EPL is arguably one of the best football leagues in the world currently. Founded in 1992 after the split of the football clubs in the First division, it almost has a combined club revenue of around £2 billion. The main attribute of Premier league is the way they have marketed it in Americas and Asia in the past decade.
One can find many supporters of clubs like Arsenal, United and Liverpool from India. On my recent visit to Bangalore, it was great to find a Manchester United Pub opposite to Forum.
But as per my understanding this is just the start. There are very few Indians who watch football. Mainly they are from North Eastern states, Bangalore, Mumbai, Goa and Kerala. There is a huge untapped market still to be conquered by the Premier league clubs.
The best way to do it is by having some Indian to play for these clubs. Unfortunately due to India's low FIFA ranking they cannot gain a UK work permit. That makes it more difficult to reach the grassroots of football in a huge country like India.
Hence this presents a great opportunity for PL clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and the remaining to setup academies in India which would help to train world class players and also have a marketing strategy to tap the market.
Imagine a market of around 500 million young Indians and selling the merchandise to such a huge market. I cannot imagine it to be nothing but simply mouth-watering.
This would also provide support for Indian clubs to have affiliations with top class clubs which will also improve the I-League standard in Asia.
There are a couple of clubs setting up academies in India and it does look promising.
Like Cricket which was followed in India, but the 1983 world cup win was a major catalyst in transforming Cricket in India, football needs something of that sort to reinvigorate the lost passion among many young Indians.
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