The All India Football Federation included former Indian Premier League COO and current CEO of Reliance Sports, Sundar Raman in its technical committee, reported Indian Express. Reliance is AIFF’s biggest commercial partner, pooling in approximately Rs 50 crore annually to Indian football’s governing body.
This is the first time the AIFF has included its marketing partners in important decision-making positions. Apart from Raman, seven more Reliance officials were inducted in other committees.
The amount pooled in by Reliance is used by the AIFF to fund all events featuring the Indian national team, running the I-League and other domestic tournaments, apart from administrative activities. Reliance also sponsor the Indian Super League and are likely to be important stakeholders in the revamped domestic structure of Indian football, whenever it gets finalised.
AIFF general secretary Kushal Das and vice-president Subrata Dutta said that Reliance have a larger say in the game’s administration. “Commercialisation of the game depends on performance of the national team,” Dutta said after AIFF’s executive committee meeting. “They are investing in the game, so they should have a say in our affairs. We should also take their opinion.”
Reliance entered into a 15-year relationship with the AIFF in 2010, in a deal worth Rs 700 crore. “IMG-R, as per the agreement, were always supposed to be in the committees,” Das said, explaining Raman’s integration into the panel. “Everything is related to commercial exploitation. We wanted an outsider to tell us, with his BCCI experience, how we can actually improve the technical committee’s decision making.”