India’s growth as a sporting nation in the past half a decade has been good and slowly, but steadily, people across the country have started taking an interest in sports other than cricket. Even though the numbers are not that high, sports like football, badminton, tennis and now kabaddi, have found an audience. Keeping the vast scope for growth and talent pool in mind, a group of Indian entrepreneurs, in collaboration with Portuguese football legend Luis Figo, have come up with Premier Futsal, which was launched in April, 2016.
This competition, set to take place in July, will see international futsal stars in action over the course of 10 days. Premier Futsal will feature 8 franchises, from different cities across the country, pitted against each other. All teams will comprise, in the playing five, three international futsal players, one marquee football player (former) and one local player, who will be selected through the talent hunt called Premier Futsal Launchpad.
Futsal, for most people, is a shorter version of football that is played indoors and is a place where players hone their skills, mainly dribbling and short passing. However, Futsal is a proper sport that is played seriously and it comes under FIFA as well. No prizes for guessing which country is the most successful in Futsal – it is in fact, Brazil, who have won the FIFA Futsal World Cup five times since its inception in 1989. All these facts withstanding, Futsal has a huge mountain to climb in India for it to become a popular sport.
If one takes a closer look, Futsal is quite an entertaining sport and could, in some ways be described as the T20 version of football, considering the shorter time span and less number of players. Abhinandan Balasubramanian, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Premier Futsal Management Pvt Ltd, believes that Futsal has tremendous potential to succeed in India and the infrastructure is in place as well.
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“After extensive research and mapping the growth potential of India as a sporting nation, our team came to a conclusion that Futsal, which is regarded as one of the fastest growing indoor sports in the world, can do really well throughout India. Also, we think, India is slowly and steadily becoming a multi-sport country. This can be seen by the success of tournaments like Pro-Kabaddi League, Premier Badminton League and International Tennis Premier League (IPTL).
“The one thing required for any sport to do well anywhere is infrastructure and Futsal, inherently, is quite cost effective as it does not require additional stadiums to be constructed and can be played in multi-sport indoor complexes, where badminton, volleyball and basketball are played,” he says. Balasubramanian also spoke about how Luis Figo has high hopes from the league and sees India as a colossal talent pool.
“Luis thinks India is a sleeping giant that contains massive potential and he loves it here. Having played Futsal quite seriously himself, Figo immediately came on board when we explained the idea to him and he will be roping in his former colleagues, big names, to associate with the tournament, which is going to be huge for the popularity of the tournament,” he said.
The CEO also explained how Futsal legend Falcao, who was the first marquee signing of the league, believes the sport can become popular in India like it has in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina among other countries. “Falcao thinks the reason why Futsal has great potential is its nature of being a high-octane sport where everyone gets to do something. He also said that Futsal is highly popular in Brazil and players like Neymar Jr. and Kaka have grown up playing the sport,” he explained.
Given how sports broadcasting as an industry is improving day by day in the country and sports other than cricket are getting viewership, Premier Futsal just needs the right strategies and marketing to become a success. Bringing in big former international football players and live telecast on a popular sports channel could prove to be quite beneficial for the league.
The organisers of Premier Futsal have got Indian cricket superstar Virat Kohli on board as the tournament’s brand ambassador and that could work wonders. Abhinandan Balasubramanian explains why they picked Kohli as the face of the tournament. “A lot of people might think Virat’s popularity is the only reason he is the brand ambassador of the tournament but in fact, he loves futsal as a sport and we think he personifies what it is all about – aggression, energy, style and action,“he explained.
Futsal’s viability in India might not be that great but as a sport, it is quite intriguing. Be it the smaller space with a lot more to do or the opportunity to showcase your skills and produce end-results with them, futsal is definitely attractive. Also, with names like Figo and Kohli on board, things are looking pretty positive at the onset for Premier Futsal. What sort of footprint will it manage to gain during its first edition? Only time will tell.
