The Grassroots Revolution In Indian Football with Siddarth Sabapathy

How do we bridge the gap between grassroots sports and elite sports?

In this episode, Nadeem talks to Siddarth Sabapathy about kicking off football from the community level to making the Vile Parle Premier League a league of their own! 

Siddarth is a sports strategist and co-founder of Sporko- a sports management company that develops and promotes sports at the grassroots level. He talks about being the General Manager of Ahmedabad Defenders- the team that represented India for the first time at the international club volleyball level, the untapped potential of grassroots sports, and why the backstage is completely different from the mainstream glamor of the sports industry!

Tune in to learn more!

Siddarth Sabapathy
General Manager- Ahmedabad Defenders, Co-Founder- Sporko 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddarth-sabapathy-b6000955/
https://www.instagram.com/sidwin22/?hl=en 

'Beyond The Field' is a podcast where we give you an all-access pass to the business side of sports and decode India’s multi-billion-dollar sports industry.

Nadeem Sheikh is a sports professional with 6 years of experience who turned his passion into a profession. He has worked with multiple companies in the sports industry like KheloFantasy, CricketGraph, and YouTooCanRun. LinkedIn - / nadeemsheikh

Creative Supervisor: Aishwarya Javalgekar
Producer: Shreya Ahlawat

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Transcript

Nadeem Sheikh  00:03

Hi, welcome to Beyond the field, our show where I take you off the sports field and into your favorite themes and events. My name is Dave Shea, and I'm your host. I will be speaking to industry professionals like me, and providing you guys a 360 degree view of the thriving sports industry of India. 

Nadeem Sheikh  01:02

So today, I have with me, so that's about party, who's a sports strategist, and entrepreneur. He's a Director of Sports or sports and the committee member and committee member and committee member at Google Football Association. Welcome to that. So to our viewers Siddhar is a well known name in Mumbai and Maharashtra football circuit, and he has a lot of background in football and also with other sports that we are going to reveal in this conversation. Siddharth? Firstly, I want to ask you to give our viewers a background of your professional as well as educational.

Siddharth Sabapathy  01:49

Sure. So basically, I mean, I used to play football for fun when I was young, probably my school and college days. I never had any ambitions of taking a professionally always recreational footballer. While playing football, I realized that there is a lack of structure for the sport, something needed to be done at the grassroot level. And that's how it all started. That's why part kind of folded into sports. I spoke with one of my friends who's also my partner in my company right now. His name is Megan. And he spoke and he thought that, you know, why don't we start something for the answers of our age, probably something was more a bit more selfish in terms of our own interests. So we thought that, you know, we would want to start something whereby they create some sort of structure at the grassroot level. And that's how we started with a football league called a pilot. That was my first ever venture into sports. It was a community based youth, which acted as a talent identification platform and a progression pathway. For a lot of footballers, between these two, you can say 15 to 20. So this was a small community that was organized and then, as in how we progressed through the years, the league started to grow in size and stature. Alongside doing unique, I got an opportunity to work then in a company called sports consulting. And from there, then I shipped it, and I worked in the Google government for some time I came back, I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to the German consulate to study at Leipzig. I studied sports management there. And I came back and I started my own company in college for sports, which is a sports management company, which focuses primarily on creating logical structures models, trying to ensure that we somehow popularize them into the culture of sport in India. We are working across multiple sports, but football is kind of our forte. And alongside that I was fortunate enough to do some work for football. And that's how I got into Football Association. I got elected as a committee member in New York. And it's a pleasure to be working there and to understand and get opportunities to improve on by sports, especially football. And likewise, I've been part of Maharashtra football right now recently, I was the manager for the team as well as for the team. And also recently, I just became an AFS certified match Commissioner as well. So it's a it's just a journey that is going on and just trying to see how I can contribute to the best of my ability to popularize sport, especially football at a

Nadeem Sheikh  04:24

great rate. So I just give viewers a context. What will a parlay Premier League is it was one of the initiatives. Another force first initiatives to have a community based Football League and Siddharth has not thrown that much light you're on it, but it was one of the biggest events in the city. And they had very good sponsors and we want to talk about the popularity incident on Twitter. Just

Siddharth Sabapathy  04:51

a little bit of layout, put a little bit of light on that. So basically resets the community basically. So We used to create teams locally, there are owners for each team players are sold on fictitious points. And there was registration process. So this was this happened in the year 2011, or 12. Probably, it was the finals of our second edition, we had to get a prize money to be spending 5000. And the match was at 00 accounting, really popular was our GPS for that particular match. And what happened was, the match was kind of a stalemate, both teams playing very defensively, nobody really allowing each other to score. So the crowd had come with the expectation of goals, and they wanted some sort of action, and even work, it also felt the same. So he was the halftime, he gave a speech where he said, You know what, the winning team gets to 2000 rupees from my side, which was a great gesture from him. And nobody really expected that. And what happened was the team that had actually gone back onto the field actually kind of bundled up once again, and they start to discuss strategies. And what happened at the end was before was like a full two or something in the second half. Similarly, we saw around five to six schools in the second half. And that completely, like, made the game really exciting. So yeah, that was one of the, you know, you could say, incident that we cherish a lot from the other than that, of course, one of the biggest things and the take away of the league was the fact that many of the people who worked in the league are all volunteers. It was it was really heartening to see many youngsters. Now all of them are working professionals, and all of them used to work in the league absolutely had no admiration. And even we didn't make any sort of profits from the league. The idea was basically just to create something in the community. And we were fortunate enough to have been backed by sponsors being backed by the people around us, the League, the last edition of really happened in the year 2090. After that, you haven't been able to do it because of code. And you haven't really started building yet. But now you can't do you know, trying to create better structures. But as as you rightly mentioned, this was our first ever structure that we created in sport, and it is still finally cherished by a lot of the players and lottery winners and a lot of the people who are at different levels.

