Stakeholders Engagement for Sustainable Development of Football in India

The recent wrangle between the All India Football Federation and the Broadcasters over the issue of telecast and marketing rights augurs that all is not well with the Indian football. On one hand the episode highlighted the traditional amateurish approach regarding the commercial exploitation of football whilst on the other it manifested a symptom that forebodes ill for the state of football itself that is still in a fledgling state in India. Though the issue was sorted out later on and the rights were allocated to Zee Sports, the tussle had the potential to mar the sport and make its stakeholders, a loser. A controversy is not much of a help for the cause of Indian football especially at a time when it is trying to spread its wings and needs various forces to complement its efforts.

Broadcasting worldwide has utilized live football as a 'battering ram' to drive sales of subscriptions and advertising. The massive sums generated have made broadcasting a major source of revenue across the world, with a number of significant consequences. In UK, the BSkyB cash injection brought tangible benefits to the game. This has been manifested in terms of infrastructural renewal evidenced by new stadia - aided enormously by public money - and improved safety standards.

Indian Football, however, remains characterized by the competition for resources and conflicts of interest. The controversy regarding the non-transparency in the whole process of allocation of telecast and media rights will have serious implications for all the stakeholders. The AIFF initially ignored the bids of the Nimbus (Rs.504 Cr) and Zee Sports (Rs.375 Cr), which were amongst the top two and invited tenders for the fresh ones. Considering this decision of the AIFF to be arbitrary and unprofessional, Nimbus and Zee Sports planned to pull out of the race and take the AIFF to court. According to news reports, Nimbus planned to sue the AIFF for violation of tender bids, breach of trust, and lack of ethics shown in the sale of telecast and marketing rights conducted by them.
The storm subsided later when the rights were given to Zee Sports but those responsible for governing Indian Football face a challenging year.

The actions aggrieved parties were planning to undertake were typical Catch-22 options and would have affected the sport in a negative way. The most likely approaches for the aggrieved parties seemed to be either filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court or take the case to FIFA, the international parent body of the sport. These two approaches would have had different consequences leading to different implications for the sport.
A PIL would have taken its own time going through the procedural maze of Indian courts and by the time the courts pronounced a judgment, significant time would have been elapsed causing irreparable damage to the cause of game. Taking the case to the FIFA would just be another 'band-aid' solution out of the hat as it would have been an opaque inspection of the niceties and complexities involved in the whole issue. In my opinion, FIFA like any other international platforms such as the UN etc. suffers from a 'democratic deficit' and its judgment on the issue would provide a solution to the problem from 'at an arms length'. It is very much like the Cricket scenario in the pre- 1990's where the South Asian members lacked a say in the affairs of the game at the International Cricket Council and the terms were dictated by a couple of countries. The popularity of Cricket reached its pinnacle ever since the participation levels by member countries increased and the organization became more 'democratic'.

An active participation from all the member countries is crucial at international platforms to the success of the game. Therefore, to hope for a holistic solution to the problem from FIFA would be asking too much as the organization still remains a closed one and fails on various accountability parameters. One way to address this situation would be to 'democratize' the institution but that will take its own time. The other one that is most feasible is to adopt 'Stakeholders Approach' towards the governance of the football in India.

We have to recognize that football is shaped not only by the official bodies, but also increasingly by the pluralistic pressures applied by a variety of stakeholders. These stakeholders include supporters, local communities, sponsors, broadcasters, local authorities, national and international political institutions, players, and now even players' agents.

The global experience tells us that the game of football is increasingly driven by organizations outside the formal framework of regulations. Whilst the governing authorities retain their place as the key decision makers, broadcasters and other stakeholders are playing a growing role in the decision making process. In the Indian context like elsewhere, it should also be kept in mind that the influence of each stakeholder varies greatly according to three main factors: access to decision makers in the game, economic value to the game, and political and legal authority.

The stakeholders approach will not only adopt best practices from the world and aim for a symbiotic horizontal or vertical assimilation of stakeholders around a common interest but also provide a check on lassiez faire. The collapse of ITV Digital in 2003 in the UK provided an important lesson regarding this. Football's authorities will need to take particular care to protect themselves against the commercial instincts of broadcasters that have the potential to destabilize the traditional structures of football governance.

In India, the Government's recent regulation made it mandatory for private channels to share live feed of international cricket matches with Doordarshan. The channels, in view of the new command, are likely to make lesser bids then they would normally have made, when Board of Cricket Control of India comes out with rights tenders for home outings till 2009. It is going to affect the market too as the channel which wins the rights will not be the sole player as Doordarshan will be doing its own promotion. It will obviously cut down profit margins. With Doordarshan in the picture and ad-driven profit getting hit, no channel would quote a high amount for the rights.

But at present, football bears no comparison with cricket in India when it comes to viewership, ad spend, media coverage and revenue. Therefore if football has to be developed successfully and sustainably in India there has to be a positive synergy of efforts amongst various stakeholders. Broadcasters will be central to this process of development as they will provide an avenue towards the much needed financial resources for the game. They will also play a major role to reach and percolate the sport to more than a billion people in India.

There is a need of paradigm shift in the traditional way football is handled in India. The stakeholders approach is an answer to this through which the learning from the best practices across the globe can be adopted and imbibed in the Indian context. The English FA now seeks to promote and protect the financial health and stability of clubs in their communities. They introduced Combined Code - a set of principles of good governance and good corporate practice incorporated into the listing rules of the London stock Exchange - in 1998 and Enterprise Governance that combines conformance with performance, where conformance is related to corporate governance and performance is concerned with business governance, resource utilization, strategy, and value creation (IFA2004).

The learning from recent imbroglio between the broadcasters and the AIFF can be a pivotal point in the development of Indian football, if there is an acknowledgement and adoption of the stakeholders approach. It is essential to realize that football is not only a multi-party process but also everybody's business that has a relationship with the game in whatever capacity - official, player, sponsor, broadcaster or a fan. The sooner it is realized and translated into practice, the process to make Indian football a technical and commercial success would be actuated. This is the most feasible way towards the sustainable development of football in India.