Why isn't India on European clubs map for summer pre-season tours?

This summer, especially English Premier League clubs have been touring Asia and Australia to play well-paid friendly matches and tournaments. While in the past clubs from the Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A have flown into Asia as well but India hasn’t been part of summer tours.This summers EPL list is long – Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool even Sunderland were all in Asia in recent weeks to play lucrative matches in Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, but interestingly mainland China besides India were not on their schedule list.

Now China, which many in world football call the ‘holy grail’, besides India, the ‘Sleeping giant’ of football, together are one-third of the world’s population which means a natural target for fans, merchandise sales, etc for Europe’s top leagues and clubs. But while China has often been visited in the past, India has never been part of such summer pre-season tours.

The only top tier teams to visit India have been German triple winners FC Bayern Munich (May 2008, January 2012) in post-season and mid-season, while the then EPL side Blackburn Rovers (October 2011) did during an international break.

But why isn’t India part of the match schedule of European clubs touring Asia during their summer pre-season tours?

Now if you speak with European leagues, the clubs and sports agencies they give you different reasons why India isn’t part of their summer pre-season tour schedule.

The first argument often given is that India isn’t a commercially developed football market, meaning raising the amount of sponsorship for an European club to agree to play in India is difficult to close to impossible. And if you look at the current scenario that is sadly true.

Then many say, India is a cricket crazy nation where people are not really interested to watch and support football. But that opinion is slowly changing though clubs are reluctant to be the first mover in India. A wait and watch approach is being taken by all.

Then there are the merchandise sales that aren’t as big as in Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia, which is another reason for clubs to show themselves to their legions of fans. Both India and China suffer a lot from the sale of cheap counterfeit merchandise, which hurt the finances of clubs and their kitting partners.

Another reason given is that the necessary infrastructure isn’t there in India. I always counter that argument by saying, if FC Bayern Munich can play in India, then anyone can! Now with the refurbished Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, we have a good venues like the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Mumbai and the iconic Saltlake Stadium in Kolkata that can host such high profile matches. Although they all need to be worked on before any such high profile match, which can take place as I know from own experiences in Delhi.

Other infrastructures like airport, transport and hotels besides top class, fool proof security aren’t an issue in modern day India.

Now many reasons have been given for such tours not to happen even after enough talk about it over the last decade for European top clubs to visit India. Yet with the exception of Bayern Munich, that has not happened so far in the past few years. In fact, one totally forgets that India could easily fit in as the last stop on the flight back to Europe on such summer pre-season tours.

If such tours are to happen, then corporate India needs to come forward with substantial sponsorship amounts and support professional agencies to organise and manage such stopovers in India. Otherwise, the wait for the fans in India will continue.