Nadeem Sheikh  07:09

And along with other stakeholders, the event was raised by some of the reputed names in the Google football arena. Jay, Shani was there earlier, Fernandez was there. So it was a very big event. I want to put forward a question yourself, if you have a very strong background educationally as well, because you just post money back from library. And after coming back, you started working on a grassroots level, because after coming back, you could have gone to any sports agency or anything in the sports community and got a good job. But you chose to work on the grassroots level.

Siddharth Sabapathy  07:44

I would say that you don't really have people involved that much at the grassroot level here in India, what happens is, especially when you talk about something like for any, for that matter, any sports, not just football, when people talk about you need to really have a very, very good and deep local classroom. Somewhere, I felt that my you could say my expertise or my knowledge about sport will be better utilized, I can work at the grassroot level. And I also personally, I found it more. Or you could say more enriching. And you could also say for a fact that it was more exciting for me to work at a grassroot level, because I felt the opportunities were immense because untapped market, and the potential of grassroots sports is still unrealized in India. So I really feel that that is a great potential. So that is why I decided to work in the classical sport. I really wanted to try to breed where it is not yet. And, of course, I mean, what I also see is there should be like a lesser gap between grassroot and elite sport somewhere, I wanted to close that gap. So that was one of the many reasons that I decided that I would want to invest my time and efforts into building a rational church.

Nadeem Sheikh  08:58

And that is why he came up with football. Yes, because

Siddharth Sabapathy  09:02

one was basically sporting kickoff. That's the abbreviation of sport, but to see the full form of sporting kickoff. We wanted to kick off events and activities and tournaments and academies and development in those in sports, and that's why it's called sporting sports.

Nadeem Sheikh  09:18

So my next question is, I want you to touch upon the history of football in India. The reason for me asking you this question is I've spoken to a lot of people some of our friends are the memory of football starts off with ISF. But I think we have a very decorated history, and I wanted to touch upon that.

Siddharth Sabapathy  09:36

When we do how ridiculous history are right on this one. If you see for example, India's first ever friendly game. I may be wrong on this but I'm probably very confident that it is okay it goes against France in the mid 40s. Were the last one and up until the early 1960s 1970s, early 1970s and ever decent football team and Asia We even did really well in the Asia carpet, we were part of the 1936 Olympics in Melbourne. We defeated Australia for three. And there are some great folklore stories about Indian football. What happened also was maybe after the 70s, and 80s, the focus shifted towards primarily towards many other sports. And also at the same time, there was more, you could say, a focused approach towards academics. So all of these players were involved in auto parents, all of them started as their children to focus towards Academy sports kind of took a backseat. But now it's kind of changing sustainability as farming families are self sufficient here in India. So there are parents who are getting motivated to make a career in the sport. And as I think the history will be kind of remade or recreated now in the years to come. And I'm very confident about that may not be in the next five or six years, but probably in the next 15 or 20 years, India will again start to deal with the headaches in the early 1950s 60s.

Nadeem Sheikh  11:04

And why do you think it is important for football to go to India along with other sports? So my question is, why is football? Why is it important for football to grow along with other sports, because we have cricket and we have all optic sports that are growing? Why is it important for football to grow?

Siddharth Sabapathy  11:24

I mean, important as an I would say, see, it's important for any sport to grow, because if it grows them, because once it becomes a scale that can be possibility of players making a self sustainable career. So there is nothing that I can say it's important or not important, at the end of the day, for any sport to grow, it is good because the new sport grows, obviously, at a global level, you have put yourself as an adult, if you see football being played by around 200 nations across the world, India is around for the second round, it keeps up to 80 Sometimes 90 lines up. If you're in the Top 20 Top 30 Of course, you're putting identity on the world map. So, India is always seen as a nation which is focused primarily heavily on but now when it comes into sports like football and hockey is also doing really well. So, when you get into multiple sports, the identity of the nation gets formed better, we are looked as a sporting nation and of course, when we are looked at as a sporting nation, though also another factor that comes into play is the health you see that there is a lot of kids a lot of youngsters who are now slowly you know, not having the right dietary habits and all those things when they start playing, they start focusing on health as well. And again at the end of the day, that will really impact them in the right way. So I wouldn't say it is important to grow at all but it is good if we are able to do multiple sports and it is critical.

