Live India, Love Football

For my entire professional career, I’ve always been on the neutral side of football. Because of this, I’ve never been emotionally attached to any club in any of the countries where I’ve worked.   While at Major League Soccer in the US, I worked with the League Office so when the season was going on I was more concerned with how many people were in attendance at the matches and how entertaining the match was versus who actually won.   I know it sounds soft and superficial but it was professionally and personally challenging to get too emotionally involved with one particular club when all the clubs mattered to me. Similarly in India at Dentsu and Libero Sports, I just wanted the clubs to do well and play quality football so the industry could grow.   At the end of the day, it really didn’t matter to me who actually won the I-League or ISL season. Of course I wanted the players we represented to do well and, at times, if one of my friends was in management at a particular club I wo

On Saturday evening, I attended an India vs. Puerto Rico FIFA friendly match at Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai.  More than the result, I was interested in 3 firsts which were associated with this match: First #1 – this was the first India home match hosted in Mumbai in 61 years First #2 – this was the first time a CONCACAF team travelled to India to play a match First #3 – this was the first India match that I have attended where the entire stadium was full of energy, cheering for the Blue Tigers India ended up winning the match 4-1 which will certainly help the morale of the entire Federation as well as the country’s FIFA ranking. These types of experiences give me great hope that with the right infrastructure, domestic talent and league structuring in place, football in this country will quickly rise to new heights. Bollywood star Abhishek Bachan attended the match