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As an average sports fan in India you may have never heard of Nigel Empson. However, if you have heard of the Tata Tea and Arsenal ‘Jaage Raho’ talent hunt or if you saw the AC Milan U19 team when they toured India, Nigel’s work has already touched your sporting experience. Nigel spoke to Sportskeeda correspondent Harmit Kamboe in a freewheeling interview.
Q: Please tell us about your transition from a banker in the UK to the sports industry. How and what triggered that change?
Nigel: Well, I was bored with banking and had got to a very senior position at a young age – I needed a change. I was driving in my car one day, listening to football on the radio, and Dr Rogan Taylor came on to talk about an MBA Football Industries that they’d launched at Liverpool University. It seemed like the perfect opportunity
Q: What specifically in the sports industry made you look at India and China?
Nigel: China came first. There were several Chinese guys (and girls) on the MBA (FI) and it seemed there was a big opportunity there. So I set up a business to help European clubs get in to the Chinese market, and Chinese clubs to become more professional. It was a really exciting time – the first time I’d done business or travelled outside Europe. I remember being collected at Shanghai Airport by Dalian Shide FC – we’d been travelling a short distance when the van got stopped by the police. The driver was questioned for about 15 minutes; turns out he wasn’t qualified to drive on the motorway but that wasn’t the problem – the policeman was a huge Dalian fan and he just wanted to talk about football… India came later and was a different experience again.
It wasn’t really on the agenda but a Bengali by the name of Suman Datta constantly told me I should come to India, so in the end I thought I’d better take a look. I first came to Kolkata and the level of interest was unbelievable – at that point I’d not really done anything here, and I had no understanding of football in India. In looking at both China and India, each accounts for one-sixth of the world’s population and they have the fastest growing economies. There had to be potential.
Q: What have some of your high profile successes been in India and in China with respect to sporting engagements?
Nigel: In China we partnered Shenzhen FC with (Glasgow) Rangers, and in the first season Shenzhen won the inaugural Chinese Super League. The partnership was very profitable for both clubs. We also bought up a lot of new-media rights for a Chinese company and were involved in the first-ever live internet broadcast in China of a UEFA Cup match. We launched Bayern Munich’s Chinese website, and then those of several other big European clubs. We did some work with Dalian, introducing them to AS Roma, Juventus and Inter Milan, and over breakfast we sold a David Beckham documentary to CCTV.
There were a lot of different things, really. In India, I partnered Leicester City, who were then in the EPL, with the AIFF and East Bengal. We took the India U16s to England for coaching and a three match tour. We also took East Bengal to Leicester for a tournament involving teams from Spain and Portugal. As well as bringing an AC Milan team over for Festa Italiana and teaming Arsenal up with Tata Tea for the Talent Hunt, I also brought Shenzhen to Kolkata for the IFA Shield. I partnered EPL side Tottenham Hotspur with KVSN (Slumsoccer) who are responsible for the India Homeless World Cup team. Lots of things really, including some that will have to remain confidential.
Q: Have there been any unethical issues that you faced with official bodies when you were launching the first phase of the Tata Tea Arsenal talent hunt?
Nigel: Well, this is India, what can I say…I don’t think anything I could say would surprise anyone reading this. I’ve experienced the same things that everyone else who tries to do anything in India does.
Q: Overall what do you think of the sporting talent pool in India – are Indians just too weak, have poor nutrition and have the “chalta hai” attitude that holds them back from being aggressive and goal driven?
Nigel: Is Lionel Messi too weak? He’s not the biggest or the strongest but he’s still the best. There are some big Indians as well. Nutrition does play a part, and there isn’t really a sports culture – the focus is still very much on education to the exclusion of just about everything else. I’ve brought coaches to India from professional clubs in England, and they all say that India has talent, and that young Indian players have a greater appetite than many players in their own academies. What is lacking is infrastructure, opportunity and good coaching. Where would you host Barcelona or Manchester United if they came to India? If David Beckham had been born in India would he ever have kicked a football? It’s not a lack of talent…if India wants a world-class football team badly enough it can build one.
Q: How have some of your overseas business partners reacted to the IPL? Have they now become more aggressive in the way that they wish to enter the Indian market? Do they think the window of opportunity is closing down fast?