Nadeem Sheikh  12:48

And it also helps create more job opportunities people like you and other people who are passionate about football who want to contribute apart from you know being an athlete, it gives them a an area where they can work and they can excellent they can make sure that the next generation or people who want to come they can have the best of the ability and perform well for the nation. So I want you to discuss the structure of Indian football. You have a strong background with Obi football I want you to attach that and take it up the ladder to iaslc What stage me this technique naturally what you want to talk about

Siddharth Sabapathy  13:23

go really deep down so first of all it starts with the unnecessary for under nine under level under 13 under 50 in the under 17 This is the youth age category it automates that normally you will find across multiple districts and Federation's followed by you can in Mumbai specifically you can get into the third division you can work second first super than elite and from elite teams get nominated to take part in the division ID three and then they get into ID two then the main ID and then the eyes. So that's how the parameters are

Nadeem Sheikh  13:58

and what do you think is the impact of RSL how has it impacted football

Siddharth Sabapathy  14:05

so is trying to really, you could say the most professionally run Football League up until now we had National Football League before we I leave, I suppose being like obviously a boon to what it also has kind of inculcated or created is a fan culture in India which is wonderful and heartening to see. It's also created identity for skates in terms of what they can do to promote football in their state. Now with the promotion and relegation coming into play, more and more clubs can be part of the Iset results of greatness in obviously Punjab was a recent addition to the ISIL last season. So that is fantastic to see. And all of the ISIL subs have been doing a phenomenal job to ensure that there are players are getting opportunities they're getting the right or the decent amount of remuneration related sport and nowadays youngsters can look up to making a career in football. It's only because of ISIS in the last five For six years, whatever you've seen kind of the growth or the rise in grassroots football, you can attribute it to the eyes. And it is still growing extremely, it's a lot of time to become sustainable clubs need to be sustainable. Most of the clubs aren't sustainable yet in the eyes. So once clubs become more sustainable, once more and more people start doing more and more matches, of course, there will be more broadcast value to sell. And in turn, of course, the clubs will benefit out of it. And once the clubs become more sustainable, at the end of the the ice will keep growing. So we all have to hope, wish and pray that the ice will keep growing more and more clubs get attached to it, you know, more and more regions get covered. If that does happen, then of course, the broadcast well you will know Right? There will be a rise in that. And that will again, as I said, attribute to the club's getting sustainable, and then again, grassroot getting sustainable. So it's like a chi. Absolutely, I completely

Nadeem Sheikh  15:49

agree with you. And if you look at the Indian geography, what football does is it attaches to a geography. For example, what I mean to say some news from northeast, they participate in football team, that real Kashmir coming out of Kashmir sensitive area, it gives them a mindset as a school feeder that we want to work here. And then that they can, you know, accelerate and come into the ISL. And this is what I think cricket is lacking, like in this corner pockets. It's not going that way. But football has tremendous opportunity to grow. I

Siddharth Sabapathy  16:22

mean, I only really kind of combat football with any other sport, to be honest. It's a different structure altogether. There's a different ideological. So I mean, as you said, it is created as a structure getting formed is made, there is a lot of focus right on Russell forskolin, part of the coalition has been created from the rascals. All of this will only keep growing over.

Nadeem Sheikh  16:49

Time want to ask what are the grassroots initiatives that have been taken by the clubs,

Siddharth Sabapathy  16:54

one of the biggest grassroots initiative taken by member Football Association over the last many years is the work which is being done very phenomenal. By the association, the members that a lot of the clubs have come in, you can see that is a focus on how just boys could fall on submerges well under 40, under 17 was also become part of the game. So there is a focus on trying to create sports to be more inclusive for all. And also at the same time, you see the number of clubs are kind of exponentially risen over the last many years at the grassroot level. So there is you could say, the association is actually trying to motivate our children to encourage more and more owners and more and more people to start their own clubs in a in a structured way. And then again, you can see here, I've also done a lot of coach licensing programs and other free licensing programs over many years. So we are actually educating coaches educating referees, all of this will only contribute to a more robust and a more strong, grassroots.

Nadeem Sheikh  17:58

Who spoke about what comes to my mind is a game called Indian arrows, which will run your Python arrows. But now it has escaped off. But that was a good initiative that was taken by you want to touch upon that.

Siddharth Sabapathy  18:12

Again, this is very, very good initiative, maybe for multiple reasons, you can continue. It is critical. As you know, more than I feel more than creating any of those, it's important that the clubs have it as part of their key areas of responsibility that they actually promote the youth and develop talent from their youth teams to their senior teams. So all of the ISIL clubs and all the ivy clubs have teams in the under 13. And under 15 Junior and subduing index. So it's very critical that they actually groom their talent in the right way. So that most of the players were part of their youth teams actually then get a contract with the senior team. So if they're able to plan that better, obviously there will be more value I think that needs to be more focused on instead of just creating maybe a separate key motivator for you.

