Interview with Arunava Chaudhuri, Founder & Ex-Editor-in-Chief of IndianFootball.Com

Harmit : Please tell us about your childhood, where you grew up, your schooling etc.? Was sports a big part of your life at a young age?

Arunava : I was born and brought-up in the small German town of Remscheid, which is close to Cologne and Dusseldorf in the west of the country. I had a nice, sheltered childhood in Germany before I was send to Calcutta at the age of 10 to study in the English medium Calcutta International School. I had five great years in Calcutta before I returned to Germany to finish my schooling and then went on to study English and Information Science finishing with a masters degree.

And now I am a sports journalist by profession.

Here in Germany sports is part life and that is especially the case with football. I started kicking a ball at the tender age of three with my Indian mother, who used to enjoy playing with me before I got older and started playing with friends. And since then I have had a passion for the beautiful game.

I remember when I went to Calcutta that one of my first questions was if they play football here? We are talking about 1987, so there was no satellite television, mobile phones forget the Internet as a source of information. My uncle told me yes and made me, then 10 years old, understand that our family supports East Bengal Club as we have our roots there. So I started supporting them and also played football in Calcutta, be it in our locality and in school.

Harmit : What circumstances led you to set up www.indianfootball.com?

Arunava : During the winter of 1997/98 there was a University strike in Germany and I made many new friends. One of them was an IT engineering student and he was designing websites at the time. I became curious and wanted to learn the basics of HTML and how to create a website.

I created a site about myself, my hobbies and likings but after a couple of days the work was done. But I wanted to do something where I could continue to learn HTML. I realized that I was checking the few Indian newspapers available online in those days for the latest results and information about Indian football. And then on April 10, 1998 I started “The unofficial Website of Indian Football” as I called it initially which became IndianFootball.Com a few month’s later.

I was positively surprised that I received some mails of support from day two/three after launching the site. God knows how the people found out about the site. And I still remember that amongst those mails of encouragement were those from Paul Dimeo, a researcher on south Asian football; and Jas Bains, who a year later would be involved in getting Baichung Bhutia to the UK to play for Bury FC. And this support pushed me on to continue with updating the site. The rest is history

Harmit : How did you end up with a passion for football in India despite being in Germany where the standard of football from a playing and managing perspective continues to be far better than in India?

Arunava : My five years in Calcutta made me a big fan of Indian football. And I continued to follow it after being back in Germany.

My time in Calcutta also showed me that India was passionate about football. Especially in Bengal they loved their football and the game through the Big Maidan Three – East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting – was part of everyday life.

Harmit : How long did you fund IndianFootball.Com itself before you took on external partners?

Arunava : I was funding IndianFootball.Com with whatever little I could from the start until late-2008 when the site turned professional. But it just wasn’t me, all people involved with the site spend their own time, money and effort to cover matches, report about press conference, etc.

We all were passionate about Indian Football and wanted to help in a small way in the growth of the game by keeping people in India and across the globe informed about the beautiful game.

Harmit : With the explosion of money, brands and sponsorships in the IPL, do you think that football in India can be re-invented?

Arunava : There are a lot of elements in the IPL which could be looked at for the improvement of Indian football. The IPL founder Lalit Modi himself has looked at professional sports around the globe and has tried to copy elements from American professional sports and European football to create the IPL.

But if you see the current situation it has become a mess, because the sport of cricket doesn’t come first but Entertainment, big bucks and business interests. It wasn’t an organic growth of the sport, it was an explosion. Now it seems to be imploding, which would be disaster for sports in India and the outside perception of India and its sports.

This is something which Indian Football needs to watch carefully and develop in such a way that the sport continues to grow at a healthy pace. I would like Indian Football to develop faster, but one needs to learn from the mistakes of others.

Indian football has roots which are over a century old. Some of the old needs to be done away with for development, but there are elements which make Indian Football much more sustainable due to the deep roots the sport has across the country, especially in Bengal, Goa, Kerala, the Northeast and some parts of Punjab.

Harmit : Your thoughts on Sunil Chhetri landing a deal with the Kansas City Wizards in the MLS?

Arunava : I am very happy for Sunil and proud of him that after trying for nearly two years to find a club abroad he has been able to make his dream move. And the MLS is a good standard for him to prove himself. He has it in him to make it there and then maybe in two/three years he could move on to play in Europe.

A special word of praise for my friend Yogesh Joshee, Sunil’s agent, who only made the move possible. I know how much work Yogesh has put in finding Sunil the right club. Hopefully it works out.

Harmit : How likely is the talked about concept of an IPL like football event in India with the likes of IMG and Reliance joining hands?

Arunava : A football IPL certainly sounds interesting. But there are loads of things which one would have to look at to make it a success.

Who would be the players, space in the football calendar and many more issues.

But the key issue is one wouldn’t get the current stars of world football to play in India due to their allegiance to their respective clubs. Then you have football World Cup’s and Continental championships every other year. So a football IPL would have to rely on players who have just retired or former retired stars.

And a key question which no one seems to look at is the infrastructure. We don’t have the stadia to host such a four/five city football IPL at the moment.

But it is an idea which should be pursued and evaluated if something worthwhile could be developed. Only it shouldn’t hamper the general development of Indian Football or take money away from the I-League and the national team.

Harmit : What are you expectations of the Indian team in the 2011 Asian Cup?

Arunava : Bob Houghton and the boys have done a commendable job by qualifying for the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar. We will be back amongst the Asian football elite after a gap of 27 years. But I think we need to be realistic in a Group with South Korea, Australia and Bahrain; two sides playing in the upcoming World Cup plus Bahrain just about missing the finals in the playoffs.

Some are dreaming of India causing upsets like Greece at Euro2004 and Iraq at the 2007 Asian Cup. But in such a group we should be happy if we can get the one or the other point. An upset win would be great, but moving on from the group looks unlikely, though I hope Baichung & the boys can really pull it off. It would give Indian Football the necessary push we need to progress faster.

Harmit : How do you rate the overall progress of Indian Football over the last 5 to 10 years?

Arunava : I had been running IndianFootball.Com since April 1998 and I had my first direct contact with the Indian national team in July 2000 when the team toured England to play Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and Bangladesh. And when I remember those English summers then we have come a very long way when it comes to the national team.

There has been lots of progress over the last decade in Indian football. We have a central administration in Football House, an expanding I-League, players have become more professional, better quality coaches, a national team which can bring results. So the signs are good.

But still in my eyes progress is too slow. The development of the game needs to be pushed faster. I always feel while we are developing by one or two steps, other countries in Asia and around the world are developing at seven, eight maybe even 10 steps at the same time. We have a lot of catching up to do, but we seem to be falling behind even further.

We need more investment and commitment from corporate India to push football ahead in our country. Dreaming about hosting a football World Cup is great, but loads of work needs to be done to even get a chance to do so.

Harmit : What are now your own plans? Any chances of you coming back to India and getting directly involved with Indian football?

Arunava : My immediate plans are centred around the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I am looking to work as a TV pundit and/or commentator in India. I have a couple of offers but nothing finalised yet, so if anyone is interested do contact me.

Also I will be writing columns about the tournament in South Africa.

Thereafter I will have to see. I am looking at options here in Europe.

But if the right offer comes around I would surely look at coming to India and get directly involved. I think I have something to offer through my knowledge on Indian and European football. It is about the right chance at the right time.

So this is surely something which I would love to do in the coming years.