Star Sports to broadcast international football friendly between India and Puerto Rico

The Indian football team with Coach Stephen Constantine at the pre-season training camp in Delhi

There is good news in the offering for Indian football fans as Star Sports has decided to telecast their upcoming international friendly against Puerto Rico. All India Football Federation (AIFF) General Secretary Kushal Das said on Thursday, August 18, “We are pleased to announce an International Friendly against Puerto Rico on September 3, 2016, in Mumbai.” Since then, an official from the AIFF has confirmed the match will be broadcast live by Star Sports.

Star Sports is by far the largest and most popular sports network in the Indian subcontinent with over eight standard and HD channels combined. Their involvement in Indian football is part of IMG-Reliance’s efforts to boost the Indian national team’s profile throughout the country. The joint venture of IMG-Reliance is the AIFF’s marketing and commercial partner dedicated to the development of football from the grassroots.

This move comes as great news to fans and enthusiasts of the Indian football team. Their matches are broadcasted rather spuriously, especially friendlies and qualifiers. Star Sports’ involvement could mean serious business – they are a subsidiary of the Star India Network owned by 21st Century Fox.

India’s last friendly against Bhutan in Thimphu, although unofficial, wasn’t picked up by any live broadcast channel and was only available for streaming on the AIFF’s official website. India won that match 3-0 despite difficult conditions.

The AIFF or the national football team have no official channel partner. Their match against Laos for the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Asian Cup 2019 pre-qualifier was telecast live on DD Sports. However, the Indian team’s matches for World Cup 2018 Group D home pre-qualifiers were broadcast by Sony Six.

Star Sports has recently announced the launch of two new channels – Star Sports Select HD 1 and HD 2 with a view to shifting international tournaments such as the Premier League, Bundesliga, Formula One, tennis grand slams, etc. there. With plenty of air time freed up on their existing channels, viewers may look forward to more of the Indian team’s international matches broadcast live. The match on September 3 could be a test run for the future.

The match will take place in the Mumbai Sports Arena where the Blue Tigers will meet the South American side who are ranked higher than India by FIFA. As per the updated rankings in August, Puerto Rico are 114 while India are 152. Coach Stephen Constantine believes the only way the team can improve is if they challenge themselves by playing those who are better than them.

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Edited by Staff Editor