Nadeem Sheikh  18:59

And what do you think is the major difference in football culture versus the rest of the world? It is that infrastructure well

19:07

organized, better investments, or what is it like it's the

Siddharth Sabapathy  19:11

culture that's the biggest difference, to be honest, the culture across for anywhere in the continent, for example, in Europe and South America for football is extremely hyper is a lot of unfolding is what if she's the crowd. Likewise, in India, it's populated. You see, the stadiums are full people are ready to pay any amount of money for buying tickets, and there is this culture. So it's all down to culture. So if the culture for the sport in India can be improved, and the culture for the sport of football can be increased over years, again, you will see the same amount of time falling that's anywhere across the world. So I don't think it's down to structures or something like that. It's down to culture. And also another thing that we lack here is, you could say open playgrounds. A lot of times Whenever I've been on any podcast show is about the fact that we don't really have enough playgrounds. Even if there are playgrounds, it's not accessible and affordable for a lot of the people. So you will see there will be a playground, but they will have already somebody playing covered either someone playing some other game. So please make football, it's very difficult to play in that sort of atmosphere in that circle locality. So it's very critical that you have the comment, you're marking playgrounds for every sport, it becomes more easier to build that culture. And all it comes down to that. So if you were in school, and you would have probably played your first board is only because you had accessibility to that particular playground. So if there are football fields in the school, it becomes more easier for a child to even think about playing a sport. So it all comes down to that. So if what I would want to say, again, is about the fact that everyone starts playing their first coat at school, it's and it is more down to the fact what kind of playground is accessible. So if I have a tennis court in my school, it's easier for me to pick up tennis. Likewise, if there is a football court in my school, it's easier for me to fulfill in high school, it's easier for me to pick up football, that has the most critical limits the culture, more than anything else that is far far well developed in different countries as compared to India.

Nadeem Sheikh  21:17

I want to touch upon the investments that are coming in into sports. How's that including? Football?

Siddharth Sabapathy  21:26

So investment doesn't, if you could just

Nadeem Sheikh  21:29

Yeah, so we have RFIDs called sports, we have the Tata Steel coming up with a team called jumpship for FC. So now there is an entire periphery that corporates are coming in into sports and you know, taking up initiative. So what are your thoughts on that? Very

Siddharth Sabapathy  21:46

critical, isn't it because we need that sort of partnership between the public and private corporations. Again, it's great to see that all these techniques are taking interest in developing sport, because you also know the power of sport, the power of sport is enormous. And even more than anyone understands about that. So it's great to see corporates coming in. And it is something that needs to continue. I just hope that they continue because I remember that there were many other corporates also who came in many, many years ago. And I don't want to name but there were many corporates who came in and they felt that port wasn't sustainable, so the objects in it. So it's very important that corporates continue, but at the same time, the stock needs to ensure that they have a sustainable model, because the corporates will also only like to invest if they see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. So they need to mean we need to create a structure, the Association for innovation, the people involved in the company, we need to create a sustainable structure in which they ensure that the corporations are the companies that come and have value. And also what also one of the great things that has come in is a lot of the activities of Sport comes under the CSR. So that is also very good for many companies who come in, they can, you know, try to create some sort of an entity in sport using CSR. So that is also

Nadeem Sheikh  23:06

doing international collaborations or help grow support in India. So recently, I think tonicity actually collaborated with sometimes and we have posted what might have signed up with you think such kind of initiatives can help grow football

Siddharth Sabapathy  23:23

depends completely on so there are two sides go for it. To be honest, the fishing, for example, in a way does, you know, again, depends on what are the areas that you're actually looking to create a partnership all about, for example, if it's about educating coaches, it's about educating. It's about educating our players making them better, yes. But if it is only about, say, for example, branding, or just, you know, sending a few players abroad on personal trip and making money out of it, I don't think that should be the only objective of creating such sort of partnerships. So again, phenomenal work by fantasy, we actually get something like Southampton's grasp Bucha to get someone who's who has been at the topic loans of the English Premier League to get them on board is a phenomenal again now it completely depends on how they kind of flew defy this partnership in the years to come. So, as I said, it completely depends on what is your objectivity or the objectivity is to develop the players and to get knowledge and APR out from these kinds of clubs then, of course, it is very, very worthwhile and exciting. But if that is not the case, then we need to really look at developing or designing the participants.

Nadeem Sheikh  24:39

My next question revolves around the fans of India and the football in India. I think we have certain pockets like West Bank, Volvo and the southern banks that heavily into football. But there are other regions that are coming up who are interested in football. Do you want to touch upon that?

Siddharth Sabapathy  24:56

Yes, so maybe see fans are a critical part of what we do. Starting off with something, even just starting a local community there are no fans, nobody's really going to support the players are not going to give their best. That is not going to be any entry fees a whatever, not the club doesn't really get formed. So at the end of the day, the fans want to be part of that, and our many fun supporters club and fan bases for each team that we have created. Again, engagement wide setting the fans haven't really bought in what it is, you need to be treated in a more subtle way. But I personally feel you need to probably create fans old and really great fan meeting some of the clubs are. So again, something that is in a very nascent stage in a very early stage in India, it's not as developed as again, some of the European people don't really have like this set of people who are extremely if it's not like following us number, right on there are a set of limited number of people who are fans of clubs, others are mostly fans of the sport to kind of differentiate between fan of the sport and kind of the club. So it will take time. But again, we see that even the Premier League clubs, a lot of fan base, the logical structure with a fan base. So there is a culture of fans. But yet at the ISL level, it's not grown to that level. So maybe in the years to come more unit history because even if you see somebody that can be there for so many years, that's why you have a huge fan base. So which is part of the ICL will take time to build up for the pandas in your pixel.

