Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
Related Articles
A new podcast on Indian football has been launched under the curious name of 420grams featuring the host Arjun Pandit, resident guests Siddhanth Aney and Varun Agnish besides Anuj Gupta of Sudeva FC as the special guest.
As fans of football clubs we love nothing more than to critique. Whether we love the team in question, or hate it with a vengeance, almost every one of thinks we could have done something that would have changed the course of a game. But not too many of us, particularly here in India, have any idea of how a football club operates, what goes on in the minds of the owners—individuals who put money into an idea almost predestined for failure? In an undeveloped football economy such as ours, clubs operate in an extremely unorganised environment with a large set of variables on the ground, coupled with a set of stringent rules from the top. We caught up with Anuj Gupta, who founded Sudeva FC along with his partner Vijay Hakari, to understand a little the psyche of the batty bunch of Indians who decide on football as their area of enterprise. Sudeva FC currently play in Division II of the I-League as well as at the Under 18 and 16 levels. They have a women’s team and are also running a football programme to help kids in juvenile observation homes in Delhi. This is the first in a series of conversations we will have with club owners in an attempt to better understand the motives and the economics that lie at the foundation of all football businesses.
The people behind the 420grams podcast say: Contrary to what the majority of you is thinking, this is not a podcast about marijuana. Although it could be, from time to time. This is your regular dose of the inside goings-on in Indian football presented by three men in a tub, with a deep personal investment in the sport and the country. 420grams wants to be an honest and engaging conversation space.
