2nd FICCI Sports Summit 'Turf2010'

The 2nd FICCI Sports Summit ‘Turf2010′ was held on September 30/October 1 at the auditoriums of the FICCI in New Delhi. And I had the pleasure of being part of it taking about the future of Indian Football in the session “Changing Face of Indian Sports”, which I was also asked to moderate.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is an association of business organizations in India, headquartered in the national capital New Delhi. FICCI is one of the main organizations to fund and support many governmental and non-governmental educational institutes. And sports is one area in which the FICCI has become more proactive in recent times. Last year FICCI organised their first-ever Sports Summit and now this year the event was held just days before the Commonwealth Games.

The summit was opened by speeches from FICCI president Rajan Bharti Mittal, FICCI sports committee chairman Atul Singh, Commonwealth Games organising committee president Suresh Kalmadi, and Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Just days ahead of the games the FICCI was supportive of the organisers, but said that afterwards there would need to be a retrospection and check on accountability. India needed to learn from its mistakes otherwise they would just be a waste. And FICCI made it a point that they stand for transperancy.

The first session titled “Changing Face of Indian Sports” was headed by myself which included speeches from H.S. Kingra (Joint Secretary, Sports Authority of India; & CWG haead for infrastructure), Ashwini Nachappa (Arjuna Awardee, Olympian and a former actress), Akash Jain (Director, International Development – India, NBA) and a presentation by myself to talk about football and its future.

So what do I think about what needs to be done to development Indian Football in the future? I summed it up through these points:

The professionalization of administration and club management

Building of Infrastructure – Venues & training facilities

A sound young development system (grassroots, national Centre of Excellence)

Grow the fan base of football, not only international football but Indian Football too

Success of Team India at the Asian level, then push for World Cup qualification.

Indian football needs a big long term aim in football. And that could be hosting the FIFA World Cup, a possible date would be 2030 with the support and backing from FIFA & the AFC. But then in the next five to seven years we need to build facilities to prove that our ambitions are serious.

The other sessions of the day were “Business Opportunity in Sports- Vision 2020″, “Money, Marketing and Modern Sports” and “Sports for All”. On day two there were further sessions under the titles “Sports Infrastructure: Creation & Management”, “Emerging Technologies – Benefits for Sports”, “Role of Media in Sports”, “Creating Sports Culture in India”, and then a final session as a resume of the two days of presentations and discussions. The day ended with an official dinner.

And what was the gist of all the talking? Simply put let the private industry and professionals run sports in India. The change is happening with the sporting fraternity and within two/three years things would change for good as India is developing overall as a nation. And the country will start to only accept success and perfect organisation. Many hope the Commonwealth Games will be a wake-up call for all of India and it will be heard by the right persons, so change can happen.

Then hope is what dies last…