Nadeem Sheikh  26:35

So I am poor. I know many big fan of Mumbai City FC, I hold season pass, and I'm part of this service coaster brigade fan club, you know, it is at any stage, but I think they are doing their best to contribute they have fleshed it out when the players arrive, they have the chance to create banners and everything, I think they are just doing year on year and this will help you know the the momentum and football will is going and it will add on to that we have a little versity also a fan base we have a West Coast. I think that's blocked us with people from very dedicated and one of the things that I have observed the other MoMA football arena is the stadium is full when the when there are fans coming out from the away team. The whole team, you know the stadiums get full when there are teams coming in like a now or go for that matter.

Siddharth Sabapathy  27:32

So I want to appeal to

Nadeem Sheikh  27:35

people like we are population of two crore and the stadium is 6000 7000 cup that capacity, ticket prizes are all because I support all sports teams from Mumbai, Mumbai, Indians, Mumbai City FC, you

Siddharth Sabapathy  27:50

move something that will probably attracted you to support

Nadeem Sheikh  27:55

I am from Mumbai, I have to support me, I have to support Mumbai, irrespective of the performance, it has to be moved back for me for me, if you're from some other state or some other region, you support that you have my respect, but I have to support my city, across teams across board. My fan base is surely

Siddharth Sabapathy  28:14

one way to look at it. You belong to a certain region and you have affinity to that club because you belong biologist, but also for the fact that what also needs to understand that also needs to be another different factor to look at us, for example, the way they play, their philosophy, the side of play, what they're doing, how are they formed as a club and all those things also contribute to creating fans. So Daniel, you become our global fan base, like I don't even belong to employee I support teams. Why do I support NC is because of the fact that when I grew up, I saw them playing some wonderful sport game on television. And I felt that there was something that I liked. So likewise, I don't even belong. So again, if my city also in the long run, would want to create a larger fan base across India, that can only be done through our will be the way they play and know how they behave as a club. So that's something which has not supersede any other club in the world. So these are different factors. And it's good to see that you're supporting us or throughout the region you belong. And even with me, I'm from Mumbai to so I used to go to the city. But again, it's important that more and more people get involved and more and more people support it. And at the same time, the club also has a more open dialogue with its supporters. And it also wants to understand how it can best engage its families that also will have

Nadeem Sheikh  29:40

to take feedback and move forward and create content and align everything that you know, they push people to come to the stadium, watch the match the Ganic get engaged and then they have to retain them. So I think we had a good conversation around fans will speak about the infrastructure. I think you touched upon that earlier but I want you to touch in brief, what is the structure infrastructure? Like in India? Is it good or bad? Is it growing? What a lot what's

Siddharth Sabapathy  31:00

so, again, when you talk about infrastructure, completely matters of what level are you looking at it, like, for example, it is about just creating in a playground, it doesn't mean necessarily need to be a world class facility. It just can be a small playground with a football, post and changing room and maybe a little bit of place or, you know, seating area. But when you talk about an international level infrastructure, that's what we actually have worked it to work under 74 men and boys and under 70 People for the woman's research. So that is one of the key, you could say that it actually is an indicator of the fact that we are ready to push events over. Likewise, only thing I just said we're lacking the infrastructure ability that needs to be worked on. And that can only be done if the government gets involved it.

Nadeem Sheikh  31:58

Again, again, on the same point that regarding the infrastructure, I think recently we had early lighting coming in from Saudi Arabia of it was because of my team members, ctfc that, you know, we had some issues. Yeah. Yeah, but but sad part for me is like it's a membership team home match. And there are people and people coming in. But what I liked about that is, you know, there are people who are enthusiastic about soccer, and we filled up the stadium, it was 3035 30,000 people came in, they came in towards the other team, but I won't want them to come and watch our boom matches as well, because you are interested in football, you should watch this also, and then try and understand what they are trying to do. Because it is because of the team that you know, you got to witness in the restaurant team and invincible team coming in from the

Siddharth Sabapathy  32:51

Saudi, me we need to really comprehend them. It's not because of the fact that you don't like is because the fact that they feel a little more interesting and exciting brand of food. That is why that is one of the reasons why they must be supported. And I'm not trying to justify why they do it. But I'm just trying to state reasons on what could be going on in their mind to support a law. That is one of the primary reasons because we have got players like Koulibaly, you've got players in the midfield, you've got a cycle, that sort of talent, which they know that is exciting. Even tomorrow's numbers, if you also start playing that sort of exciting brand of football, remember Sydney Windsor based on the law, they continue to play. And this is the only time they've played this the first time they've ever played the AFC Champions League this week, maybe if they continue to play at this age over the next 40 years, will surely see people supporting diversity worldwide, it's going to happen. It does. If you see for example, growing up in many of my son uses support, say the Australian cricket team, because they screw it up, okay, India's greatest sport there, but Australia is the best. Now if you see, for example, they didn't pick him and as good as any other team in the world, and they're better than most of them. So there isn't much of a difference between us and yesterday. So likewise, if you see the difference has been kind of as declined over the years. Likewise, in football, also, they continue to keep playing against the population. So it's a top club, the difference between that club and our club will decrease. And once that happens, people will also start supporting our club, you know, whatever you dreamt, and whatever we dream of in terms of increasing that support will be most of them will want to associate themselves with winners. That's unfortunately, you know, that's the mindset which fans and all the fans want to be with teams that way. So if you see the number of fans like in the Premier League itself, right, you've got new clubs that keep coming in every year or put back by investment and then your fan bases that gets created for those clubs, which will not have really that much of an issue, but because they will. So again there is this focus on fans trying to align themselves with love. Sadly, we can't really completely erase that process it's going to be. So at the end of the day only what we can try to do is you can see how we as a club can start winning more games are becoming more and more better with the brand of football. One of the best examples of this exciting brand of football, they necessarily don't win, when they got relegated to watch when they played exciting. So most of the people used to like the way they play, there's always, you know, switch on TV when kids used to play likewise, when Brighton plays these days, people actually like to play and watch that. So like to watch that kind of sports. So either you play an exciting brand new sport, or you try to kind of win every game, whatever we

