GIFT 2014: Monteiro, Gomes, Menezes call for a united effort

Impassioned closing notes from GFDC chairman Dr. Rufino Monteiro, Member Secretary Elvis Gomes and Western India Football Association (WIFA) CEO Henry Menezes pulled at the heart strings of FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne, the distinguished delegates and the gathering even as Day Two of the GFDC organized Goa International Football Table (GIFT), forcing them to give the trio a standing ovation.

But that was not before the proceedings were illuminated by the most constructive and enlightenment provided by coaches, CEOs, administrators and marketing pundits as they delved deep into the most relevant roots of the football tree: Talent Scouting, Community Development and Branding through Football.

Tottenham Hotspurs Foundation CEO Grant Cornwell professed the importance of providing best training and educative programmes for all communities by joining hands with the government, church and local communities community with football development being the main focus.“It is the fans that make the game of football and increase the motivation of the people thus taking it to the next level,” said Cornwell.

Christopher Fortuin, Lecturer University of Johannesburg and SFDA Technical Committee member said, “Football has the means to change lives and communities. Football has the capability to bring communities and bind them together. It has the power to change the mindsets of people.”

“Community plays a very big role in terms of support to the sport of foot-ball. The clubs in Mizoram are community based. Inter-village tournaments are also organized with the help of this community support,” confessed Lalnghinlova Hmar, secretary Mizoram Football Association. While disclosing that passion was deeply entrenched into football in Goa, Peter Vaz, president, Sporting Clube de Goa said, “There is no profit for football in India, it is surviving solely because of the passion of the people for the game. Community development is new in India; clubs are now doing their social responsibility by creating opportunities to showcase the talent of participants, talent scouting also helps in meeting these social needs.”

The President of the Football Players Association of India, Renedy Singh to-tally agreed with his fellow panelists and said, “Players too need to spend time and engage in community building. This will automatically create interest and the people will turn up for matches in bigger numbers.”

“The outcome of a sport depends upon the impact it has on society. That is why when my organization has to give back 5% of our profits to the com-munity, we are able to create employment opportunities and over 13,000 sporting opportunities for disabled persons. Our effort is to make them the best in their respective fields,” pointed out Grant.

The eye-opener to profitability in football lies in branding building. When Joseph Eapen, EVP Repucom International, touched on the topic on brand building, he made a lot of stake holders to sit up and listen. It was not because of his statistical figures on how football could be made a cash cow but stated on not just how to go about tapping sponsors but who and how to approach for brand building through sponsorship, be it from potential clients nearest to the venue of the tournament to clients that can invest in sports by doing a proper research before adventuring into targeting a client. “Branding is an important part in sports and only after proper research, one could price sponsorship,” he said.

Throwing his own valuable insights in the branding hemisphere was Sunil Raina, Business Head, XOLO Mobiles, LAVA International Ltd. “What stops us from achieving our goals in the progress of football is the lack of action by the people. A base must be built in order to enable the playing of football,” he said.

Vinit Karnik, National Director, Entertainment, Sports & Live Events at GroupM highlighted the issue that in order to gain support from national and international brands in the field of sports, it was necessary to have a good be-ginning at the base, as brands won’t simply put in money. “It is not just Goa but India as a whole that will have to take serious action in developing the game of football, or brands won’t be interested,” pointed out Karnik.

“It is imperative that one seeks realistic sums for sponsorships and certain brands that can relate to the game should be approached,” pointed out Nigel Fletcher, CEO, Sports Development Marketing.Henry Menezes, the CEO, WIFA, congratulated GFDC for brilliant development since the last summit. He also stressed upon the statistics, pointed on the positive and negative aspects of football. He too, like other speakers focused on development of the sport at the grass root level.

Elvis Gomes, member secretary, GFDC in his vote of thanks stated that India must grow in the sport and must be seen on the global map. Dr Rufino Monteiro, chairman GFDC, said it was necessary to have an inter-action with the children at the grassroot level and centers so that we can take the positives from them and make Indian football grow.