Delhi Dynamos owner Dr Anil Sharma speaks in Qatar
HIs Excellency Ambassador
of India Shri Kumaran, Mr Ivan Bravo Director General of Asbire Academy, my team and honored guests.
It is with GREAT pleasure I welcome you to tonight's introductory dinner of Delhi Dynamos Football club co-hosted by Aspire Academy of Qatar.
This welcome is even more meaningful when you are in the premises of the world’s largest football academies and in a country that will host the next world cup.
For many of you in this room, football is a passion. You live, breathe and dream football! For several of us, we are big fans of football committed to this game.
To a few, you are here simply because His Excellency the Ambassador of India is here. So, thank you very much your Excellency for coming and supporting the Delhi Dynamos and Indian football.
Since this is a small audience, it's best that I take you through a short PERSONAL journey of football in India. As fellow Non Resident Indians (NRIs) like myself, this will help you in relating better to what we are doing. Therefore, let's begin.
I. First logical question is why did I - an NRI - choose to invest in a sports club in India? And why football?
It is with GREAT pleasure I welcome you to tonight's introductory dinner of Delhi Dynamos Football club co-hosted by Aspire Academy of Qatar.
This welcome is even more meaningful when you are in the premises of the world’s largest football academies and in a country that will host the next world cup.
For many of you in this room, football is a passion. You live, breathe and dream football! For several of us, we are big fans of football committed to this game.
To a few, you are here simply because His Excellency the Ambassador of India is here. So, thank you very much your Excellency for coming and supporting the Delhi Dynamos and Indian football.
Since this is a small audience, it's best that I take you through a short PERSONAL journey of football in India. As fellow Non Resident Indians (NRIs) like myself, this will help you in relating better to what we are doing. Therefore, let's begin.
I. First logical question is why did I - an NRI - choose to invest in a sports club in India? And why football?
(Let me make a full
disclaimer here that most of what I am going to say is based on my personal
opinion. Therefore, I stand corrected where proved wrong).
Let’s begin with a cursory
profile of 1st generation NRIs (based on my personal observation in USA and
UAE).
• Many of them are highly successful in business enterprises; often entrepreneurs and in corporate sector.
After a certain age and success level they start thinking of philanthropy viz what they can do for a) either for their country of residency, or b) India (often often their hometown),
or c) both these philanthropic endeavors are often directed towards education health care. Domestic business groups of India too have diversified and invested in these sectors, which is excellent as a consequence of these efforts, India has excelled both in education and health care. Indian physicians are key drivers of the health care system in many developed countries of the world, including USA my country of citizenship.
Indian business and IT graduates are ranked amongst the best in the world and coveted globally. Many of them have become leading names in the corporate and business world.
• Many of them are highly successful in business enterprises; often entrepreneurs and in corporate sector.
After a certain age and success level they start thinking of philanthropy viz what they can do for a) either for their country of residency, or b) India (often often their hometown),
or c) both these philanthropic endeavors are often directed towards education health care. Domestic business groups of India too have diversified and invested in these sectors, which is excellent as a consequence of these efforts, India has excelled both in education and health care. Indian physicians are key drivers of the health care system in many developed countries of the world, including USA my country of citizenship.
Indian business and IT graduates are ranked amongst the best in the world and coveted globally. Many of them have become leading names in the corporate and business world.
The USA in me.
I studied in USA and lived there for about 28 years. I started my professional and business career in USA. My children are brought and bought up in USA. During my years in USA, I observed the incredible commitment to sports, primarily sports teams and CLUBS! Since I was I was a university professor for 10 years, I was surrounded by young people. It was abnormal not to be a supporter of club. when my son, Rohan, finished his college in USA and returned to Dubai, he joined the business. I saw I saw that his passion for sports did not diminish
He would stay up or wake up at watch his favorite Philadelphia Eagles play live (incidentally the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year after 58 years of agonizing and humiliating defeats -- the 1st time in his lifetime. Therefore, you can imagine his unbridled joy at the win!
I studied in USA and lived there for about 28 years. I started my professional and business career in USA. My children are brought and bought up in USA. During my years in USA, I observed the incredible commitment to sports, primarily sports teams and CLUBS! Since I was I was a university professor for 10 years, I was surrounded by young people. It was abnormal not to be a supporter of club. when my son, Rohan, finished his college in USA and returned to Dubai, he joined the business. I saw I saw that his passion for sports did not diminish
He would stay up or wake up at watch his favorite Philadelphia Eagles play live (incidentally the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year after 58 years of agonizing and humiliating defeats -- the 1st time in his lifetime. Therefore, you can imagine his unbridled joy at the win!