35:49

could point at.

Nadeem Sheikh  35:49

My next question is around the association or the Federation. So what are the looking at in terms of adding to football? I think you have been associated with Mumbai Football Association, what are the standards are done by Football Association, and VI FF and other stakeholders,

Siddharth Sabapathy  36:07

so I can't speak much about it think we've done a lot of work in the last few years, the process or whatever, we're trying to kind of create a new association. But again, it's a slow process, it will take time, whatever we did five years ago, is now starting to get through. So we are trying to build structures at the grassroot level. We're trying to make the second division the third division because division, the division become more and more recently, we did a small profit loss for the institution and we're trying to get broadcasting from games, we're trying to do a lot of changes. It will take our we are backed by key members in the association study, it's our data running the secretary who's been economical, recorded, and they record all former international football, we've got a lot of key people are part of our party, we've got Susan Adams, who's having great, great passion for the game. So we've got so many minds now. And it's always going to create a better you could say structure whenever there are so many people involved, many line so many monitors, all of these minds when they come to visit will surely have you know a better structure. The good thing is we are all on one page and that is very helpful. We are backed by the fact that we all have the same passion for the game. So we are all on the same page we all want to develop the association is finally having people who are actually there for the love and the passion of Mr. banners up there for so many is also of the fact that football is created a set of staff who are working now and they are also a full time paid staff were part of the they are also going to kind of put their intellectual knowledge behind even trying to improve whatever

Nadeem Sheikh  38:14

it touched upon by football. So recently I read an article where legendary Arsene Wenger was in India, and we saw government I had to set up a youth academy in Orissa. So that is another step that we are taking and trying to score. My next question is What role does media coverage play? In order to grow sports you talked about you're trying to get broadcasters, I wanted to speak on that.

Siddharth Sabapathy  38:48

Media coverage is the key because use this word on Vimeo. That's how fans get so busy. That font is connected. I mean, I don't really see that there is any negative point about broadcasting on both the podcast is a key component, it's only going to ensure that the sport reaches multiple more and more particular person. And that's going to be

Nadeem Sheikh  39:18

and our our podcast is about people who are potential aspirants who want to join the sports industry. And there will be people who will specifically want to join a football industry. So we want you to give them an idea as to what are the rules and what are the opportunities that they can get into in order to be associated with sports.

Siddharth Sabapathy  39:39

So in terms of this, I would like to break it into two parts. Firstly, of course, being a player. That's what I'm really many people who actually get into sport actually come with first aspiration of being a player. If you're not having the potential or the ability to be a player. If you're not able to really grow up the ranks, then there's always an option. you're working in a management fee, you can be a part of football as a sports Manager, you can be part of a broadcast eating the operations, marketing, there are multiple ways in which you can be part of the association, you can work there and you can be part, you can actually do some degree in sports medicine in sports science is the branches. There are many sports management colleges that are coming up over the last few years. So there are multiple opportunities that are there. Now in the field of sport, again, don't I would request yours and you don't get into sports because it's different. A war is glamorous, it's exciting. Because you want to really create a change. That's a that's that should be one of your key motivating factors to come into sport, is how can I come into this game and change and create a value for the then money and then everything will follow. But if you get into this only because it's glamorous, you know what I would want to have lunch with somebody on the street I, if that is your focus on getting into the gym, then I will say that a word you don't really need to get because that that may not even happen. Because many of the youngsters that who actually come into the sport these days are actually coming into it because the glamour portion, that's important. So I will say that that is not the only reason that you need to come into it, come into it, because you really want to feel the difference. And it's going to be a lot of work at the grassroot level, it necessarily always isn't buttery glamorous. Many of the times you will be under sweltering hot conditions, standing on the ground for about 12 or 13 hours in a day, working on a grassroot level event, and then going back home and then again, coming back the next day and only work for another two months. And you may not even be paid that much amount of money to do that. So this is all going to be part of your learning experience. When you go to school, many of them are not able to take it because their idea or their perception of sport is different from what they're actually so that the end of the day. So I would just say be ready for it mentally have that mental fortitude, if you really want to get into sport, come into it with the fact that it's going to be a lot of work at the grassroot level, it's not going to be that glamorous, it's not going to be that lucrative. If you're able to go through this grind successfully, then that is a possibility that we may reach that you will want to reach in the

