IPL v ISL: A Brentford Passage to India?
- essentialbrentford
- Jan 2, 2016
- 2 min read
Step aside Royal Challengers, Superkings, Indians, Sunrisers and Daredevils; football's come to town!
Travelling across South-Western India this Christmas it quickly became clear that cricket is no longer the reigning past-time in the area; football is everywhere. This got me thinking, if Brentford's statistical analytic approach to player recruitment is digging up previously unheard-of 'gems' from foreign leagues then what is stopping us from searching further afield?
It was, in fact, the final of the Indian Super League (ISL) the week that I arrived in sunny Kerala, home of Sachin Tendulkar’s Blasters. Being a football fan through and through, I went down to the hotel lobby and ordered the local, Kingfisher in this case, before sitting down to the game.
Whilst neither of us came away from the game in a state of shock at the outstanding quality of football on display, we were surprised at the decent stuff being played. There is very little money in ISL football but with its stock growing and attendances picking up all the time there is no reason why it won't soon be a highly competitive league.
Indeed, already attracting the likes of Lucio (A Brazilian centre-back, formerly of Internazionale and now of Goa FC), and managers such as the infamous and highly contentious Marco Materazzi (see Zidane headbutt / WC Final winning pen) and Everton hero Peter Reid, perhaps India's football revolution is already well under way?
The result of the match was Chennaiyin's beating Goa 3-2 with two stoppage time goals to turn the tie on its head; the victory was dedicated to the people of the sprawling South-eastern city who had very recently suffered greatly from extensive flooding; yet another of a host of kind gestures paid by football in the past few months.
Now, remember this guy? For those of you who don’t recall, this is ex-Bee Antonio German. The relevance? German was top scorer for Kerala Blasters last year, scoring 6 goals in 9 games alongside ex-Scunthorpe and Orient striker Chris Dagnall, who has just moved to Hibs. From Aldershot to Kerala and playing in front of 62,000 last season, it was a huge leap for German to take. He does appear to have been successfulin India, and fair play to him.
ISL football, at its top end, appears to be at a standard nearing that of the English Championship; so Dean, Benham, Rasmus and co., why not have a look?
Modern football has seen a commercialisation of sport like never before and this is seen most prevalently in the English game where the likes of Manchester City have created their own brand across the pond in NYC. Equally sponsorship has a huge bearing on a club’s fan base, see Chelsea’s ‘Yokohama’ in Japan and Everton’s ‘Chang’ across South-East Asia.
Kerala’s owner, Tendulkar, is perhaps the most-followed sports person in the world, India’s one billion population holding him as a demigod. With the links that already exist the Bees could claim the Blasters as a future business partner and a huge marketing opportunity. This might trigger Hounslow’s huge local Asian population to come down to Griffin Park more often too. The Brentford Elephants, I’d love to see that!
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