Mr. Ranjit Bajaj, the owner of Minerva Academy has been in the news recently. He and his wife, Ms. Henna Singh, sold off their stakes at the I-League club Punjab FC to RoundGlass, having won the I-League a couple of years ago. Mr. Bajaj has always been in the news, usually for his no-nonsense comments about the negative aspects of Indian football’s administration. Now focusing on grassroots-level football and scouting for FIFA World Cup 2034 through his academy, Mr. Bajaj spoke to BleedSport over a telephonic conversation and answered some of our questions. Source: 90min Q. Describe your relations with AIFF.
A. AIFF’s biggest problem is their short-term planning regarding the future of Indian football. They always aim for the immediate next World Cup, which is practically shortsightedness. They’re busy making the leagues top-heavy, without focusing on providing infrastructure at the grassroots level. They provide negligible money to the state football associations, which points towards their reluctance to build a strong base. Their unwillingness to broadcast the I-League 2nd Division speaks volumes. What’s the harm if they at least start with a Facebook Live broadcast for the matches? They won’t even allow it. This is something which is essential to garner popularity and let football grow organically. They have all wrong ways of earning money, like coaching. Coaching should never be a method to earn money, but should always be on merit. As a result, there are very few A-licensed coaches in India.
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Source: India Today. With the ongoing World Test Championship being halted due to COVID-19, there are doubts about the most anticipated tournament in the history of cricket. Rumours about the tournament being scrapped are gaining momentum, with the final scheduled to take place at Lord’s in June 2021. Currently, India are at the top of the Test rankings with a rating of 116, as well as the World Test Championship table, having played nine matches. Source: ICC. Although it may seem that India are at a pretty comfortable position, that’s not the case. With two series yet to be played, India’s top spot could fall into jeopardy. Here are 4 reasons why India can’t take it easy in the World Test Championships.
Source: Times of India The story of international sports over the past decade was one of the unanimous growth, unrestrained spending and fanatic popularity. Coronavirus brought the sports business to an immediate halt. The boom times went bust overnight. The global sports market reached a value of nearly $489 billion in 2018, having grown at an annual growth rate of more than 4% since 2014, and was expected to grow at an annual growth rate of about 6% to almost $614 billion by 2022, and its all come to a standstill due to coronavirus lockdown. Some are expected to handle the cash crunch better than the others. The organizers behind the Wimbledon, cancelled this year, and the Tokyo Olympics, postponed until summer 2021, believe their insurance policies will recover the huge chunk of costs. But many football and cricket clubs are among those to find their insurance policies do not cover pandemics. While all sporting authorities are reeling under the loss of opportunities and financial impact as the world has come to a standstill, sports goods industry in India is amongst the worst hit. The business is shut at a time when sporting activities and the business volume hit the peak. Sports enthusiasts sentiments hit the peak in India with the Indian Premier League underway at this time. On ground March-April is the time when a new generation of sports young guns join sports academies. This is the new consumer base that adds to the yearly business growth of sports industry. IPL 2020 The Indian Premier League is gearing up for a huge loss for sure in the wake of novel coronavirus lockdown. But a loss of what magnitude? That is to be waited and seen as the BCCI has decided that the IPL 2020 season will be suspended until further notice. “BCCI will continue to monitor and review the situation regarding a potential start date in close partnership with all of its stakeholders and will continue to take guidance from the Government of India, State Governments and other State Regulatory bodies.”, stated Jay Shah (Honorary Secretary Of BCCI). As we all know the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the richest cricket body in the world but then a cancellation of the Indian Premier League's 13th edition could deliver a massive jolt to it. In 2018, Star India had won the bid after cracking a five-year deal worth a whooping Rs 6138.1 crore. But the massive deal was only for the media rights of the Indian national team’s home series and domestic cricket for a period of 5 years. Understand this, in 2017 Star India had also won the TV and digital rights for the IPL. They had to spend a staggering Rs 16,347.50 crores for the global rights for a 5-year period from 2018-2022. It is till now the biggest television deal in cricketing history. Thus, a cancellation of the IPL this year would mean a direct loss of Rs 3269.50 crore for Star, who had already suffered a Rs 1216 crore loss in the previous financial year with expenses for the IPL touching Rs 4,000 crore for the 2019 season. The BCCI had also sold the title sponsorship to VIVO for Rs 2,000 crore for a period of 5 years which means a loss of Rs 400 crore in 2020 if IPL is cancelled. Add to this a loss of Rs 200 crore from central sponsorship, and the combined loss comes out to be Rs 3,869.50 crore, if the Indian and overseas players don't take the field in IPL this year.
