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An Interview with Chirag Tanna, who has structured and set up the Company Pune Football Club Pvt. Ltd, whose team Pune FC is currently playing at the top flight of Indian Football. He is the head operations of Pune FC.
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Q. Please introduce yourself to our readers.
A. I am Chirag Tanna, Head Operations of Pune FC.
Q. What is your view on Indian football? What are the pros and cons you feel like in Indian Football and its national league?
A. Let me start with the Pros:
· There are a lot of clubs that are investing large sums of money into Indian football.
· Football has now established itself as the no. 2 sport in the country (cricket being the no. 1 sport).
· Viewership in Indian club football is much higher than viewership of the foreign leagues (EPL, La Liga, etc.).
· The game is spreading to new cities.
The Cons are as follows:
· The league is very poorly marketed and the broadcasting is terrible. Ideally, there should be special features of upcoming matches, interviews of pundits, highlights of ALL games, weekly round-up, etc. Television coverage needs to improve substantially.
· Currently, most of these clubs run as some sort of Corporate Social Responsibility and are not a separate legal entity. Hence they don’t do any fan development or marketing activities. If Indian Football is to succeed, the mindset of clubs needs to change.
· The I-League needs to be made into a separate legal entity with ALL I-League clubs as members. Currently, clubs are the largest investors in the I-League and have no say in the way it is run!
· We should try and play as many games on weekends and under floodlights in order to increase spectators.
Q. Can you please describe your journey with Pune FC till now?
A. My journey with PFC started in June 2007 when I launched the club for the Ashok Piramal Group. I was extremely disappointed to not have qualified in the 2007-08 season when we came fifth and first four teams qualified. Retrospectively, I think that not qualifying in the first season was the best thing that ever happened to us. We would not have been ready for the I-League. Qualifying for the I-League in 2008-09 was a surreal feeling and something I will never forget. Last year was just a dream debut for the club and the response we got from our fans was something I will cherish forever. I hope the team does well this season and gives them more reason to cheer.
Q. Pune FC is one of the most professionally clubs in India. What is the secret behind it?
A. There is no secret behind it, just a lot of hard work from everyone at the club. Everyone is extremely passionate about their work and loves their job. We understand what it is to work as team on an off the pitch. It is important that each person at the club knows what his roles and responsibilities are.
Q. How much will the AFC Club Licensing Criteria help in the development of Indian football?
A. If the audit is taken in the right spirit it can help a lot. The way I see it, some really experienced professionals have taken their valuable time to come help us, how can that be a bad thing?
Q. We have seen Pune FC creating a sensational entry to the I-League last year. Whom will you give the credits for it?
A. The fans. They made us all want to work harder. We didn’t have the best start to the league 6 point from the first 8 games and not even 1 win, but the fans continued showing up in large nos. and cheered the team on. I salute the spirit of the fans.
Q. Recently Pune FC had launched its web based channel “PFC TV”. Please give us some brief information on it.
A. The whole idea to launch PFC TV was to increase the interaction with our fans:
PFC TV will be featured in four parts
Headlines: This will be a weekly highlights program about the activities happening at the club
FAN-tastic: A monthly program which will give a fan a chance to spend a day with the team
Gladiators: A program which shall showcase player profiles and upcoming talent
90 Minutes of Magic: This will include covering every game played by the team, its highlights and pre & post match interviews and comments.
Q. Pune FC is one of the few clubs in India who has got its own website. When was the site launched and how do you feel it will affect the clubs stature.
A. I cannot stress enough how important having a website is. We get over 10000 page views a month on our website www.punefc.com and that no. is steadily increasing.
Reisangpemmi Kasomwoshi on the left
Q. Pune FC’s 16 year old Reisangpemmi Kasomwoshi became the youngest player ever to score in Federation Cup when he scored against Air India on 23 September 2010. Please tell us more about that lad and some other fresh talents who are knocking at the doors of the main team.
A. There are 3 or 4 boys in the youth setup who have really impressed Derrick and the rest of the senior team coaching staff. Pemmi is one of the boys that has shown promise when he was with our youth team. He has the talent and potential to become a good player. If he continues to work hard, he will have a bright future ahead.
Q. Can you share your view regarding the inclusion of AIFF XI in the I-League?
A. I don’t think it is a good decision. The money could have been put to better use. Further, I do feel that the AIFF should create an environment where clubs do Youth Development activities rather than do it themselves.
Q. Pune FC has done an excellent job in youth development with its U-19, U-17 and U-15 teams. Pune FC has also recruited Tata Football Academy’s Ranjan Choudhary as their youth development director.
A. We want to ensure that our academy becomes a feeder system for our senior team. I don’t believe in doing youth development for the sake of fulfilling some criteria. Ranjan has done a great job with TFA and the management felt that he was the right man for the job to set up our youth setup.
Q. How much do you feel creating a reserve league or lower division leagues will help in the progress of Indian football?
A. It is of paramount importance that we create a robust u-19/reserve league and Division 2.
Q. What are the clubs expectation for the upcoming season of the i-League?
A. The expectations for the coming season of the I-League are to be competitive.
Q. Would you like to say anything else to our readers at sportskeeda.com?
A. You guys are doing a great job in supporting domestic football and I did enjoy giving this interview.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak to you. We hope to see another stellar performance from Pune FC in the I-League and they reach new heights of Indian football.
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Edited by Staff Editor
