When the first-ever Indian Super League (ISL) match kicks off tomorrow in Kolkata, team owners and corporates will closely watch India’s glitzy new football tournament to gauge its business potential.
Owners of the eight city teams that make up the league include a mix of Bollywood stars, Indian business tycoons and top cricketers.
ISL “is going to ignite the passion for football amongst the people of India”, says Amit Wadhwa, the senior vice-president at Dentsu Creative Impact, an advertising agency working with the Delhi Dynamos ISL team, in a creative and strategy capacity. “And according to me, passion for football will be directly proportional to business, sponsorship potential of the sport. Football is a sport threatening to become big in India for sometime now, but now with the Indian Super League I feel that the time has come, finally.”
Football has been growing in popularity in recent years in India, as European league matches are increasingly being broadcast on India’s sports channels. Asian nations’ participation in Fifa has also been on the rise, which is making India look at football more seriously.
In a country where cricket is by far the most-popular and lucrative sport, there are challenges, however, heightening the risk for such a venture. These include the country’s limited football infrastructure, with little investment having gone into the sport over the years.
The new league has been set up by IMG Reliance – a joint venture between IMG Worldwide, a sports entertainment company headquartered in the United States, and the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries – along with the TV network Star India, and the All-India Football Federation.
There has already been a great deal of hype surrounding the ISL ahead of its first three-month long season, with a number of high-profile names linked to the tournament. Mumbai City FC, which is playing against Atlético de Kolkata tomorrow, has signed renowned players such as the former Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg and French striker Nicolas Anelka, who will play alongside Indian footballers. FC Goa has signed up Robert Pires, a French footballer best known for having played for Arsenal.
The franchise for Mumbai City FC is owned by Ranbir Kapoor, a popular Bollywood actor. The Kerala Blasters team is owned by the former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Prasad V Potluri, an Indian investor and entrepreneur.
The winning bidders paid about US$25 million for each 10-year franchise, meaning that the eight franchises totalled $200m.
Ritesh Nath is the general manager of Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment, a Mumbai-based agency which represents sports stars including the cricketer Virat Kohli, who co-owns the Goa ISL team, and India’s football captain, Sunil Chhetri. Making football more commercial in India and bringing in corporate funds is exactly what is needed, Mr Nath says.
“In order for us to grow the sport in India, we need corporate backing,” he says. “We need sponsors to come on board to support the teams, to support the stadiums, to develop the infrastructure.”
The ISL signed a partnership with the English Premier League to allow it to tap its expertise in creating a football competition. This bodes well for the new tournament, given that the Premier League is the most-watched league in the world and has some of the biggest sponsorship deals. Revenues for clubs in the Premier League in the financial year 2012 to 2013 reached more than £2.5 billion (Dh14.86bn), according to Deloitte.
There have been similar efforts recently to set up football leagues in countries such as Australia with varying degrees of success. But the ISL is differentiating itself by using a mix of foreign star players and developing local talent, which could help it succeed, Mr Nath says.
Major League Soccer (MLS) was launched in the US in 1996 and struggled for years, losing millions of dollars, as teams played in near-empty American football stadiums. But owners then invested in purpose-built venues, more teams came into the competition, and the league is now profitable.
India’s other football league, the I-League, has been unable to enjoy success because of a lack of funding and factors such as limited coverage on television.
“The reason why the I-League has not done so well is purely because of [a lack of] packaging and corporates backing football as a sport in India at the grass root level,” Mr Nath says. “Football has never really been part of a private organisation; football has always been run at a state level.”
Star India is broadcasting the ISL matches across eight channels in five languages. Such coverage “has never seen before in a league sport in India”, says Mr Nath.
Sanjay Gupta, the chief operating officer of Star India, says that the ISL “heralds the birth of India as a footballing nation”.
“We believe in the potential of football as a sport that cuts across culture, race, religion and economic might,” he adds.
These factors are likely to help to attract sponsors. Hero Motocorp, an Indian motorcycle and scooter manufacturer, is the title sponsor of the ISL, for a fee of about 200 million rupees (Dh12m) a year, according to industry estimates cited by Business Standard, a Indian financial newspaper.
“Brands are looking at opportunities for a real and meaningful interaction opportunity with the youth of India and what better than the sport of football?” says Mr Wadwha. “They have lapped up English Premier League, La Liga and the World Cup recently. If the quality of the sport is good, which ISL promises to provide, there is no reason why the brands will not have an option beyond cricket and Bollywood.”
Ozone Group, a Bangalore-based property company, is the title sponsor of Chennaiyin FC, an ISL team which is owned by the Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachan and cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
“ISL happened to be a opportunity,” says Srinivasan Gopalan, the chief executive of Ozone Group. “Chennai is the place which actually gave Ozone its large project called Metrozone. We have actually been doing a grass roots programme in Bangalore for the past five years for all those children who cannot afford it, to promote football. So it was a very logical decision for us.”
He adds that the company was attracted by the “glamour” brought by the celebrities investing in league.
“We believe that there will be a lot of mileage given to ISL.”
The league has not been without its setbacks. The launch date of the competition was pushed back and the Indian conglomerate Sun Group, which had bought the Bangalore franchise, backed out in August, amid reports of disagreements with the organisers. Chennai’s team then came in to replace the Bangalore franchise.
Many will compare the new football league to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket competition which was launched in 2008.
IPL teams have struggled to reach profitability, but the money invested by owners was significantly higher with India’s UB Group buying the IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore for an estimated $112m.
“Because the economic entry barriers to the ISL were a lot lower, I foresee the teams recovering their money breaking even a lot quicker than the IPL,” says Mr Nath.
He is optimistic about the potential of the ISL, estimating that teams could break even within five years.
“I think the business model is pretty spot on,” Mr Nath says. “I think it’s only set to grow. It’s at a very nascent stage right now.”
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Getting there
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
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COPA DEL REY
Semi-final, first leg
Barcelona 1 (Malcom 57')
Real Madrid (Vazquez 6')
Second leg, February 27
UAE players with central contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Rameez Shahzad, Shaiman Anwar, Adnan Mufti, Mohammed Usman, Ghulam Shabbir, Ahmed Raza, Qadeer Ahmed, Amir Hayat, Mohammed Naveed and Imran Haider.
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Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
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Awar Qalb
Director: Jamal Salem
Starring: Abdulla Zaid, Joma Ali, Neven Madi and Khadija Sleiman
Two stars
Types of fraud
Phishing: Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
Smishing: The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
Vishing: The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
SIM swap: Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
Identity theft: Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
Prize scams: Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
* Nada El Sawy
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
WORLD CUP SEMI-FINALS
England v New Zealand (Saturday, 12pm)
Wales v South Africa (Sunday, 1pm)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
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Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Bridgerton%20season%20three%20-%20part%20one
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Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 400hp
Torque: 560Nm
Price: Dh234,000 - Dh329,000
On sale: now
Company%20Profile
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Company%20Profile
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