The overseas players are also at a risk of losing contracts worth millions of dollars in the event of a cancellation or if their respective boards deny them permission to play. The 8 franchises meanwhile, are also going to suffer as they will incur losses from advertising and gate revenue, which was estimated to be in the region of Rs 450-500 crore in sponsorships for all the 8 teams along with an additional Rs 250 crore approximately from ticket sales. Advertisers had paid around Rs 18-20 crore on average for a spot to be in front of the team jersey, and Rs 5-7 crore, for a spot behind the jersey. Advertisement spot in front of the helmet was sold for Rs 1.50 crore, while a position on shoulders of team jerseys went between Rs 2.50-3 crore. The worst part about the whole situation for the BCCI and the IPL stakeholders is that they have not been able to secure insurance covers against Covid-19. Nobody could have imagined that the virus, which originated from Wuhan in China and infected more than 20 lakh people worldwide till date, would bring the whole world to a standstill. Insurance covers for the IPL include: "event insurance, professional indemnity, commercial general liability, kidnap and ransom cover, D&O (Directors and Officers liability) for IPL owners, business interruption, medical and accidental covers, told Rajat Mishra, a Supreme Court lawyer and legal and risk management expert, to Money Control. IPL 2015 had contributed Rs 1,150 crore to the Indian GDP, the BCCI had revealed while the total economic output attached with the 2015 season stood at Rs 2,650 crore. Therefore, a cancellation of IPL 2020 would not only hurt all the parties involved in the IPL but would also hit the Indian economy this year. Summer of 2017 saw the English Premier League clubs smash all the previous transfer records. More than a billion Pounds were spend on acquiring new players for the teams. None of the other top leagues in Europe could match the Premier League’s spending capacity. While many players were signed from other leagues, some of the intra-EPL transfers were mind boggling as well. Let’s take a look at how the top EPL clubs fared during the transfer window
The past few months has seen many major happenings in the world of football. Let’s take a look at them and analyse them briefly: 1. Neymar’s transfer to PSG Everyone even slightly following football was shocked to see star player Neymar leave Barcelona for French superpowers Paris Saint Germain. This move was the most expensive in the history of football, with PSG paying more than €222 million. It was followed by the transfer of French prodigy Kylian Mbappe from Ligue 1 champions AS Monaco. In my personal opinion, this move is nothing but perfect for Neymar, who will be looking to come out of Messi’s shadow, which wouldn’t have been possible in Barcelona. After Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, Neymar is arguably the best player in the world, which wasn’t prominent at all. If he wants to win the Ballon d’Or, PSG is the perfect place for him – it’s an attacking league (he can score more goals), he has people to assist him in Mbappe, Verratti, Draxler and di Maria also linking up with Mbappe and prolific striker Edinson Cavani. The team is young, working towards the future, already domestic giants and are moving on to becoming European giants. All this is perfect for any player who aims to be the best in Europe, with the potential of doing so. In the coming years, we will surely witness some footballing genius in Neymar.
2. AC Milan’s transfer window If we come across any middle class person who follows football, we will observe that he is a supporter of Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid or Chelsea. Their favourite players would turn out to be Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar. The same group of people, when asked about Indian football, would conclude their knowledge at the name of Sunil Chhetri, the current Indian captain. Most of them would cite poor game quality as the reason for not following the game in India properly. Thus, football in India goes on getting neglected – by spectators, analysts, administration and even budding players. Basically, the Indian football consists of two levels. The Hero I League and the lower, Second Division League. The I League consists of ten teams, whereas the Second Division League consists of twelve teams, across three groups. The I League has sponsors, is broadcasted, promoted across the country and is a paid entry for spectators. But if we take the case of the Second Division League, none of the above stand true. Neither do they have stadiums, nor are the games telecasted, neither is there any promotional activity. The teams barely manage to cope up with the busy schedules, with travelling across the country making it even worse for the players. Most of them aren’t paid handsomely, and are in fact forced to take up other bit part jobs when the season is not in progress. Infrastructure is in shambles, with almost no investors coming due to the lack of return of the capital they pour in. With no sponsors, broadcasting rights, jersey sales or Match Day tickets, there is almost no source of revenue generation for the teams, who invest a lot of money for everything – starting from getting players, to paying their wages, to getting the pitch ready, to the infrastructure and even travelling and accommodation expenses. We spoke to a passionate Mr. Anuj Gupta, owner of Sudeva Moonlight Football Club, regarding the biggest challenges he faces running the club. He said, “Negativity is a problem. Ground is also a problem, we have a ground but we don’t have a stadium.”, emphasizing on the poor quality of the pitch used. Being grass and not turf, the pitches are injurious to players and also hamper the quality of the game. “…otherwise we would like to have our match in a much better ground.”, Mr. Gupta added. Although the odds may seem against the All India Football Federation for the abysmal state of the Second Division League, in reality, they actually have been helping the teams a lot, be it financially, institutionally or even helping them in establishing themselves. Without the support of the AIFF, it would have been practically impossible for the Second Division League to commence. They take care of the league and every game like their own children, and have been highly supportive of the new teams which have come up. Mr. Anuj Gupta says, “AIFF builds the element of trust. Being the middlemen, had they not been there, no teams would have liked to play against each other.” It is pretty disheartening that even after so much efforts being put in by the team owners, players and the AIFF, there is a palpable discord between the football fans and the Second Division I League. Not only it is not being marketed properly, but people are actually not showing genuine interest as well. Had it been connected to the masses, things would have been different.
