Live India, Love Football

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) hosted their 4 th FICCI Turf Global Sports Summit last week at the Federation House near India Gate.  This was the 3 rd time I had attended this event which is surprisingly the only high profile sports summit hosted in India for the public.  It was a 2 day event with about 400 people representing agencies, sports federations, government bodies, corporates, students, international groups, leagues and clubs in attendance. The format was panel discussions for the general group of attendees and invite only roundtables for select attendees.  I attended my first FICCI Turf in 2010 while I was with Dentsu and was as desperate and lost as one of the many students who typically attend this conference.  Back then I barely knew anyone and didn’t really have much to discuss in terms of my recent activities to support the growth of sport in India. In conversation I usually resorted to rattling off my ...

It’s morning October 25, 2009.  I exit through the door of my NYC – Delhi Emirates Airlines flight full of a whiskey infused confidence.  I stride through immigration brashly displaying my freshly minted Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card and then head to the baggage counter to pick up my entire life which has been stuffed into 3 large suitcases. Despite the large amount of luggage I’m carrying, customs waives me through the exit and I search for my taxi driver who I assumed would be holding a large sign displaying my name.  I pace back and forth and see no “Neel Shah” placard.  My arms are getting sore lugging my bags back and forth, my face is getting tired of wearing the fake smile which I am unnecessarily keeping and my confidence is fading at the same pace as the whiskey high.  I don’t want to exit the airport as I know that they won’t let me back in so I just continue pacing for a half an hour. Finally, I give up and head over to the Airtel counter to cal...

This past weekend I participated in a 6v6 corporate football tournament which took place at Thyagaraj Stadium in Delhi.  I’ll save the readers of this blog from hearing about my dismal performance that included a yellow card for a nasty challenge which should have gotten me kicked out of the tournament and I’ll focus this post on some of the interesting work that tournament organizers, TheFootballLink, are doing to support the growth of football in India. TheFootballLink is an effort to create a trust based ecosystem, where all the stakeholders in football come together and work towards a common philosophy. With the football community, they research, plan, publicize and execute multiple initiatives in grassroots football. This is exactly what is taken off of their website and, at first glance, this mission statement would make even the most optimistic person working in Indian football a bit skeptical given that no one has been able to really unify the Indian football landsca...

I almost died on an Indian road the other day.  I know when you read this sentence it is not a surprise; Indian roads are notoriously crazy and people, elephants, buffaloes, cows, donkeys, monkeys, pigs, lizards, squirrels, etc… fall victim to road deaths every day.  I didn’t almost die while driving on the road, I actually almost died while running on an Indian road. Again, you may say that this doesn’t sound too crazy as everyone knows that it is stupid to run through the supposed “organized chaos” of Indian roads.  Actually, I almost died running on an Indian road when there wasn’t a single car in sight. Ok, I’ll get to the point. I ran my 3rd Airtel Delhi Half Marathon this past weekend and literally almost passed out on the road. Anyone who has followed this blog would know that over the past 3 years I have run 2 half marathons and 1 full one which means that I shouldn’t have any issues with running one more half marathon; I thought the same as well until I did ev...

The other day I attended a roundtable entitled, “1 st Roundtable 2012 on Importance of Sports in Education.” It was hosted by a company called Worlddidac as well as FICCI and took place in a makeshift conference room set up right in the middle of the Pragati Maidan Exhibition Hall where hundreds of organizations were showcasing their products or services to players within India’s vast education and exponentially growing industry.   I appreciated the opportunity to participate in a discussion about this topic as it is close to my heart.  Growing up in California, I was blessed with the opportunity to attend schools which took physical education seriously and showed this by providing daily opportunities to play, high quality sports equipment and coaches who understood how to create sporting environments which were conducive to growth and fun. Looking  back, it is easy to attribute much of my "success" in life from the skills I developed on my school playgrounds...

Awhile back I wrote about how I’ve seen more live non-football professional sporting events while living in India than I had seen in my entire 29 years in the US.  It was a big surprise to me when I realized this as it was something I never expected to happen prior to moving to India.  So now I have been surprised again.  I’ve realized that I’ve become closer to more US professional athletes while living in India than I had in my 29 years in the US. It’s not that I’ve met more US professional athletes while over here, it’s that I’ve been able to build a better relationship with the ones I have met. I never could have predicted this, but now looking back I’ve realized that it’s quite simple.  There are not a lot of people who have worked in the US professional sports industry and then chosen to live in India. Given that and the fact that the sports industry is surprisingly small, I get the opportunity to connect with a number of US professional athletes who c...

I recently attended 10 football matches being played by professional clubs or countries all within a span of 11 days. No I didn’t take a European tour or another whirlwind soccer trip through the US; all of these games were watched in Delhi in 2 stadiums which are only about a dozen kilometers apart from each other. How does this happen? Well, for better or for worse the Nehru Cup and the Durand Cup were both hosted in Delhi at the exact same time. The Nehru Cup is an international tournament hosted by AIFF which has been played in India every few years since 1982.  The Durand Cup, established in 1888, is one of the oldest tournaments in Asia and is organized by the Army for India based professional clubs.  This year the Nehru Cup was hosted in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium while the Durand Cup was hosted in Ambedkar Stadium. I had heard and read much about these competitions prior to and since moving to India, however I’m clear that there is no better education than act...