Indian Club Football: Why only investors from Bengal?

The above is a question which needs to be asked. Over the Indian football summer break a number of clubs and entities have been on the lookout for new partners and sponsors, but only companies from Kolkata have come forward to spend Rs 50 to 80 Million (5 to 8 crores) per year.

Surely one has to criticize Chirag Computers style of their Viva Kerala takeover to name them Chirag United Club Kerala or in short CUCK, which is even worse. But on the other side why has Kerala's lone entrant in the top tier of the I-League not been able to find a local Kerala sponsor/backer or a Non-Resident Keralite with money? Then the fact is without Chirag Computers owner Kaustav Roy being on the lookout for an I-League club after his split with United SC the future of Viva Kerala looked seriously bleak.

Take Kolkata-based United SC. The I-League side split from Chirag Computers due to differences in ownership but after a few weeks found a new long-term partner in the Prayag Group of Industries, who have agreed to sponsor them for six years. This gives he United SC management planning security.

The third example of this summer are the Indian Arrows, the AIFF's developmental team. The team was based in Delhi last season and played in Gurgaon, but due to the high costs involved the AIFF where on the lookout for a sponsor and partner for the Arrows who could adopt the team. They hoped to either keep the team in Delhi or shift to Bangalore or Pune with a national or local sponsor. It didn't happen, then in the end the Pailan Group from Kolkata became the partners and the Arrows have now shifted to their world school campus in Joka.

There are other companies from Kolkata to have come forward to fund Calcutta Premier Division sides with budgets which would surely make some of the I-League sides envious.

But why aren't there any investments into Indian club football elsewhere? Especially from Mumbai and to some extend Bangalore I have been hearing for years now that there are investors waiting in the wings to launch new clubs, but nothing has ever happened.

The biggest disappointment remains for me Kerala. There is a state with huge interest in football, people follow the sport there like in Bengal, Goa and the Northeast; but there seems to be no local business which can support and sustain a local football team at the top level? That can't be.

Hopefully companies and individuals with the necessary deep pockets in other parts of India come forward to fund clubs or even found clubs to compete with the best in the country, otherwise soon it will be a Kolkata and Goa league with some Indian flavour in it...