Nadeem Sheikh  42:11

absolutely I completely agree with you. Because I had some experience when I was doing sports management. It was the first year of your presidency. And I was there as a volunteer. It was me no money, or no money. Yeah. Yeah. And your teammates, Coco also they are just, you know, very enthusiastic about school would be here to see J. Chain to get all of these guys are very passionate about sports. And, you know, as you said, the monetary benefits will come at a later stage. But firstly, you have to be passionate. And secondly, you have to be ready to grind it out. And forget the weekend because we have to be working on so many people. So

Siddharth Sabapathy  42:55

there are people that are people who are actually working but still want to contribute to the game on a weekend contribute to how they can actually try to come up with it's really heartening to see and they do this only because of their passion that they want to do something for the sport. So there are many people living with, you need to find those people and get them and actually talk to them and understand how they can contribute. They also want to know so there are people that you know, we'll be happy to see how we can initiate any sort of conversation with them to work in groups.

Nadeem Sheikh  43:24

Absolutely. We are talking about people of the field. But my next question is How important is it to create role models for any sport to grow, not just football.

Siddharth Sabapathy  43:38

While growing up everyone has there's no one who would everyone would lie. They say that they don't have anyone in sports, they don't look forward to except somebody who doesn't watch sports. He may have a role model in some other feat of sector. So role models are extremely key for any young store or anyone even for for me or for anyone else always. Growing up I could say that I was someone I really adored and looked up to was even footballers benching betting, in cricket specifically was alright because I felt that now just as behavior on field, but of course we need people to watch it is someone that I look up to as a player. And for somebody from an Indian perspective, I used to likely end up face a lot that he was someone who could be in attendance. It's critical to have role models. And it's critical to have the right role model for players. Because if you have someone who is having the right behavior on and off the field that is very important today. One of the things that I always often see is many of the youngsters on this channel. Many of them don't actually see the hard work at explaining skill sets This is something that is not seen everyone looks at his glamour quotient and he sees Instagram pages views and all the brands that he get associated with and all of those things. But what what I really feel is inspiring about the amount of hard work he does. Likewise, people who follow Messi also don't really understand the amount of work which must lead us to be weary. So this is something that I would request many youngsters and aspiring footballers to actually look at the hard work that goes into being behind a Messi or, you know, being Ronaldo. It's insane. You can't really count it. So end of the day to really look at it. Many of them don't look at it.

Nadeem Sheikh  45:39

So I'm going to move on with them. Next question, but that just because at this point, you know, when I was growing up, I was a big fan of like everybody I like to go to searching. But in recent times I have followed with actually, not only for his performance on the page, but what goes on on the page as his fitness routine. His eating routine is sleeping routine. When understand this, when the toss happens in a cricket match, a lot of times, the captain used to say we want to follow the process. I like to follow the process we stick to the process. And early I do not used to understand Cavalia to create a cake and Madonna. But now recently, I have taken off business running. So I do practice and I understand it is more important to do stuff that goes off the field, what you eat, how you sleep, and what are your training regimes. So these are the things that add on. And then when you perform at the pace, you know, that accelerates and that everything comes around that time. Absolutely. So that I think we've spoken broadly on football and other sports and I think you have background in other like volleyball as well. I want you to touch upon your experience at the mud defenders on the waterfront.

Siddharth Sabapathy  47:03

It's part of crime volleyball league started by basically in the year 2000. And now it's it's having more than 19 participating as a new team Destiny that's coming. Volleyball is another sport that's very exciting and beautiful to watch. It's very quick, exhilarating. Find volleyball has got the best of the talent which India has right now. If you see whichever plays were part of the Asian Games right now, when he went to work, which happened, most of the players were part of the Bible, the winning team that played in South Korea, most of the players who took part in that as part of our team specifically has to be able to Swami number two monos global funding zone, these are some really big names in the way he works. We won the league last year, we played some quality volleyball, we defeated Bangalore but widows in the final last year, it was great to be part of the team as a manager for the team, he learned a lot in terms of it's very similar. The values and the philosophy is the same across the board. So whatever that is, you know, you could say, holds true for football is the same that holds true for volleyball, there's not much of a difference in terms of tacos. It's a team sport you the values and the philosophy remains the same only things that change the rules. So again, this is an exciting version of volleyball, it's a 15 point version. Unlike the Verify point, there is a super point. So it's really exciting. It's beautiful to watch, it goes live on Sony. This year, again, it's going to restart again. I mean, the third edition is going to come in from February or something from that time. So it's again going to be a month long edition. It's a wonderful addition in terms of the number of leaks that are mushrooming for other sports, like cocoa and poverty and fungi and multiple other looks likewise now exclusively available, and that we're in a professional way. So it's something that is wonderful to see that though we are a team that's based on a column the defenders, and we have been growing in stature. In the first edition we release the final second edition were the champions. And we recently upgraded the world championship so we became the first ever top from India to participate in the World Championships. India Pushkar, the World Championship for volleyball six us from across the world participated in a trilogy from Italy, from Japan from two teams from the C, one D from Turkey. And then one thing about different we necessarily didn't have a wonderful campaign we lost unfortunately, but it was a great experience because this was the first time that there was a clip from India taking part in our farm and that is the biggest tournament at the club level club level which is the World World Championships. It just would grow and it is also what it was the next World Championship. That's something that's going to be exciting. use the word club championships keep happening.

