La Liga India MD Jose Antonio Cachaza says 2 Spanish clubs "seriously considering" buying an ISL franchise

"I am just a fan and I like to read," Jose Antonio Cachaza quips as I attempt to applaud the La Liga India managing director's comprehensive answer to one of the questions. Despite the weight of his position, there's a certain earnestness to the Spaniard's gait.

With the same earnestness, he admits that even into his sixth year at the helm, the task at hand for the Spanish top-tier league is still to find its footing in this vast and complex Indian market. In 2016, La Liga opened only its sixth overseas base of operations in the country, with the chief aim of boosting its presence in the Asian sub-continent.

While the targeted traditional and digital marketing strategies have reaped great benefits over the years, the Spanish league is still considerably trailing the hottest commodity, the English Premier League [EPL], in the words of the managing director himself.

Explaining the disparity between the two leagues and La Liga's approach to minimizing the gap, Cachaza in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda averred:

"Our job is to decrease the gap to them (EPL). We’re sort of going in that direction but we’re still far. So, if we’re conventional and do exactly what they do, we’ll never catch up."

La Liga has been anything but conventional since its venture into the Indian market. The shifting of their broadcasting rights to Viacom 18 has escalated its numbers, given that the digital platform now also houses the digital rights of the cash-rich Indian Premier League [IPL].

The effort to increase the footprint in India is not just limited to broadcasting or marketing efforts. The La Liga Football School venture in India is into its fifth season, allowing the league to penetrate deeper pockets of the country and create interpersonal relationships with families.

But most importantly, the rich Spanish influence on Indian football over the years is what has built up a substantial footballing relationship between the two countries. Players and coaches who have plied their trades in La Liga have regularly featured for the ISL outfit over the years and shaped the current scenario of Indian football.

Not just personnel, but even clubs from both nations have joined hands in the past to create an ever-lasting impact. Atletico de Kolkata, co-owned by Spanish giants Atletico Madrid, won the inaugural season of the ISL before the Los Rojiblancos parted ways two seasons later.

Since then, there's been a dearth of such high-profile ventures between the clubs of the two countries. However, Jose Antonio Cachaza, during the interaction with Sportskeeda, revealed that two Spanish clubs are "seriously considering buying an ISL franchise." However, he couldn't set a time frame for such a move to go through, given the complexities.

Here are excerpts from Sportskeeda's conversation with La Liga India Managing Director Jose Antonio Cachaza:

Question: Firstly Jose, it’s been close to six years since you’ve helmed the Indian division of La Liga now, and I wanted to start by asking you to reflect on that time and take us through what’s been the primary challenge right from the initial stages.

Jose Antonio Cachaza: Personally, it’s been an amazing experience. Just consider that I have no experience working in India at all (before this stint). We are dealing with quite a complex market in every sense.

From the outside, we tend to imagine India as a whole, but when we reached here we understood that many of the pre-conceived images we had of India were absolutely misleading because they were incomplete.

First, we needed to understand La Liga and football’s position in the market. Let’s not forget that we are a football property in a country where football is not the king sport.

When we started our international strategy, in most countries football was the primary sport. But if the audience statistics are right, 85 percent of the consumption of professional sports in India is cricket. We have to find our space in the next 15 percent. Of that percentage, obviously, not everything is football, so the share is even smaller.

The first is to understand where we stand and that’s been a challenge to find a place, to have a connection with the fans, and to make our brand more recognizable to the fans and the non-fans. When your space is that small, we need to grow beyond what our actual fans are.

Q: Looking into some of the positives during this period could give us a deep dive into the India-centric growth that the league has seen in India?

Jose: Basically, the growth is there and the figures talk clearly. On social media, we invested a lot because we realized it was an avenue we had to follow if we wanted to do things differently.

We are facing a transformation in the consumption of sports globally. Why? Until five-six years ago, everything was about television. Now look at the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the values the OTTs are taking.

This digital reach has become the protagonist, which wasn’t the case seven years ago. On social media, we are by far the largest international sports league in India because we take this more seriously than others.

Our television audience also keeps growing but it’s difficult for us to keep a steady account because we went from a traditional broadcaster to Facebook to again now to a traditional broadcaster plus OTT.

Q: You talked about La Liga's broadcasting strategy in the country and it's been a curious case. In 2018, the league handed the streaming rights for India to Facebook. It wasn’t the most conventional platform or choice at the moment. Did you see some dip in viewership during that period given the intricacies of the platform? Now how has this marriage with Viacom 18 shaped up?

