Can football provide for a great Corporate Social Opportunity rather than responsibility?

There has been plenty of talk about India, touted as the sleeping giant of Indian football awakening. Having earned the rights to host the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and the launch of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL), India has found itself on the global map of football.

But despite a great potential, Indian football remains weak at its grassroots and a lack of investment and dedicated efforts haven’t helped the Indian National Football team. But with the hype and enhanced perception of Indian football on the world stage, there are plenty of opportunities for corporates to invest in the beautiful game in India.

With the Government making it mandatory for corporates to spend at least 2% of their revenue on social welfare, developing the a sport like football at the grassroots level could not just be a good option to have for these corporates, but also a great business opportunity considering the vast potential for the game in the country.

CEO of Mumbai City FC, Indranil Das Blah had faith in the thought of football providing a great opportunity for corporates to do their CSR in but feels that the football structure in India still has a long way to go before they could expect large investments.

“I feel football definitely has potential, but I feel we still have a long way to go in terms of attracting investment for grassroots development. Hopefully in foreseeable future, we will be able to achieve it,” said the Mumbai City FC CEO.

However Jitendra Joshi, Co-Founder and Director of SportzConsult, believed that major corporates have started looking at sports as a viable option to invest in.

“We were approached by the Government of Gujarat to develop a grassroots plan for certain areas which they had marked for sports development in the state. The plan got a good response from the corporates and it shows that the Indian corporates have started looking at sports for investment,” Joshi said while speaking at the India Football Forum in Mumbai.

How can Indian Football benefit from extensive use of new media to reach to its fans?

In another knowledge session at the India Football Forum in Mumbai, an esteemed panel representing new media companies and other sports business firms discussed how new forms of media like social media platforms could help football to reach its fans.

Pranesh Krishnamurthy, CEO of The Football Mind, which a kind of a social media platform for the Indian footballers and its fans spoke on how social media platforms could galvanise fans and help to develop strong fan groups for a particular sports team.

“The Football Mind has tried to enhance the fan engagement, thus helping to create a greater fan base. We worked with Mumbai FC and were successful in uniting die-hard fans of the club into one cohesive force. The attendances in the stadium also increased after our constant campaigns on social networks,” said Krishnamurthy at the India Football Forum in Mumbai.