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As Shambhu Ajith and I waited nervously for our big interview with Gaizka Mendieta - which you can read in full here - we were given the opportunity to talk to Jose Antonio Cachaza, head of La Liga's India operations, and we jumped at it.
Nothing like mining the data-bank of a seasoned football administrator, eh? And we started off with the most obvious question of all time -
Q. Considering how big the Premier League is in India (and the following the big clubs have) and how La Liga is perceived as a two-team league... what is the biggest Challenge in promoting the league in India?
A. First, the first thing we have to get clear is that we cannot expect to change things – and we are talking basically perspective – in a few months or in a few weeks. If you want me to give you an overall view, I truly believe that La Liga is already a strong sports brand in India.
It is not yet an attractive commercial brand though and that is something of course as a professional league we have to try to take care of – and, and, answering your question, we need to work out how our competition is perceived.
It is true… we have the two hottest teams in the world, and currently, the hottest two players in the world and that in a sense shadows the others. I mean, Atletico is already there; they have a strong personality, nothing to do with the personality of Real or Barca; but they are already there, they just played 2 Champions League finals, they’ve won the league, they’ve won a few of Europa Leagues… Sevilla has been highly successful.
In EPL, which is a great league… they have 6 clubs which are really sexy, attractive, and I think we also have those 6 clubs; you have Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico. We have Sevilla, Villarreal and Valencia – and maybe Athletic Bilbao. So there are good teams, but it’s not perceived that-a-way.
We need to understand that the English Premier League has been present, and working, the Asian markets for the last 25-30 years… La Liga just started to look at Asia maybe 5 years ago; so we need time.
So yes, the perception is there – I cannot deny it – but reality…. Ah, that’s not always the same.
Q. Will La Liga always have to play catch-up with the Premier League?
A. I don’t think so. I mean *slight pause* we are the best league in the world – on the pitch. I’m talking about perception… usually, you can see better football in La Liga’s #10 playing La Liga’s #12 than EPL #6 playing EPL #7… but also, Football is in constant evolution – for good, or for bad. For example, take the Italian league. They were the best league in the world in the ‘90s and they are struggling right now so you need to take care of where you are and how you evolve because evolution is not always as you hope.
EPL, they have been doing a great job for many years and in a sense, you are right that we need to catch up. EPL were the first to market their product as a global product. Especially in the Asian market… so do we need to catch up in the Asian markets with them?
Yes, of course. Because our income is below them and our audience is below them.
But… we cannot forget that in very important markets like Latin America, Middle-East, and Northern Africa we are ahead of the EPL; so it’s a matter of balance. But Asian markets have become really important for all professional leagues worldwide. Be it La Liga, EPL, or Bundesliga, or even NBA and NFL… everybody is looking at Asian markets. Especially India – you are talking; forget the billion people; you are the fastest growing economy in the world… with a new middle class open to the world, who are looking to the world and that new India is looking at football.
I mean, football is really a no. 2 sport in India; Cricket is your sport, your religion – and it will be, we do not pretend to compete with cricket but we have a huge emotional and commercial market to grow in(to) in India.
Q. As a part of this strategy to grow into India, is La Liga working on bringing more teams to India in pre-season?
A. That’s definitely among our plans. I mean, I cannot say this will be this [next] preseason or the next or when but it’s definitely among our plans. We are having serious internal talks… I mean, there are many misconceptions in Europe that we need to fight… but it applies to La Liga and the other European Leagues [as well]. Clubs, we are all looking at India – but nobody is coming here to play, let’s be honest… not even the EPL, nobody. There are misconceptions like the weather – usually, the window for bringing teams to India is quite narrow… usually, it’s the second half of July; maybe first few days of August, so it’s really narrow; you are talking two, two-and-half weeks and they say it’s always too hot, blah blah blah – but listen, we are now in Mumbai… Mumbai in the second half of July is not worse than Indonesia, or Bangkok and I want them to come to India.
I do understand the business part. One real problem is that you cannot charge $50 tickets in India as you can maybe do in Jakarta or Singapore, so that from a business perspective may seem more difficult. But other reasons, like the weather blah blah blah… that’s baloney.
Of course, you cannot go to play to Delhi or maybe to Kolkata… but Mumbai you can, maybe Kerala you can, maybe Goa you can, Bangalore definitely you can… so you have places. Here in Mumbai, you have a wonderful 56,000 seater where we had a beautiful Spain win in the U-17 [World Cup]
Q. Do you struggle to convince former footballers turned La Liga ambassadors to come to India?
A. No, no, no… they always like to come. Gaizka is a friend of mine and he was telling me he was quite excited to come, he has never been here and he is ready to discover. He wanted to have Curry for lunch *laughs*…
So its always an opportunity, they have really tight schedules and often they’d like to stay a little longer and just see around; Gaizka will be here a couple of days, so we’ll have time to really go around and enjoy a little bit more this beautiful city.
Q. You were with Malaga, you were with the marketing department… and you have done a lot of events for a lot of sports like Tennis (Madrid Open) and F1 (the Spanish Grand Prix), so what were the learnings you got from there that you can apply here?
A. I think our life, personal and professional, is a continual learning process. I mean, I think you keep learning until the day you die. I never really thought about it, honestly, but maybe my experience with Malaga – which is like a medium-sized club in Spain from one of the smaller cities – it makes me understand better the situation of Indian football today… it’s not the same to work in a club that you need to struggle every day to make ends meet, and you need to develop the ground and you have other concerns like ‘I’m local, how can I become international’… that was the reality in Malaga.
It was my luck to be there the year we played the Champions League – touching the sky with your fingers… but it helps you to understand different situations.
I also worked with the Spanish national team – that’s totally different, you are talking about a top property and I parted with them right after winning the 2008 Euros… I was in the marketing department, sure, but I was part of the structure that became European champion after 40 plus years of doing nothing – so it helps you to look at things with different perspective and sometimes with more calmness when you are trying to understand different situations.
Q. With the unrest in Catalunya, do you think it’ll affect the stability in La Liga in the near future?
A. I don’t think so. It was a situation… but it’s under control and I think nothing really troublesome happened and it won’t happen. For us, it’s business as usual… we have not much to say about that; let’s hope things return to [normalcy] as I think they are little by little. It’s not easy to do it after a huge unrest situation but I don’t expect these means changes for Spanish football. Talking about La Liga nothing really has happened and nothing will happen.
GAIZKA MENDIETA WAS IN INDIA AS LALIGA REACHES A FOLLOWING OF OVER 38 MILLION ACROSS THE GLOBE. JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT FACEBOOK.COM/LALIGA