Jose: Yes, it (the Facebook deal) was unconventional but we are unconventional and we had to be unconventional. The English Premier League (EPL) is the number one football league in the world in terms of broadcast revenue. Our job is to decrease the gap with them.

We’re sort of going in that direction but we’re still far. So, if we’re conventional and do exactly what they do, we’ll never catch up. The move with Facebook made all the sense at the time and it worked well for us, but for Facebook too it was an experiment. They realized that they do not specialize in the live rights of sports, so they didn’t continue.

If you ask me why we moved to Viacom 18, my answer would be, "Because we can!" If you’re an observer of sports broadcasts in India, we are absolutely in the right place. We were the first big sports property they signed and we’re very happy to be with Viacom 18. The fact that they are gaining a strong position in cricket with the digital rights of the IPL, basically helps us piggyback cricket. That’s exactly what we were doing with Sony previously.

This is exactly the bag of fans we want to target, convincing them that they could love watching Rohit Sharma hit a six but also love watching Antoine Griezmann score a goal. This is why Rohit is our brand ambassador.

But whatever the measure, year after year growth is constant. So the positives are there, but we are still far, far, far away from where we expect to be. Let me point out something else, the professional sports market in India still has a lot more to grow and it’s something we need to be ready to take advantage of.

Q: A question that you might have answered a thousand times already is the problem of widespread acceptance of clubs outside Real Madrid, Barcelona, and to some extent Atletico Madrid in India. In comparison, people are even familiar with the storylines of the second-tier clubs in the Premier League. I wanted to understand if this disparity is down to a lack of effort or if there is a greater challenge at play because otherwise, all these Spanish clubs are so rich in footballing history and culture.

Jose: There are several elements that can explain this. Firstly, EPL understood that they should go international, and they penetrated the Asian market 30 years ago.

I don't think even 10 years ago you could watch La Liga in India. In India, if you notice carefully, the traditional places like West Bengal and Kerala follow Brazil and Argentina more than EPL clubs.

This phenomenon especially applies to metropolitan India, which is more connected to the outside world and to people with a strong connection with the United Kingdom. Maybe they have a second residence there or have studied there. That’s there and it’s undeniable that the b'ig six' make noise. When you go to second-level clubs, Brentford and Brighton are just the supporting cast.

But it’s good that you mentioned Atletico Madrid because they are starting to show up now.

This is our challenge. It’s an important part of our job to try to make the second-tier clubs more present for the fans. If you compare the performances of Sevilla and Villarreal in Europe, they have been quite better than most of England's big six.

Look at Manchester United, they have been performing really poorly on the pitch for the last 10 years but they are still one of the top-three followed clubs in India. This loyalty takes time to develop, but they stand.

Q: Coming to La Liga’s endeavors in India, I wanted to talk to you about the La Liga Football School in India and how that has been shaping up and if there are such other initiatives that the league might have already established or plans to.

Jose: Well, this (La Liga Football School) is a small but highly visible project. We have been working with India On Track and are now finishing our fifth season.

We’re now negotiating a renovation for another five years. We went together through a really hard time with this venture during the pandemic and its aftermath. But it’s a very dear project for us because it allows us to make a humble contribution to the development of football in India.

Also, from a branding perspective, it allows us to connect with families across 10 cities in India. Now, we’re also in talks to do another kind of small project, specifically focused on women’s football, to help some Indian players train in Spain. It’s something we’ll announce later.

Q: In the recent past, we have seen that there’s been heavy Spanish influence in Indian football, whether it’s through players, coaches, or staff. If you could shed some light on what leads to such a smooth inter-mingling of footballing personnel between the two countries.

Jose: The fastest and easiest answer would be to say Spanish players and coaches move better than others. (Laughs)

As the ISL moved to a more traditional league structure, bringing in good players and not old stars, this connection with Spain emerged quickly. It probably helped that the first winner of the ISL was Atletico De Kolkata, with full technical support from Atletico Madrid. Then you have the great job done by Albert Roca and Carles Caudrat at Bengaluru FC. But also there’s a sociological part to it.

One thing I discovered after coming to India is that as a society they’re closer to Southern Europe than to Northern Europe. It came as a surprise to me because I thought after 200 years of English domination that culturally the country would be closer to them.