A passionate Indian football fan, Mr. Rishabh Bhatnagar says, "With the AIFF signing a contract with IMG-Reliance for the marketing of Indian football, it seems that things are slowly going towards the right direction. Being a tie-up between a private entity and a foreign company, their approach towards Indian football has been refreshingly positive." A change will definitely be on the cards, if we take the pledge to spread the message of football in India as widely as possible, to provide support to not only the I League, but also the Second Division League. ![]() France have made a decent start in the Euro 2016 if we look at the results- 2 wins in 2 games. That is definitely a good start if we look at the other favourites in this tournament. But these numbers are quite misleading. Out of the 4 goals in these 2 games, 3 have come late in the game with the hosts depending too much on the individual brilliance of midfielder Dimitri Payet to conjure something special in both the games. It is clear that the Blues are yet to show why they were considered as favourites prior to this tournament. The hosts faced some major off-field problems with Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema alleged to have played a part in blackmailing international teammate Mathieu Valbuena over a sex tape. The Real Madrid striker was supposed to play an integral role for France in the Euros but had to be left out of the squad due to his involvement in the scandal. This made way for Olivier Giroud in the starting lineup who is quite different from Benzema. The Arsenal striker is more of a goal poacher and can be threat to the defence with his strong presence in the box. Benzema on the other hand is more complete as he possesses the ability to drop back and create space for wingers and link up with his teammates. France have struggled in this tournament and it has been largely due to the fact that Giroud has been ineffective in front of goal. While the Arsenal forward managed to get on the scoresheet in the first game, he had a terrible outing in the game against Albania as the team failed to register even a single shot at goal in the first half. Didier Deschamps has also been criticized for his team selection in the previous game as he left out stars Antoinne Griezmann and Paul Pogba for Anthony Martial and Kingsley Coman, fielding a 4-2-3-1 formation changing from the 4-3- 3 in the previous game- a move that proved disastrous for France as both failed to create any good chances in their time on the pitch. The team has been shaky at the back as well with regular starter Raphael Varane and Barcelona defender Jeremy Mathieu ruled out a few weeks prior to the tournament due to injury. This led to the inclusion of Adil Rami in the starting XI but his pairing with Laurent Koscielny hasn’t worked too well in the first 2 games with the opposition able to find some space upfront on a few occasions in both the games. France have to step up as they are looking like a shadow of themselves at best. They have been really lucky so far in this tournament and have relied too much on West Ham midfielder Dimitri Payet who is in the form of his life. He has been instrumental on the left hand side of the attack and has caused all kinds of problems for the defenders. But its uncertain that how long this can continue and sooner or later they might falter against difficult opposition. They have a great team consisting of some of the best young players in the world and if they rediscover their form on time, they can be unstoppable. Author - KRISHNA GULATIFinally after much speculation, the All India Football Federation came up with the merger plan of the I-League and the Indian Super League. According to the AIFF, following the 2017-18 season, the I-League and the Indian Super League will be partially merged to form a new league, and three other leagues will be introduced. The ISL, formed as a short two month tournament, will take the lead role in Indian football, whereas the I-League will be developed to become the second division league in India. Further, a third league and a fourth will be formed and will include new clubs from various India states which do not represent any current club in India, such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh etc. The AIFF said that its’ objective was to create a “sustainable ecosystem” for the football clubs, wherein they expect to see all Indian states participating in Indian football by 2020. The AIFF also says to aim a FIFA ranking for the men’s team of 120 by the end of 2017, and a World Cup 2019 qualification for the women’s team.
Its going to be a repeat of last year's NBA Finals where Golden State Warriors defeated Cleveland Cavaliers 4-2 to claim the title.
Both the teams had an excellent regular season and playoffs. Golden State Warriors beat 1995-96 record of 72-10 set by Chicago Bulls as the made a record of 73-9 in the regular season whereas Cleveland Cavaliers had a wonderful Playoffs where they recorded just two defeats which will make the NBA Finals very competitive. |
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