After opening remarks for Jonathan Rego, who set the tone for the day, it was the first session titled ‘The Road Ahead For Indian Club Football’ featuring Sunando Dhar (I-League CEO), Indranil Das Blah (Mumbai City FC CEO) and Arunava Chaudhuri.
It was an interesting discussion on where the Indian Super League, I-League and Indian football in general stands.
After presentations from Jose Antonio Cachaza (LaLiga India head) and Sunando Dhar (I-League CEO), it was the turn of the second session titled ‘Building Talent Pool from Ground Up’ featuring Sunando Dhar, Jose Antonio Cachaza, Henry Menezes (WIFA CEO), Jitendra Joshi (Co-Founder Director, Sportz Village Xp) and Nilesh Kulkarni (Founder & Director, International Institute of Sports Management – IISM).
After lunch the forum restarted with apresentation by Nilesh Kulkarni about the International Institute of Sports Management and then another one by Kevin Sim (Head, APAC – Bundesliga International). Thereafter the third session titled ‘Securing The Fan Experience’ featurng Kevin Sim, Supratik Sen (CEO and Co-Founder, U Sports), Neel Shah (Head of Sports Education & New Business, India On Track) and Arun Raghu (Co-Founder, Fans on Stands Sports).
The last industry presentation came from Joseph Eapen (Senior Vice-President / Director – India at SMG Insight / YouGov), while the fourth and final session had ‘Preparing For The Digital Age’ as its topic featuring Joseph Eapen, Subhamoy Das (ESP Properties), and Chiraag Paul (Founder & CEO – Proem Sports Analytics).
Thereafter Thomas Abraham (Co-Founder & Editorial Director, SportzPower) ended the day with a summary of the topics discussed.
The India Football Forum will be back in 2020!