Indian Football

All India Football Federation finally has made some real Impact decision by signing a deal with IMG Reliance for 15 long years.  This way IMG Reliance has bagged the Commercial Rights of Indian Football. This is one of those landmark decisions taken by AIFF to develop the game from both the grass root level and guide it towards a professional environment.

The 15 Year agreement includes sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, film, video and data, intellectual property, franchising and new league rights. This will help the game to be more popular among the crowd and will motivate more people to create interest in this game.

The AIFF who currently has given the broadcasting rights to ZEE television for the next 5 season including this season will be taken off and Zee Telefilms would be paid a compensation of Rs.70 crore’s after the relations between the two parties had gone sour complaining over the lack of enough cooperation from the other in several matters.

The AIFF has now given IMG reliance the responsibility to develop the branding and marketing strategies of the national team, domestic competition and participating teams. It would also look at scheduling, restructuring and reformatting of the domestic competitions.

They are also planning to create a new competitive league with proper planning and scheduling done along with AIFF and other concerned bodies. IMG Reliance are already planning to develop the infrastructure and other training facilities this will include training facilities, modeled on IMG Academies in Bradenton, Florida. So this is to attract better quality of foreign players and increase thy level of competition.

Commenting on the development, Mrs. Nita Ambani, Member on the Board, IMG Reliance said, “As the youth of India make a mark in the global stage, we need to invest in developing platforms which can help our talent to realize their potential.

The real potential in Indian Football might be one of the main reasons for Reliance Signing such a deal with AIFF. Out of 1.2 Billion population of the country investing for the country second most popular game is never a bad attempt. The popularity of game in the country has been ever increasing and this was clearly witnessed at the time 2010 FIFA World Cup.  The total of 110 million of viewers for the FIFA World Cup is a perfect example to suggest the public support behind this game and the potential behind it.

It would be very interesting to see how the country reacts to this sporting decision and whether this would turn out to be a real boon for promoting the game in the country.

Tags: Advertising, AIFF, All India Football Federation, Broadcasting, Film, Football, IMG Reliance, Indian Football, Merchandising, Sponsorship, Video