Hyderabad: After shedding light on the reasons behind club's tremendous improvement in the 2020-21 season of Indian Super League (ISL) in the first episode, Hyderabad FC co-owner Varun Tripuraneni now discusses his vision for Hyderabad football in the second and final part of his exclusive interview with ETV Bharat.
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Tripuraneni said he was overwhelmed to see high participation at the grassroots and school level football in the city. He also responded to our question relating to bringing legends of Hyderabad on board with Hyderabad FC.
The former management student, who switched to sports administration leaving his career in business development, explained what Hyderabad FC's partnership with German club Borussia Dortmund means for the region's football.
Meanwhile, the 35-year-old football entrepreneur has made it clear that he is not looking at Hyderabad FC as a short-term business project. He and his team are well on course to revive the football culture of the city.
Excerpts
Q: What is your vision for Hyderabad football?
Varun Tripuraneni: The reason why we picked Hyderabad as our franchise because of its football history. We are aware of the history of Hyderabad football. The 1950s and 1960s were the golden days of the region's football. That is one of the main reasons for considering Hyderabad as our base.
Besides that, this city has developed an ecosystem for all sports. In fact, it has franchises in almost all leagues of the country.
For example, there is an IPL team, there is a kabaddi franchise, and to me, Hyderabad is the badminton capital of India, with so many international players coming from the city. From the sports point of view, Hyderabad is a bit like Bengaluru as both cities have somehow managed to create a suitable environment for sports.
I must say that the sports culture of Hyderabad is pretty strong.
Last year, we were involved in the school league of Hyderabad. There were more than 55 to 60 school teams, with both boys and girls participating in it. The participation of children at school level is impressive. I think that is one of the most encouraging points for us.
We signed a couple of international partnership deals last year after looking at the football culture of the city and the high participation level in the school league.
For us, the focus is on grassroots and youth development. It is important for our progress. We want to build a talent pool in the city for Hyderabad FC.
I believe we have to give the best talent the right opportunity, and that is what we want to do at Hyderabad FC. It is really important to have the right pathway and system in place for emerging footballers. I believe that we will be able to create a healthy environment for youngsters and become a model club for everyone.
Q: In club football, fans engagement is an important factor, and local fans are an integral part of the club. Do you think football in Hyderabad regaining its lost sheen through HFC? Are you happy with the way things are developing?
VT: I believe the popularity of the sport exists in this city. But I think a lot needs to be done to revive the lost football culture of the city and make it popular again. The interest for European football leagues like Premier League and La Liga is always extremely high here. I have noticed that many European clubs having pretty strong fan clubs in Hyderabad.
With just a little bit of interactions with fans, I got to know that they are happy now to get their own club in the city to support. You saw last season all of them coming together to support Hyderabad FC during our matches. That is an encouraging fact.
But at the same time, there is a lot of work to be done at the ground level. I believe we can add value to the regional leagues working in tandem with the state federation (Telangana Football Association).
In the meantime, a lot of work and investment needs to go into the coach education programme. These are some of the aspects on which we like to work closely with the federation and key stakeholders of the game. It is very important to build the right ecosystem for Hyderabad football. Only then we can expect to see football reviving in the region.
Q: Not being able to capitalise and monetize on the craze for football is one of the major reasons for football's decline in India, both in terms of quality and popularity. So, what do you think needs to be done to make football a sustainable and profitable business in India?
VT: I think the commercial aspect and financial viability are key to the business of sports. For that matter, it is important to have the right vision and right plan in place going forward. We can't look at the ISL franchise Hyderabad FC as a short term business.
Our goal is to build a strong base at the grassroots level and a talent pool so that players can come through the ranks. I feel investing in grassroots football is important for any club.
We should obviously be cautious of rising players' cost across the world. It is not just about India or Asia, players' price is rising all over the world. We have to have the right mix of players in the team. Hiring players from outside and building our own talent pool is key for our future.
Hence, we must focus on building a strong talent pool and nourish players for future utilisation. We want to make it our strength.
Q: In 2020, HFC signed a partnership deal with famous German club Borussia Dortmund. How will this partnership be beneficial for Hyderabad FC?
VT: As I said earlier, we saw high participation at the grassroots level. So, we just felt that it is important to tap that market.
As we are starting from scratch, it is important for us to find a partner in a club who are probably the best in the business, when it comes to grassroots and youth development.
We felt that there is no one better than Borussia Dortmund. It is important we learn from them right from the beginning rather than starting and doing something which is not ideal for us. That is why we went for Borussia Dortmund.
With Dortmund, you will see a lot of coach education programmes taking place in Hyderabad. But as travel restrictions in place due to pandemic, we obviously couldn't start till now.
But going forward we will have the technical team from Dortmund spending quite a few time in Hyderabad working with coaches and our youth teams. We are looking at it as a long term partnership. We want to start slowly, but we want to do the right thing and put things in the right place. You will see a lot more activities between both the clubs when the situation gets back to normal.
But as I said, our focus would be heavily on the grassroots programme, and Dortmund will play an important role in that.
Q: As you mentioned, Hyderabad FC is focusing on coaching and youth development programmes. So, are you seeking the help of legends of Hyderabad football like Shabbir Ali and Victor Amalraj?
VT: We are in regular touch with former players. It may not be a formal coaching role at the moment. At present, we are working on a plan for the future and definitely want to have personalities like them on board with us in some capacity.
But right now for us, the key is to set a strategy for the future. In fact, in next month or two, hopefully, before this season of ISL gets over, we will be able to announce the rollout of our grassroots calendar for the entire 12 months. So we want all the stakeholders, including kids, coaches, federation and schools principals, to know what are HFC's plans for the year. I think this will help all of them get clarity and a clear picture of our planning.
Once the programme starts, we will certainly work with the legends of Hyderabad football in some capacity.
Q: Are you getting any new investors for Hyderabad FC? How are you managing the financial part of the club?
VT: Right now, it's just funded by the family, but we will assess our business model in future. Currently, it's a financially stable endeavour. We are on course to achieve what we set out to do. Obviously, there is a lot of interest in ISL. We have seen new investment coming in for other clubs, but we will look at it at the right time. Currently, we are not looking for any investor.
-- By Sudipta Biswas