It is in some aspects, but India is clearly a communal society. Our Mediterranean society is also a communal society, maybe not to India’s extent, but definitely to some level. This helps, probably, which is why the Spanish coaches have a better connection with the Indian players. But it’s just my guess, not that I’m an expert in this subject.

Q: Talking about Spanish influence in Indian football, we have also seen a lot of tie-ups between Indian and Spanish clubs in the recent past. Even recently, Sevilla have tied up with Bengaluru United. Will we see more of such joint ventures in the future?

Jose: Yes, absolutely. I know that for a fact, more Spanish clubs have started to eye the Indian market at different levels. Recently, Villarreal just announced they’re launching an academy in Bengaluru. Two other clubs that I cannot disclose are seriously considering buying an ISL franchise.

Having an academy is quite an easy decision but getting involved in professional football in India is a much more serious matter and it needs the right time and place. Is it in the works? Yes. Will it happen soon? Honestly, I don’t know.

Q: I went through a couple of your previous interviews, and in most of them you had assured that we would see more Spanish teams travel to India for pre-season friendlies. But since Girona’s trip to Kerala, we haven’t seen any. Can you provide some concrete news on the same?

Jose: I say it all the time and it’s one of La Liga’s biggest challenges because it’s not easy. First, we need to find a local partner and a local promoter. Look at the tours we’re organizing in these markets that are profitable, like the USA, Mexico, or Singapore, because money talks in the end.

I always joke that bringing FC Barcelona to India is like bringing the Rolling Stones because in terms of cost, we are talking about similar figures. But there’s a difference, the Rolling Stones can come at any time of the year, whereas a top football club only has a very short window for these international tours, which is the second half of July.

In terms of weather, that’s not the best time to play football in India. It can definitely be done, but there are many constraints that need to be solved. You always hear Liverpool will come or Manchester United will come, but nothing happens, because it’s not easy.

Q: Final few questions, Kalyan Chaubey took over as the AIFF president last year, so have you had a conversation with him since then? If yes, could you disclose a few insights into what has been discussed?

Jose: I know Kalyan and Shaji Prabhakaran even better. He’s one of the first people I met when I came to India. I have a good relationship with them and I told them personally that I think they’re in the right direction. They understand what they need to do to start building the future of Indian football, which is to address the two biggest problems. It is the lack of infrastructure and lack of grassroots competition.

They have this quite clear, hence I am convinced they are on the right path and the changes in AIFF are for good. If we can cooperate we surely will, but it’s not easy as we’re a league and they’re an association. But we’re in talks and sure we’ll find ways to help.

Q: Jose, you’ve been handling the operations of a top league for a while now. So when you look at the Indian Super League, what are some drawbacks that you can spot, fixing which would give it wider exposure and higher brand value?

Jose: I think ISL is growing in the right direction but you’ve to let them grow. You cannot demand them to be at the level of the European leagues or the J-League, where they have been working on their product for the last 25-30 years. Or even the MLS, which I think is a good model for the ISL and they have been investing a lot over the last 20-25 years in a bigger market. I think the ISL is in good hands but it will take time for sure.

Q: For anyone reading this, what would be your one unique factor that differentiates La Liga from all the other footballing leagues across the globe?

Jose: Every league is unique, and La Liga has several characteristics that stand out. Firstly, what you pointed out earlier is that we have two of the biggest clubs in the world. Secondly, La Liga is usually the entry point to the world for the best Spanish and Portuguese-speaking footballers, basically the Hispanic world.

Another specific characteristic of La Liga is how these two clubs have remained as the most attractive places for the biggest players ever. If you look at what are the biggest names in the game, La Liga is the only league where all of them have played, except Pele and Franz Beckenbauer.

If you go back to the mythical Hungary of the 1950s, even among those (Laszlo) Kubala, (Ferenc) Puskas, and (Sandor) Kocsis have played in Spain. After that it was Alfredo Di Stefano, then Johan Cruyff, then Diego Maradona, then Zinedine Zidane, and obviously after that the era of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. No other league in the world can boast of such big names playing there in the last 70 years of history.

We are sort of a cross between what is traditional European football and South American football. Talking about tiki-taka, we basically became world champions by improving and bettering the Dutch way, which Cruyff brought to Barcelona and Luis Aragones brought to the Spanish national team.

Tiki-taka was the Dutch way with the biggest star being an Argentine, so this marriage of South American and European football is quite unique to Spanish football.