Live India, Love Football

The Indian Super League (ISL), a concept which has been discussed at length for the past three years, has finally arrived. And, although it’s true that this property remained in the minds and mouths of IMG-Reliance executives in Mumbai and London for far too long, I must say that I’m pleasantly surprised with what the league office staff have been able to put together over the past few months.   Coming from my Major League Soccer days, I have a decent sense of all the different moving parts required to organize a quality professional football league, a task which is exponentially harder in a country like India where systems and processes are merely good ideas and far from reality. In spite of all odds, ISL has successfully launched with most of the necessary elements in place to support the development of a sustainable league: ownership with deep pockets, strong broadcast partner, clear brand identity, robust marketing plan, family of partners and rosters filled with a mix of rec...

One of my friends in the industry, Shikhar Malhotra, invited me to his house yesterday evening for dinner and drinks.  It wasn't just any house nor was just any dinner. Shikhar is the son-in-law of Indian mogul Shiv Nadar who is most known for creating HCL, a massive technology company and establishing the Shiv Nadar Foundation, one of India's largest non-profit organisations.  Shikhar is an executive with HCL and a trustee with the Shiv Nadar Foundation and happens to love football which is how we have cross paths many times over the past few years.   Given that Shikhar loves football and that his school has recently tied up with french club Paris Saint Germain, he went ahead and invited Portuguese and PSG legend Pauleta who was in town for a few days on behalf of his former club. In addition to being one of the highest goal scorers in PSG history, Pauleta represented Portugal in the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups scoring a hat trick against Poland in 2002.   ...

I'm happy to post that Libero Sports India has been named a finalist for the 2014 Football Business Awards.  This is the first time that an India based organisation has been shortlisted for this prestigious award.  I'm really grateful for this recognition and proud of my entire team for creating enough small and big wins in the often times complex Indian football industry to earn the respect of the global football community. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge November 6, 2014. Fingers crossed. Here is a link to an article in Goal.com about the nomination: http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/136/india/2014/09/18/5114887/libero-sports-india-shortlisted-for-the-football-business-awards-

I’ve attended many parties in my life, all across the globe.   And the one thing that I can confidently say is that it feels damn good to be the most popular, desired person at the party.   The experience is just completely different when this is the case: people approach you, conversations seem to flow, you get introduced to friends of friends of friends, you get invited to multiple after-parties and you never find yourself standing alone in the corner trying to look busy checking Facebook updates.   These are the types of parties that you never want to end and somehow leave with more energy than when you first arrived. The 2014 Soccerex Global Convention turned out to be one of these types of parties for the FICCI-Libero Sports Indian delegation.   Our delegation started the trip with private tours of Melwood and Anfield, a once in a lifetime experience for any fan of the beautiful game.   Liverpool FC management then treated us to a traditional English ...

I spent the whole of last week in Bangkok, a place that I’ve always desired to explore yet surprisingly have never been to.   My opportunity finally came during a conversation with one of the partners of Libero Sports in Santa Monica, California a few weeks back. It became clear that it makes sense to begin pitching our consulting services to some of the Thai Premier League clubs our Libero Sports Japan colleagues have been supplying players to over the years.     Next thing I know is that   two weeks later I’m on a Thai airways red-eye flight heading directly to Bangkok.    With Libero Sports colleagues and some of the Japanese players we represent currently playing in the Thai Premier League The entire week was full of excitement.   My colleagues in our Japan office have built strong relationships with a number of key influencers within the Thai Football industry which opened up the doors to a series high profile meetings with Thai Pre...

Anyone who has been to Bangalore with me knows how much I love the Garden City. My first trip to Bangalore (now Bengaluru) was back in 2008 when a friend of a friend offered me first class hospitality.   It was during that trip when I experienced the thrill of riding through Indian streets on the back of a motorcycle, the delight of eating simple but delicious dhaba food and the fear of getting my first straight blade razor shave.   However, more than the experiences above, what I liked most about Bangalore was the simplicity of the people, the relaxed manner in which people went about life, not too rushed, not too showy, not too cut-throat dis-similar to what I experience in the north on a daily basis.   Oh, and I also liked the California-type weather, the plush greenery and the beautiful girls. Since that maiden trip, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Bangalore multiple times a year for meetings, events and weddings, and each trip seems to be more enj...

The other day I was fortunate to be in Bangalore to host a group at the India v Pakistan friendly football match.  I was excited since it was the first time these two countries have competed in football since 2005 and Bangalore Football Stadium is one of the best venues to watch a live match. The atmosphere around and inside of the stadium was certainly electric, especially for a Wednesday 3:30pm kick off.  Packed house, passionate supporters and the always appreciated Bengaluru FC fans singing songs throughout the match.  That's pretty much where the highlights stop. I guess you can't expect much from a team ranked 150th in FIFA rankings (India) playing against a team ranked 164th (Pakistan), however given the amount of money which AIFF has put into India's training camp, I did expect some basic ball movement and given India's long standing hatred for Pakistan, I did expect some fight. I saw neither on that Wednesday afternoon. It was 90 minutes of long balls, p...