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With the FIFA World Cup fever over last Sunday, India is gearing up for its own football league, the Indian Super League (ISL). Sameer Manchanda, owner of the Delhi franchise of ISL, Delhi Dynamos FC, is convinced that football has arrived in India and it’s just the right time to invest in the sport.
On Thursday, DEN Soccer, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DEN Networks which owns the Delhi franchise, Delhi Dynamos FC, announced its tie up with Feyenoord, a Dutch professional football club from Rotterdam.
Under this alliance, Feyenoord will assist Delhi Dynamos in overall development of its team, besides providing its international players and technical staff to the franchise. ISL’s first edition is slated for kick off in September.
Right moment Talking about the key triggers for investing in a football team, Manchanda, CMD DEN Networks, told Business Line , “I am passionate about football and sports in India is going through a transformation, led by football, which has emerged as the second most popular sport. We want to be part of this transformation. We believe football is the future of sport. The game is getting popular among the youth, especially in the age groups of 15-22.”
Parallel move Manchanda also said that associating with football at this stage is synergistic for the company, as its set to launch and aggressively promote its broadband services. “We are going to be making investments in marketing and scaling up our broadband internet services and will be leveraging on our association with football,” he said. DEN Networks is India’s second largest cable TV distribution company serving about 13 million households. The company has already soft-launched its broadband services in parts of Delhi and plans to expand to other regions in September.
The total cost for the team for the full year is pegged at ₹45-50 crore. “Our endeavour is to break even by the third year. Our revenue will come from the broadcasting rights, match day revenues through sale of stadium tickets and commercial rights through sponsorships,” he said.
He expected the association with Feyenoord Rotterdam to help Delhi Dynamos build a world-class team. “They will help us train our players, coaches and technical staff and the overall development of the sport in the country. Also, we will get access to their world class players and technical staff,” he added.
While the first edition of ISL is slated to be a two-month long affair, Manchanda hopes that just like the international leagues, it will eventually have a longer calendar.
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