AddRush Sports Pvt. Ltd. announced the launch of the eagerly awaited Football Fives League. FFL is a city based franchise tournament for amateurs only. Featuring a home and away format, FFL is set to rock the footballing world of Bangalore for 3 whole months.
FFL aims at developing budding talent and hopes to promote amateur football in partnership with Bengaluru FC. FFL will provide the opportunity for 120 players from 10 franchises to showcase their talent.
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The launch also saw a number of personalities from Bengaluru FC talk about the way football clubs are run and the role of nutrition and fitness involved in professional sport.
Sudhir Menon, Director of operations and marketing for the AIFF State Association Development Program of Kerala also shed light on the importance of amateur football for the development of professional Indian football.
AddRush were earlier involved with a number of other successful ventures and their latest one promises to be a success as well.
Co- partners of AddRush, Kush Bahuguna and Shree Harsha came up with the concept of the FFL while travelling to different cities as part of the Indian football tour.
”We started our journey last year with the AddRush Futsal Cup which had some of the finest teams participating. We saw that there is a lack of a platform for the immense talent pool this country has to offer and AddRush as a company aims at actively raising the quality of amateur football in the country. Keeping that in mind we have started something which is very close to our hearts i.e FFL Bangalore,” said Kush.
Shree Harsha meanwhile reiterated the importance of amateur football in India. “It’s been 3 months since we met all of you and explained the concept but it gives us immense joy to see all of you in the same room. This is one very private family,” he said
“We understood that in the professional ecosystem, Rs 600 to 700 crores goes to ISL and totally about Rs 1200 crores is being spent on the pro ecosystem but the way it’s growing there's no substantial change.” he continued.
“When Kush and I travelled to 6 or 7 cities, we saw the passion in the amateur football crowd and we realised that what's important to boost the professional ecosystem is strong community-based football. The idea came about when we were in the Kolkata leg of the Indian Football Tour. We saw each team had their own fan base. People were coming in buses and cheering the teams. The only thing missing was the home and away format, “ he went on to add.
To ensure the league gets great visibility and facilities, they have also partnered with Sports Arena.
"Sports Arena is Bangalore's oldest and most reputed sports equipment brand and also our merchandising partner. FFL being Bangalore based, we are supremely excited to tie up with a brand that has promoted sports culture in the city for decades," said Shree Harsha.
The two partners have a very clear goal in mind which is to make the Bangalore venture a success and then expand to other cities as well. They intend to convert local teams into properly functioning amateur clubs.
