Faced with stiff challenge, HFC co-owner calls for improvement

As Monolo Marquez's Hyderabad FC continue to create a buzz in ISL 2020-21, ETV Bharat speaks to club's co-founder Varun Tripuraneni to understand what it takes to form and operate a new football club.

Hyderabad: Formed in August 2019, Indian Super League side Hyderabad FC is making waves in only its second season. After a bottom place finish in ISL 2019-20, the franchise from Hyderabad rose to the third spot this season and is very much in contention for a playoff spot.

As Monolo Marquez's HFC continue to create a buzz in ISL 2020-21, ETV Bharat speaks to club's co-founder Varun Tripuraneni to understand what it takes to form and operate a new football club.

Today we bring you the first part of our discussion with the young football administrator who exploited his experience as an executive in ISL to form a new club in Hyderabad, where football once used to be the most popular sport.

In this interview, Tripuraneni, 35, talks about his journey in the ISL as an administrator and the challenges he faces in Hyderabad in his bid to revive football culture in the city. He also talks about scouting and rebuilding a team which finished at the bottom of the points table in their maiden campaign previous season.

Excerpts

Q: You have been a football official. Earlier, you were with Chennaiyin FC and Kerala Blasters in your capacities as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer respectively. Now, there is a paradigm shift in your life as you have founded your ISL club in the form of Hyderabad FC. How has this journey been so far for you?

Varun Tripuraneni: Firstly, my previous experience with Chennayin FC and Kerala Blasters played a crucial role in making this decision (forming Hyderabad FC). I think the role that I played with the previous two clubs helped me take on this role and give me the confidence to take such a big step. Without that experience, probably I wouldn't be here at all.

My role as COO with the Chennayin FC and CEO with Kerala Blasters gave me an idea about what needs to be done about the operational part of the club. That roles really helped me to take up this initiative. And being able to learn from Vita Dani (owner of CFC) and Nikhil Bhardwaj (owner of KBFC) also helped. So, when I got the opportunity to form a new team in Hyderabad I had the confidence that it will do well.

Q: Last season Hyderabad FC failed to impress as they finished at the bottom out of 10 teams losing 12 of their 18 matches. Tell me about your experience of building a new team at the last moment, and that too in a city where football lost its track years ago. And what did you learn from the previous season?

VT: We hardly had any time to put things in order. We also didn't have the luxury of a proper transfer window. By the time we formed the club, most of the Indian players' transfer was pretty much over. But I think the key was to understand what we are going to do and where we are heading. We didn't have the expectations of getting into the playoffs straightway or winning the title. We knew we have to be patient because there was a lot of happening off the pitch.

We have to get the infrastructure ready in Hyderabad. We did struggle a lot with the training pitches throughout the last season. We had to use three different turfs for training in Hyderabad. Also, a lot of work had to be done on the main pitch (Gachibowli Stadium). We invested a lot in the infrastructure; massive investment in the floodlight to be precise.

So, we knew it's going to be tough; we knew we had to survive the first season and get through. Obviously, we didn't expect to be at the bottom of the table. But from the last season itself, we had begun the planning for the new season in order to get a better result. We were fairly confident that the excitement we created in Hyderabad with minimum effort was good for us. We got a lot of encouragement from that.

Q: This season, Hyderabad FC made tremendous improvement. At present, they occupy third place on the points table. Did you expect this much of improvement from your team in their very second season in ISL?

VT: Last year being at the bottom place, the benchmark was very low. We knew we need to do much better. We revamped our coaching staff completely. With Albert Roca was on board initially, the intent was to build the best team for the new season. We started thinking about this when Albert joined us because he wanted a team which can compete with the best.

We put up a lot of hard work to rebuild our team for the new season. We started to recruit new players to our squad from January 2020. We invested a lot in our management, operational and the technical team. So with such an overhaul, we were confident that our hard work would be paid off. Now, after 10 games, we are occupying the third place. I am happy with the team's performance. It is a positive sign for us. We hope to continue this momentum for rest of the season.

Q. How much changes were done in the club’s administration and footballing management to reach this level?

VT: Pretty much everything. In every department, we brought massive changes. We completely overhauled our technical team. Now, we have Monolo (Monolo Marquez) as our head coach. Thangboi Singto is also there now. I worked with him previously when I was at KBFC. So when we brought Thangboi on board, I knew what exactly to expect from him. I am happy that he joined us.

Meanwhile, Shameel (Shameel Chembakath) joined us from Kerala in the youth department. Again we both worked together at KBFC in the past.

Since we didn't get much time last season, we outsourced pretty much everything. From the event team to venue operation, the entire set-up was outsourced. Now, we got our full-time teams in place.

We used the lockdown period extremely well to draw out a plan for the new season. I think it is good that we made optimum use of the time we got for the new season.

Q: You might have been very disappointed following last season's poor show. So, what was in your mind while signing up new players for the ongoing season? Was the coaching team involved in the process?

VT: I think our Director of Football Sujay (Sujay Sharma) played an important role here. Initially he and Albert, and later he and Monolo have done the majority of the work. My role was only to support the team. Also, we were aware that this season is going to be different for everyone due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As staying in the bio-bubble is the norm now, we looked for players who can adjust to this difficult time. We need good characters as it was extremely tough staying in the bubble. And that too for five to six months.

So far, we are very happy with the players we have. And we are happy because most of the players we have brought in as replacements have done extremely well. Whether it is Souvik (Chakrabarti), Hitesh (Sharma), Sana (Chinglensana Singh) or Liston (Colaco), whom we have signed in the January window last year, all of them have stepped up and done well for Hyderabad FC. We are very happy with the contributions of our foreigners as well.

Q: You have plenty of young Indian players in your squad. They have so far done very well. What do you think of them?

VT: We have plenty of young Indian players in our squad. Halicharan Narzary is one of them, and he is a standout performer. Due to his performance, he has become coach Monolo's one of the favourites. He is one player on whom I have a lot of confidence. I had him with me in KBFC as well. From that time I heard that he is a hardworking player but he doesn't have the eye for goal. Anyway, we signed him last season. But because of injury, he couldn't play much. This season he has already scored three goals. I think he was unlucky on a couple of times as he hit the post and the bar. Apart from him, Liston Colaco is another talented Indian youngster Hyderabad FC have at their disposal.

So, it is an exciting time not just for us but also for Indian football as many young players coming through the ranks and making their presence felt in the ISL. We also have quality players in Abhishek Halder and Rohit Danu. Akash Mishra is a revelation as a left-back as well. Almost every team has a few young players who have done really well this season. Overall, it is a good scenario for Indian football.

-- By Sudipta Biswas