Rohan subscribed to all kinds of online apps
and programs to remain on top of his his teams. From Eagles to the two
other teams of our hometown Washington Capitals (Ice Hockey) and Washington
Wizards (Basketball)
Meanwhile, over the years I would read and be consistently disappointed by the poor standing of Indian athletes at the Olympics and the absence of Indian sports men and women in global sports like football. Of course, Indian have excelled in some sports like Cricket, Badminton and Kabaddi. But these are not the sports I had the opportunity to watch in USA, where incidentally we consider American sports to be the global sports and football (we call it soccer) is becoming the fastest growing sport in the country!
About 3 years ago, during a weekend discussion of business, my son started talking about the business of sports in America. The value of clubs and players, brand tieups, cost and size of stadiums, etc. Since we are now living in Dubai (where we have greater exposure to India then we had while living in USA), our minds turned to India and we started comparing the sports eco-system of India to USA. The conversations lasted hours and at the end of that general discussion, I had made up my mind that if indeed India had to excel in sports, people like me should stop complaining and start participating.
While I have been contributing to charities in India in a small way, I started comparing Sports investments with other value propositions like healthcare, education and many other such noble endeavors with high focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR was the bedrock of my investment philosophy in India.
After months of such deliberations, I decided to invest in sports for some of the following reasons.
Focus on youth by giving them the future. India is a young country. About 850 million Indians are below the age of 35 and about 500 million are below the age of 21!! India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan. These numbers are simply staggering. I HAD TO INVEST IN A VENTURE THAT WILL SUPPORT THE YOUTH OFINDIA
While education should indeed be the No 1 priority, they cannot study 24/7. Young adults need options in their primary source of entertainment other than Music, Movies, Cricket and digital entertainment. Given the diversity and size of population, the exposure of the youth had to be on physical activities and more importantly in GLOBAL sports. FOOTBALL IS THE BIGGEST SPORT IN THE WOLD. Few months ago, almost HALF OF THE WORLD watched FIFA WORLD CUP! No other sport comes closer!!
The 2nd reason for investing in sports was due to the lack of corporate investments in sports and in football in particular. Unlike other countries we do not have the breadth and depth of sports clubs in India. Fortunately, when I looked at football, I was pleased to notice that Indian Sports League (ISL) had just started. I was further emboldened by the fact that the league was co-owned by the Reliance Group, India's biggest business conglomerate. The ISL was a personal initiative of Mrs Nita Ambani, who had started to focus on education and sports. She is a big proponent of sports and owns the Mumbai Indians, a championship cricket club in the Indian Premier League (IPL). She has received several other sports accolades, including being the 1st Indian woman to be nominated to the Olympic Committee. It was critical for me to have strong leadership at the league level. In India you cannot have a stronger leadership than this.
I wanted to own a club in the major city of India. Fortunately, we were able to buy the Capital club of the country.
II. Now, where do we go from here?
1. The potential for growth of football in India is phenomenal. About 175 million people watched the ISL last year. As a country of few sports which has been dominated by the IPL and cricket, Indian youth are gravitating towards football. In fact, I believe that the opportunity for growth of football will be a phenomenon of historic proportions! I know what I say sounds unbelievable exaggeration, but when you look back at the history of sports and nations, the uniqueness of sports in India (one of the largest populated country on the planet with more youth than most nations) and compare it with the emerging technologies in the delivery of sports, the PASSION that sports ignites and moving from one main sport of cricket to global sports like football, what I say does start to make sense. Once, we reach this tipping point, which we predict in the next 5 years, the sky is the limit!
2. Further, let's look at the population of some of the nations that qualified for the world cup this year. The population of all nations that qualified for the World cup was less than that of India. About 40% of the countries that played had population less than that of Delhi NCR! Iceland, the nation that wowed us, has a only 335,000 people! Delhi is 70 times bigger than Iceland!
3. About 175 million Indians watch football today. This number will continue to increase. While ISL games are popular in relatively small pockets of India like Kerala, West Bengal, Goa, NorthEast and to some extent in Jharkhand, Tamil Naidu and Odisha, more states are joining in. While India's young prefer to watch EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga and other such leagues. These youth will start watching more ISL games as Indian athletes emerge.
5. As the numbers grow, business interests will follow. Incremental renewal percentage of ISL Title sponsor grew from USD 8 million in 2016 to USD 25 Million in 2017. Club growth has started. Last year the league expanded from 8 clubs to 10 with TATA and JINDAL buying in to ownership. The examples can go on.
The bottom line is clear: The growth of Indian football has begun!
In closing, we are in Qatar! The country that shook the world by winning the bid for FIFA 2022. As a small country of about 3 million, with world class infrastructure in football, a large Indian expatriate community ar proximity to more than a billion people of which 800 million are youth, there are tremendous opportunities to form alliances now to the run up to FIFA 2022. This will be an ideal marriage of footballing nations. As the Capital club of India, Delhi Dynamos has initiated this development by joining hand with Aspire Academy. The process has begun. We now invite you to join the journey..... Thank You!
