Soccerex: Emerging Markets Panel on India

The Soccerex European Forum 2012 will be held on March 28/29 with leading figures of European and world football gathering in Manchester, England. And once more India will be on the agenda with an 'Emerging Markets' workshop solely focusing on Indian football going to be held on the second day of the Forum.

As someone who has been to a number of Soccerex conventions and forums, I know that India has been on the agenda of the Soccerex organisers for many, many years and they have tried to give Indian football a global platform.

This time the India workshop is being hosted by Soccerex in conjunction with the Federation of Industrial Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Libero Sports (official Soccerex representatives in India).

The India workshop will focus on the what the organisers call unique business opportunities in Indian football. The session will be moderated by Sukhvinder Singh (MD Libero Sports) with AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das, Desh Deepak Verma (Director General of the Sports Authority of India), Vishwajeet Kadam (Secretary of Bharati Vidyapeeth University & AKFDC), Mario De Vivo (Inter Milan CCO), a representative from IMG-Reliance and possibly others taking part.

The focus will be on India's strategic vision for football, at both domestic and international level, and the work in development to optimise the country's bid to host the Under-17 World Cup in 2017. The workshop comes weeks after the visit of FIFA President Sepp Blatter to India to see the infrastructure progress in the country first hand. During the visit, Blatter met India's President and Prime Minister besides the football fraternity to update himself on the various developmental works in the country which also include FIFA-sanctioned projects.

AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das said ahead of the workshop, "Soccerex is undoubtedly the world's biggest football business event. The India Session at Soccerex would give us an opportunity to talk about the unique business opportunities in Indian football. With India bidding for 2017 U-17 World Cup, Soccerex would provide an excellent platform to showcase our potential to the world."

I will be in Manchester next week to report about the panel and get views on what people in football think about India and its football.