly the forwards units
separately and then fit all the pieces together, it is easier for player
to get close and adapt to another if it done one at a time than trying
to make all eleven sing the same tune together at the same time. A
team that makes the least mistakes is the team that wins, improving
efficiency & and accuracy or rather simply, error minimization must
be out motto.
India cannot play like world-class teams but we can always ensure
40

we make less or as many mistakes as a winning team.
Page



For too long now has the Indian football economy been ignored as a
market to be invested in & monetized, the lack of talent & interest
being the expressed and obvious reasons but the 21 st century has
brought with it the much anticipated and desperately needed change
with increased and rapid rise in interest in the sport that once
brought glory to this mighty nation, Investment in the sport is on the
rise with the incentive to commercialize and position brands in a 1.4
billion strong economy attracting worldwide interests.
Indian football is on the rise and before making ambitious plans for a
bright future of Indian football it is essential to understand the
reasons that led to the decline in Indian football and this has been
the primary objective of this master‟s thesis.

41
Page



The Road Ahead
Indian football seems to be heading for a brighter, and some of the
factors that promise a better tomorrow include

 Proposed Bid for U17 FIFA World Cup 2017/2019
 National Level League- New Format Based on the lines of Major
League Soccer (USA)

 Proposed two tier 16 team League to be announced on 20 th April

 Youth Development Programs
 FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool, Bayern Munich,
Manchester City, etc. have already made investments in India in
the form of commercial structures and youth academies with more
to follow.

 Increased Sponsorships & Corporate culture
 Pune FC, Mumbai FC have been at the forefront at present in
attracting corporate sponsorships and have also been the pioneers
in professional management of the club.

42
Page



Bibliography
 Books
 History of Indian Football by Nirmal Nath
 A Social History of Indian Football: Striving to Score by Boria
Majumdar, Kausik Bandyopadhyay
 Stories from Indian Football by Basu J
 Websites
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_national_football_team
 http://tejas-iimb.org/articles/33.php
 http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=ind/index.html
 http://www.the-aiff.com/
 Articles
 Talent Identification and Development in Indian Football by John
Hammond
 From recreation to competition: Early history of Indian football
 Uncovering the Sleeping Giant syndrome: India in Olympic
football by Kausik Bandyopadhyay
 Goalless, the Story of a Unique Footballing Nation by Majumdar,
Boria, Bandyopadhyay, Kausik.
 1911 in Retrospect: A Revisionist Perspective on a Famous Indian
Sporting Victory by Kausik Bandyopadhyay
 Triumphs and Disasters: The Story of Indian Football, 1889-2000
by Novy Kapadia
 How Gavaskar killer Indian Football by Satadru Sen
43
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