Live India, Love Football

Time truly is one of the most precious commodities we have. And sometimes, it takes a trip somewhere unexpected to be reminded of that. I was invited to speak to students at the National Sports University in Imphal, Manipur about career opportunities after graduation. I was excited for a couple of reasons. I had never travelled to Manipur before, and my previous experiences in the northeast of India have always been something special. Add to that the fact that I genuinely love every opportunity to speak with young people about building careers they care about, and I was already looking forward to the trip before I even packed a bag. My three-hour interactive session on "How to Create a Dream Career" went well. I went into full self-expression mode and, fortunately, the students responded positively, attentive, curious, and most importantly, engaged. But this post isn't really about the talk. It's about time and hospitality.  Flying from Bombay to Imphal is quite a jou...

I’m now into my third month of fatherhood. And while a big part of me wants to spend this entire post repeating all the clichés about being a girl dad, I’ll try to restrain myself. You know the ones: “There is nothing sweeter than coming home from work and seeing your daughter smile at you.” “Taking care of a newborn is exhausting, but it’s so worth it.” The kind of lines parents tell people who don’t yet have children. And if I’m being honest, when I was on the child-free side of that conversation, I often couldn’t really relate… and sometimes I didn’t particularly care either. (Maybe that was just me.) But since this blog is called Live India, Love Soccer , I feel obligated to connect this reflection to sport somehow. Luckily, I’ve realised something recently: Parenting a newborn has a lot in common with sport. More specifically, it has a lot in common with the strange emotional cycle that keeps people coming back to sports even when they’re bruised, frustrated, and occasionally hum...

(It Hasn’t Changed in 20+ Years) I’ve been working in the sports industry for over two decades now, and there’s one question I’ve been asked consistently, across countries, roles, generations, and formats: “What is the most important skill one needs to succeed in the sports industry?” My answer in the early 2000s was simple: Communication skills. And here we are in 2026 and my answer is still exactly the same. If anything, it has only become more important. The only evolution I’d make today is this: Spoken communication skills. In a world where AI can write emails, decks, proposals, strategies, and even speeches, what truly differentiates people is their ability to express , engage , and connect , in real time, as a human being. I’m talking about: • The ability to clearly articulate an idea, opportunity, or vision • The ability to engage one person or an entire room • The ability to listen deeply, remember what was said, and reflect it back meaningfully • The ability to delive...

A very personal update, with an unexpected connection to sport They say it’s a cliché, but clichés exist for a reason. When I held our daughter in my arms for the first time, I fell in love. That part was expected. What I didn’t expect was what happened after . Over the next few days, every time my wife and I looked at our daughter, we would just… smile. Not the polite, Instagram kind. The kind that comes from somewhere deep inside. A quiet, goofy, uncontrollable smile. As if we had achieved something monumental. As if she was our trophy. And suddenly, without trying, my mind went back to sport. Back to my younger days in the US, playing elite-level football (soccer), lucky enough to be part of a really good club team. We won a few championships back then. And after every win, the trophy would sit proudly in the clubhouse. It wasn’t a particularly fancy object. Some metal. Some engraving. Nothing magical about it on its own. But every time we looked at it, something happened. We felt ...

"Dreams are not fixed things—they are living, breathing forces that evolve as we grow, learn, and change." When I moved to India in 2009, I carried one dream in my heart: to help India qualify for the FIFA World Cup. It didn’t take long—just a few meetings, conferences, and conversations with stakeholders—for me to realize something crucial: while World Cup qualification would be an extraordinary achievement, serving as a catalytic moment for Indian football, it wasn’t the most urgent dream to be chasing at the time. The soil wasn’t quite ready for that seed to bloom. And so the dream evolved. I began focusing on helping to build a sustainable, thriving Indian football ecosystem—one that could, over time, make World Cup qualification not just possible, but inevitable. Through my work with Dentsu, Libero Sports, and DSK Shivajians–Liverpool FC, I began to see the dream taking shape. Not just in strategy decks or sponsorship deals, but in the eyes of young players, fans, and pr...

When I first arrived in India and began working in the sports industry, the concept of sports conferences was still relatively new. Major organizations like FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) and CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) were just starting to host events with names like ‘Turf’ and ‘Scorecard’. I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time—not only attending these conferences but also serving as an organizer. Having spent the early part of my career in North America’s sports industry, where events were meticulously planned and executed with the highest levels of professionalism, I found these initial conferences in India to be a stark contrast. The budgets were tight, speakers often confirmed at the last minute, panel sessions felt disjointed, and programming frequently ran late. Organizers were scrambling to fill seats, and things often felt a bit chaotic. But despite the challenges, the events went on. And at the end of e...