Homeward from the Eden Gardens a little after midnight on Sunday, I got a message from a senior official of the All India Football Federation (AIFF). It was the link inviting bids for commercial rights of AIFF’s club properties which had been uploaded on the federation’s website minutes earlier.
“Best of luck,” I wrote back. “Thank you, we need it,” pat came the reply from a person not known to be a night owl. Clearly, some federation officials were at work to get the Request For Proposal (RFP) document ready. It came out on March 2, 10 days after AIFF had said it would. The last date for submission of a bid is March 19. The bids will be opened on March 20.
Better luck this time?
AIFF is no longer assured of the ₹50 crore funding that supports football, including nearly 1,700 matches it holds annually. Once the commercial rights of the men’s and women’s top tier are taken, selling the same for the Indian Football League should be easier. The next 18 days can shape or sink the sport in the short and medium-terms.
Explains why the official wrote about needing all the luck AIFF can get. An RFP last year fetched over 200 questions, most from the previous commercial partner, but no bid. The Indian Women’s League did attract interest but AIFF couldn’t luck out. Ditto the tender for a new kit supplier.
As on the pitch where what happens in one part inevitably has a consequence on another, the absence of a new supplier led to India’s women’s team wearing jerseys provided by a company whose contract had ended with the expiration of the deal with AIFF’s commercial partner last December. And then, two days before they kicked off in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, there was the fracas over jerseys. Creditable isn’t praise enough for the performance that followed, against Vietnam.
“It was a very evenly matched game,” said Vietnam head coach Mai Duc Chung. Coming from a man who has been in charge of the team since 1997 and who took Vietnam to a World Cup, that should be cause for cheer. Amelia Valverde wasn’t off the mark when she said India “ran hard for 90 minutes” and at times were better than opponents who are 30 places higher on FIFA’s rankings list. The winning goal came from an error and that is among the lessons India should take forward going in Saturday’s match against Japan and against Chinese Taipei on March 10, India’s head coach said.
The 15+5 proposal
But I digress. Proposal, not performance on the pitch, is the focus of this issue. Still smarting from the minimum guarantee of ₹37.5 crore that evinced no interest, AIFF has not given a minimum value this time. Interested parties can bid for the men’s top league and the cup competition along with IWL 1 and 2 or separately. And though it has not been mentioned in the brief outline AIFF put on its website, the tenure will be for 15 years with the option for renewing it for another five. That detail is in the RFP document that will need to be bought for ₹2.5 lakh.
“The last deal was for 15 years so this one is too,” said the official who had sent me the link. “ISL can be done on a budget of ₹40-50 crore and that has got me hopeful.” Worked out by clubs and AIFF, the operational cost for this season’s single leg format is around ₹19 crore, the amount being pruned by approximately ₹7 crore. Having managed to sell broadcast and data rights, AIFF remains optimistic of getting a title sponsor for ISL12 which will contribute to a central revenue pool.
The optimism stems from being able to sell data rights for the Indian Football League, the second tier of the men’s pyramid, for approximately $120,000, 60% of which will go to the clubs. AIFF is also likely to finalise an international broadcast deal for IFL said to be worth around 50,000 euros. That too will be shared with the clubs.
Not everyone in AIFF though is this cofident. An executive committee member said given the experience of the recent past, the RFP should have been issued after the season ended in May. “From asking clubs whether a new team should be included two rounds into the league to the embarrassment over kits, AIFF’s stock is low now,” the member told me.
Do that an AIFF could be accused of not sticking to the timeline it announced in January. Don’t and it could end up being embarrassed again.
Play of the week
