The India Panel at the Soccerex European Forum

For a second year running the Soccerex European Forum gave a platform for Indian football to showcase itself on Thursday, April 11 afternoon with this years panel having the title 'Awakening Football's Sleeping Giant'.

The India session was moderated by Sukhvinder Singh, the Managing Director of Libero Sports India. The panelists taking part were Vivek Narayan (Director Sports, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India), Rajpal Singh (Director Sports & Youth Affairs, FICCI), Kunal Dua (Head - Sports Marketing, Panasonic India) and Shirish Kulkarni (Executive Director – DSK Group, Owner of DSK Shivajians FC - Pune).

The aim of the session was to shed light on the Indian football market besides giving a positive outlook to the international football fraternity, whose most generic question has been for years, when will the 'Sleeping Giant' finally wake-up and be a player in the global football business.

That question could not be answered by the session, but one key statement came from Vivek Narayan when he said that the Government of India had received a new draft proposal from FIFA on hosting the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, which the world governing body would like us to host but for that certain regulations would need to be changed.

Rajpal Singh spoke about the role of FICCI as being a bridge between the government and sports federations, while also organising its own events as FICCI Turf and FICCI GOAL in bringing the different stakeholders together.

Kunal Dua spoke about what Panasonic India has done to activate football as a marketing tool, but also using Bollywood and Cricket stars for its promotion. He also spoke about what Indian football needs to do to attract further sponsorship.

Shirish Kulkarni spoke from a perspective of a team owner of a 2nd Division I-League club in DSK Shivajians FC, which gave a different insight then the other speakers and also some infos on the I-League Franchise expansion plan.

In the end the session gave a positive outlook though the problems became evident when the Q&A session was held and the people present asked the tough questions.

Soccerex - India Panel: Awakening Football's Sleeping Giant

The Soccerex European Forum 2013 will be held on April 10/11 with leading figures of European and world football gathering in Manchester, England. And once again India will be on the agenda with an 'Football's Growth 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 given 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 session will feature senior representatives from the key stakeholders involved in the development of Indian football. It will focus on the strategies and programmes currently in place as well as India's vision for football at both a domestic and international level.

Amongst the speakers will be Kushal Das (General Secretary, All India Football Federation), Pradeep Deb (Secretary of Sports, Government of India), Rajpal Singh (Director, Sports, Federation of Industrial Chambers of Commerce and Industry), Kunal Dua (Head, Sports Marketing, Panasonic India), Shirish Kulkarni (Owner, DSK Shivajians FC) and Sukhvinder Singh (Managing Director, Libero Sports India).

DSK Shivajians FC announce squad for 2nd Division I-League

New entrants DSK Shivajians FC from Pune have announced their list of 28 players including three foreigners for the upcoming 2nd Division I-League.

The 1987 formed club in early 2013 went professional with an aim to compete with the city's premier club Pune FC. Under new coach Pradyum Reddy, who was at Shillong Lajong FC earlier, the club has put together a good squad with as many as seven boys from the Pailan Arrows, three from Salgaocar's and other I-League fringe players.

DSK Shivajians FC have been drawn in Group A, to be played in Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh, alongside Delhi United Soccer Club, George Telegraph SC (Kolkata), Kenkre FC (Mumbai), KGF Academy (Bangalore), Kohima Komets (Nagaland), Langsning FC (Shillong), Rangdajied United FC (Shillong) and Samaleshwari Sporting Club (Orissa).


DSK Shivajians FC

Goalkeepers
Balaji Narasimhan, Abhishek Das, Lihaz Koya

Defenders
Bikramjit Singh Jr, Arijeet Singh, Shankar. S, Tonmoy Ghosh, Yusuke Yamagata, Raviraj Kurne, Gurjinder Singh, Karan Amin, Hayson Velho

Midfielders
Daisuke Nishiguchi, Ivo Fernandes, Andrew Don Bosco, Randhan Meetei Yumnam, S. Siam Hanghal, Keegan Parriera, N. Tomarjit Singh, Deepak Prakash, Don Bosco Fernandes, Subhojit Mazumdar

Forwards
Karan Sawhney, Malsawmfela, Gajanan Rajurwade, Oilex Oiliera, Motonobu Hosono, Melvin Tarley

Officials
Pradyum Reddy (Coach), Juje Siddi (Assistant & Goalkeeping Coach), Sourabh Deshmukh (Physio), Amit Vanjari (Manager)

FICCI GOAL 2013: Me moderating session on Reconceptualizing of Indian League system: Club vs City Franchisee!

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) will organise its first-ever FICCI GOAL 2013 - India Football, which will be an International Convention on Football Business on February 14/15 at Federation House on Tansen Marg in New Delhi.

I have been asked to moderate the second panel session titled 'Reconceptualizing of Indian League system: Club vs City Franchisee'. And I really look forward to it as it is a decisive question about where our league football could be heading in the years to come.

The brief about the session says, "After the success of IPL in cricket, it has been proven that Indians like city based league system but what is going to be the future of historic Football Clubs in India. What kind of league model should Indian football follow - MLS/IPL model or Club/EPL model? This session will discuss taking football to the masses."

Confirmed participants of the session are Sunando Dhar (CEO, I-League), Atul Pande (CEO, Ten Sports), Nandan Piramal (Chairman of Pune FC), Shirish Kulkari, (Chairman of DSK Shivajians) and Yajurvindra Singh Bilkha (Head Corporate Events and Sports, Tata Consultancy Services).


Other Sessions over the two days will include a wide range of topics concerning Indian football. Here an overview

- Football in Asia: Opportunities for India with focus on youth development

- Joining the dots of AIFF Lakshya 2022 & IMG-RIL 2026 Vision

- Football Stadia: Sustenance and Legacy of 'White Elephant'

- Strategy of acquisition and successful executive of 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in India

- A focused session on Success Stories in Indian football


To register for the event go to: http://www.ficci.com/events-page.asp?evid=21288 .