Meanwhile, over the years I would read and be consistently disappointed by the poor standing of Indian athletes at the Olympics and the absence of Indian sports men and women in global sports like football. Of course, Indian have excelled in some sports like Cricket, Badminton and Kabaddi. But these are not the sports I had the opportunity to watch in USA, where incidentally we consider American sports to be the global sports and football (we call it soccer) is becoming the fastest growing sport in the country!
About 3 years ago, during a weekend discussion of business, my son started talking about the business of sports in America. The value of clubs and players, brand tieups, cost and size of stadiums, etc. Since we are now living in Dubai (where we have greater exposure to India then we had while living in USA), our minds turned to India and we started comparing the sports eco-system of India to USA. The conversations lasted hours and at the end of that general discussion, I had made up my mind that if indeed India had to excel in sports, people like me should stop complaining and start participating.
While I have been contributing to charities in India in a small way, I started comparing Sports investments with other value propositions like healthcare, education and many other such noble endeavors with high focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR was the bedrock of my investment philosophy in India.
After months of such deliberations, I decided to invest in sports for some of the following reasons.
Focus on youth by giving them the future. India is a young country. About 850 million Indians are below the age of 35 and about 500 million are below the age of 21!! India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan. These numbers are simply staggering. I HAD TO INVEST IN A VENTURE THAT WILL SUPPORT THE YOUTH OFINDIA
While education should indeed be the No 1 priority, they cannot study 24/7. Young adults need options in their primary source of entertainment other than Music, Movies, Cricket and digital entertainment. Given the diversity and size of population, the exposure of the youth had to be on physical activities and more importantly in GLOBAL sports. FOOTBALL IS THE BIGGEST SPORT IN THE WOLD. Few months ago, almost HALF OF THE WORLD watched FIFA WORLD CUP! No other sport comes closer!!
The 2nd reason for investing in sports was due to the lack of corporate investments in sports and in football in particular. Unlike other countries we do not have the breadth and depth of sports clubs in India. Fortunately, when I looked at football, I was pleased to notice that Indian Sports League (ISL) had just started. I was further emboldened by the fact that the league was co-owned by the Reliance Group, India's biggest business conglomerate. The ISL was a personal initiative of Mrs Nita Ambani, who had started to focus on education and sports. She is a big proponent of sports and owns the Mumbai Indians, a championship cricket club in the Indian Premier League (IPL). She has received several other sports accolades, including being the 1st Indian woman to be nominated to the Olympic Committee. It was critical for me to have strong leadership at the league level. In India you cannot have a stronger leadership than this.
I wanted to own a club in the major city of India. Fortunately, we were able to buy the Capital club of the country.
II. Now, where do we go from here?
1. The potential for growth of football in India is phenomenal. About 175 million people watched the ISL last year. As a country of few sports which has been dominated by the IPL and cricket, Indian youth are gravitating towards football. In fact, I believe that the opportunity for growth of football will be a phenomenon of historic proportions! I know what I say sounds unbelievable exaggeration, but when you look back at the history of sports and nations, the uniqueness of sports in India (one of the largest populated country on the planet with more youth than most nations) and compare it with the emerging technologies in the delivery of sports, the PASSION that sports ignites and moving from one main sport of cricket to global sports like football, what I say does start to make sense. Once, we reach this tipping point, which we predict in the next 5 years, the sky is the limit!
2. Further, let's look at the population of some of the nations that qualified for the world cup this year. The population of all nations that qualified for the World cup was less than that of India. About 40% of the countries that played had population less than that of Delhi NCR! Iceland, the nation that wowed us, has a only 335,000 people! Delhi is 70 times bigger than Iceland!
3. About 175 million Indians watch football today. This number will continue to increase. While ISL games are popular in relatively small pockets of India like Kerala, West Bengal, Goa, NorthEast and to some extent in Jharkhand, Tamil Naidu and Odisha, more states are joining in. While India's young prefer to watch EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga and other such leagues. These youth will start watching more ISL games as Indian athletes emerge.
5. As the numbers grow, business interests will follow. Incremental renewal percentage of ISL Title sponsor grew from USD 8 million in 2016 to USD 25 Million in 2017. Club growth has started. Last year the league expanded from 8 clubs to 10 with TATA and JINDAL buying in to ownership. The examples can go on.
The bottom line is clear: The growth of Indian football has begun!
In closing, we are in Qatar! The country that shook the world by winning the bid for FIFA 2022. As a small country of about 3 million, with world class infrastructure in football, a large Indian expatriate community ar proximity to more than a billion people of which 800 million are youth, there are tremendous opportunities to form alliances now to the run up to FIFA 2022. This will be an ideal marriage of footballing nations. As the Capital club of India, Delhi Dynamos has initiated this development by joining hand with Aspire Academy. The process has begun. We now invite you to join the journey..... Thank You!
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