Chennaiyin FC co-owner wants to involve more women in Indian sports

Chennaiyin FC co-owner Vita Dani with former Manchester City midfielder Elano

Vita Dani, the Indian Super League’s (ISL) only female co-owner has vowed to work for the promotion and involvement of more women in Indian sports. Dani, along with India One-Day captain MS Dhoni and Bollywood actor Abhishek Bhachchan - part owns the Chennaiyin FC franchise in the eight-team Indian football league. She is also the highest stakeholder of the team.

Now in her second year as a team owner in the slowly-growing league, Dani hopes more women come to the fore in Indian sport, both on and off the field.

For the entrepreneur, the ISL has been a lovely journey so far and she is sure that it will continue to be so. She made it clear that there will be no dearth of committment and approach. It will remain the same as last year because at Chennaiyin, they work from the heart.

“Chennaiyin FC functions more like a family, and that has always been the secret of our success. I am sure we will be able to work the same way and attain greater heights this season,” she said.

Dani said that there must be plenty of other women who are doing lots of good work across different sports who are probably not getting the recognition they deserve. She feels that there's always a first time for things and she is glad that she can be the face of that change.

She will be very happy if she can act as a role model and inspire other women to become more involved in sports.

Dani's passion for sport is evident. Apart from ISL, the mother-of-two is involved in the Mumbai Indians Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket franchise and now hopes to lure the world's table tennis elite to the subcontinent.

She hosted the Asian Junior Table Tennis Championship in Mumbai, in the capacity of the chairperson of the organising committee. It was because of her personal efforts that the tournament received sponsorship from Reliance Industries Ltd and other co-sponsors.

Dani informed that she has already started a Mumbai-based league for table tennis and were targeting the top players in the world to come and play in a league with the best players from India.

She has also been responsible for rolling out a fan investment programme, which is the first of its kind, and for setting up a knowledge transfer programme. This will involve developing coaching clinics and also help target and promote some of the talented players in India. “We at Chennaiyin are planning on setting up more grassroot level programmes, including coaching clinics and talent hunts. You will see them very very soon,” Dani said.