Nadeem Sheikh  50:07

Nice. And I saw your interviewer defenders play although they lost but that is fine. You know they represented our country, they played some fabulous volleyball, it is just that in crunch moments, we could not make it. But that is part of the game. And I'm very proud of them. If you rub shoulders with teams from Brazil and all I think you will have an amazing experience, understand how they play. And it is just fantastic to watch. I think we have come up to our ultimate questions before we move on to the rapid fire round, I want you to give one advice to a person coming up in the sports industry

Siddharth Sabapathy  50:44

or was something I'm not someone who's not yet done close to that level, to really be honest. Only one thing I will say is it's not all bad, better process. It's something that you have to really grind. There's a lot of work in sport, we ready to do that. And always be ready to push yourself. It's our work. So be ready for that. That's all I will say you mentally ready, like it's on the field. If you want to win, you have to give your best your 100% the same of the field, you have to be ready to push yourself to your limits. So that's that's what I would say. Just be ready at one at any point.

Nadeem Sheikh  51:28

And the one advice that you have received that professional life

Siddharth Sabapathy  51:34

I would say probably very early on in my career was about the fact that just don't stick to one sport. You have to learn understand how can you kind of recreate the same values and philosophies for the sport and understand about that. Try to develop as much as possible at the same time before sticking to one sport. Understand what kind of value you can create. It was very helpful for me to know that why am i into this sport it actually kind of asking questions to yourself so I keep asking questions to myself each time I went to some sport How can I best contribute to that particular game? So that was something as an advisor we're the only

Nadeem Sheikh  52:14

one it's very good advice. I think we've gone through some serious conversations we've touched upon fads infrastructure various stakeholders now I think it is time for the rapid fire to come up with the rapid fire houses that we're dealing with on the person this is the last part we're all set for the rapid fire first question What

52:58

do you mean back

Nadeem Sheikh  53:03

it is time for the rapid fire we started with the first question of one word to describe your professional journey soba wholesome favorite sports movement hello

Siddharth Sabapathy  53:20

you're lifting the

53:22

critical okay.

Siddharth Sabapathy  53:25

And also in the national team I recently saw Jake on Olympics channel about India defeating Australia for three in the Olympics National Women's

Nadeem Sheikh  53:41

Basketball documentary was

Siddharth Sabapathy  53:49

I think it's the movie which I watched was about this movie about the American basketballs recollect anyone who's been sculpted from Spain or some other country

Nadeem Sheikh  54:06

I know that guy from Spain and it is an ex athlete. University I haven't even picked them up. I've gone to the to that, Okay, favorite course personality to follow on social media.

Siddharth Sabapathy  54:30

To have them one really is accounted sometimes it's very insightful into the sport is YouTube channel.

Nadeem Sheikh  54:41

So in our earlier episodes, we had covered you know, we have these athletes coming in with new content and growing themselves one book that has had a significant impact in your life. Okay, if you could switch careers for a day, what will you choose? At least I keep something

Siddharth Sabapathy  55:00

I don't know what but something? Nothing.

Nadeem Sheikh  55:03

Okay, what's your proudest professional achievements so far?

Siddharth Sabapathy  55:08

From this screen two things one being the manager for the marketing team Another one was probably I was recommended for the matches

Nadeem Sheikh  55:25

Nice Nice nice. One word to describe the future with a football if you were to be associated with any football team in the world, which would you choose and why?

55:38

I will choose okay, because that's probably the largest

Siddharth Sabapathy  55:46

part of it and that's

Nadeem Sheikh  55:49

one of the most difficult questions most underrated footballer in the ISL

Siddharth Sabapathy  55:54

underrated for probably I would say

56:04

is this

Nadeem Sheikh  56:07

on the past and I want to add up we are number 45 universities also very exciting. He's not underrated. Very exciting, underrated. Everybody knows Yeah. And I think he has the skill set for European and these as well. Favorite football commentator okay. Yeah, we had Vishnu earlier is what we just spoke about Peter Duryea in Japan and we covered Yeah, yeah, sports commentary. If you were to change one thing in the current Indian football culture, what would it be held? Why

Siddharth Sabapathy  56:48

focus more on muscular sports, I want more and more people to get into sports. Because that is, as I said, the most critical part. What do I mean by that is about the fact that understanding how they can contribute, one being more open conversation and communication, how they can improve. And whatever we can do to promote the culture of sport. I just want people to just come up and we just need to see how we can do that in the best

Nadeem Sheikh  57:16

best best football match your business

Siddharth Sabapathy  57:20

best football match any any any maybe witness in the stadium or witness witness

57:26

anything anything on sports, probably was the Chelsea wine

Nadeem Sheikh  57:38

club in the night and everybody got up. I had to last but if I take that

Siddharth Sabapathy  57:48

it's probably the other day was the union team. Which was a final against gambling. So what's

Nadeem Sheikh  57:59

your favorite memory involving difficult involving

Siddharth Sabapathy  58:03

women because again, the one you do is

Nadeem Sheikh  58:07

okay, I think we had either an absolute amazing conversation. I hope you had a great time with us. I think that is it. From our side, hit the like button and the subscribe button and keep watching me all the time.