Nigel: The IPL is interesting. It has shown that India is a market like no other. Nowhere else could you have put together an event of this size in such a short time-frame. The money that the IPL has attracted defies logic – the EPL for example, is broadcast in over two hundred countries, its revenues are established, substantial and all-year round, EPL clubs have a hardcore supporter base (worldwide), and they have valuable physical assets in terms of stadia and training facilities. They also don’t have an expiry date as does a ten year IPL franchise. Most outside India, although admiring what has been achieved by the IPL, can’t understand why someone would invest in an IPL franchise when for the same money you could buy an EPL club. Many feel that the IPL is still to prove that it is sustainable over the long-term.
Q: How realistic are the plans for a football kind of IPL that we have read about in the newspapers? Does India want an IPL for football?
Nigel: Does the football establishment want an IPL for football? There is no doubt in my mind that India has the ability to put together an IPL for football that would be a huge commercial success. If the football ‘product’ was better, if you had the same mix of sport-entertainment and the same ‘hype’, if you brought in ‘name’ players (perhaps those nearing the end of their careers), and if matches were played in good quality stadiums (even cricket stadiums in the short-term) then I’m certain it would work.
There are, of course, problems and issues: football in India already has established clubs, and not all of these can access the kind of resources that would be necessary, and others may have the resources but not want to invest. If you decide that each city can only have a maximum of two clubs, how do you decide which of three or four existing clubs get the football IPL places? Given the limited number of high-quality Indian players at present, how would you accommodate new clubs – would all player’s current contracts be cancelled, for example, in favour of an open auction? If so, why should those clubs who have players contracted for say two more years, and who are not given a place in the IPL, agree to this? I’m sure that there will be some development. What I wouldn’t want to see is a short-duration ‘event’ that ran alongside the I-League. We need to take the I-League and radically upgrade it. I think the will is there among the big corporates to invest in football – including in new stadia – provided there is some structure and plan that promises such investment will be rewarded.
Q: Are there any football related projects (and what kind) that you are working on that you can tell us about?
Nigel: I’m launching an initiative that’s designed to help Indian football move forward. Two early parts of this are the Sports Business School that will run a series of certificate level programs in sports management, sports marketing, sports psychology, etc. for those who want to increase their knowledge of the industry or who want to develop careers in sport. I think there will be huge demand and opportunities over the next five to ten years. A second element is Sports Recruitment Services, which speaks for itself. Other than the above, I expect greater involvement in India from many of Europe’s leading clubs, and I would anticipate that within twelve months an EPL club, or top club from one of the other European leagues, will visit India to play an exhibition game.
Q: From a commercial perspective how do you compare the Indian and the Chinese markets as far as sports is concerned? What about the talent levels – how do they differ between India and China (especially football)?
Nigel: From a commercial perspective China is light years ahead. Their infrastructure is fantastic, although they introduced a national sports lottery to finance a lot of that. The Chinese also recognized and understood what sport could do for the national ‘brand’ – they saw sport as a way of improving China’s global image, and so they made sure that they produced talented athletes across a whole range of sports. They’re now starting to dominate the Olympics, they’re producing world-class tennis players, they have players in the NBA and so on. Chinese football has had problems with corruption but the government is addressing these. India has the raw talent – it just needs the desire, the commitment and the investment.
Q: What are some of the basic and fundamental things that we are doing wrong as a country or society as far as laying the building blocks of sporting success is concerned?
Nigel: We all know what the problems are: at every level, you need talented people with a passion for sport; you need leadership from the top – sport has to become a government priority. You need leadership from the corporate sector: Vijay Mallya has done a brilliant job in terms of a very broad-based and long-term commitment to sport; the Tatas and the Mahindras have also been friends of sport. We need to move sport. however, from a CSR activity to a profit-oriented business model. We need people to recognize that sport – especially football – offers the greatest entertainment you’re ever likely to experience.
We need Indian parents to understand that if your child is a talented sportsperson that talent can give him or her a career, and for some, a career in which they can earn unimaginable money. The final thing I will say is this: close your eyes and imagine for a minute that India have just defeated Australia to win a place in the FIFA World Cup finals; imagine the excitement up and down the nation; imagine the celebrations. Imagine the anticipation as the draw for the Group Stage is made – will India draw England or Germany, Argentina or Brazil? How many Indians will not be glued to their TV sets as India takes the field for their opening game? All India has to do is to want it badly enough!
