Liverpool fc to open football centre in India

[Harv]

Well seeing as no one is working that market .......

They certainly buy players from clubs there. But has anyone set up a centre there? At least they actually play the game on the streets, and have talent.

Cricket will always be number one in India

[powerpack]

I'm with Harv on this one. Why not open a football centre in Brazil? It's definately possible and at least it's a football nation. No offence to any Indian people, but the Indians aren't really renowned for their footballing abilities. If the Indians/asians who grow up in this country playing alongside English people aren't good enough, how the hell are the Indians in India going to be good enough? Their national team is porbably not even in the Fifa top 100 rankings and can anyone even name a single Indian club team? The top Indian footballer a few years ago signed for Bury. He was called something like Bhutia. He flopped heavily despite the fact he was the best player in India.

In terms of dww's comment (I'm assuming you're being sarcastic). The market in South America has been tapped big time by every country in Europe (Be it Romania, Spain, Russia or England). Teams like Real Madrid (and ourselves) are happy to cherry pick some of the established up and and coming South Americans and pay a huge sum for them. But no team that I know of in Europe has actually set up a football centre. I think it would be pretty revolutionary and amazing. Just imagine the talent we could potentially develop in a football centre in Brazil and not have to worry about having to millions for them

I disagree. I don't think you can judge Indian/asians grown up in the UK yet for another 20 years or so. Its not just about ability its about encouragement from families. How many Inidan parents in this country would encourage their ki=ds to be footballers rather then Doctors, Lawyers, businessmen? In fact many actually inhibit their progress. Until that changes (which I think it finally will in this generation of Indian new/would be parents brought up here many of who prefer football to Cricket etc) you can't make such a sweeping statement. In India the situation is even worse. The national sport is cricket thats where all the moment, fame and opportunities are. Again that needs to change and this footy Centre could help to start changing that. We have loads of scouts all over south America, I'm sure all the big South American clubs have the upper hand on finding the best young talent there and thats why no European team have set up a footy centre (just my opinion).

[captain-caveman]

Out of a Billion People, if 1/2 a million could afford shirts, that would still help wouldn't it. i'm sure.

[dww]

I'm with Harv on this one. Why not open a football centre in Brazil? It's definately possible and at least it's a football nation. No offence to any Indian people, but the Indians aren't really renowned for their footballing abilities. If the Indians/asians who grow up in this country playing alongside English people aren't good enough, how the hell are the Indians in India going to be good enough? Their national team is porbably not even in the Fifa top 100 rankings and can anyone even name a single Indian club team? The top Indian footballer a few years ago signed for Bury. He was called something like Bhutia. He flopped heavily despite the fact he was the best player in India.

In terms of dww's comment (I'm assuming you're being sarcastic). The market in South America has been tapped big time by every country in Europe (Be it Romania, Spain, Russia or England). Teams like Real Madrid (and ourselves) are happy to cherry pick some of the established up and and coming South Americans and pay a huge sum for them. But no team that I know of in Europe has actually set up a football centre. I think it would be pretty revolutionary and amazing. Just imagine the talent we could potentially develop in a football centre in Brazil and not have to worry about having to millions for them

What advantage would a football centre be over the clubs there? It is a market with huge competition and would have huge costs associated with setting up a centre and is likely to encounter local resistance as people actually have local clubs that they care about and are already in place.

In my opinion if you are to set up a football centre it has to be a long term aim in an area with the potential in the future to provide paying supporters in terms of TV and merchandise as well as not have substantial local competition. To set up such a long term gamble the set up costs have to be comparatively low and the untapped market high to make it worth the financial and organistational cost IMO.

Ten to twenty years ago the very idea of an Asian player at all would have been laughed at but now there are a number of players who have made it at a very high level. The idea has to be to develop the footballers and the game of football in an area. I'm enormously suspicious that there is some pre-existing stock of talent somewhere in the world that hasn't been tapped which seems to be the assumption of putting a football centre in a football hotbed like Latin America.

In an already mature football market I would think that a link up with local clubs would seem the way to go, rather than attempting to compete with their already extant infrastructure.

[EwarWoo]

Cricket will always be number one in India

If someoen had said 20 years ago that football would become the most played sport in Australia they'd have thought you were nuts.

Well, they'd have thought you were talking about league, but once you clarified you meant soccer they'd have thought you were nuts.

[saj]

I disagree. I don't think you can judge Indian/asians grown up in the UK yet for another 20 years or so. Its not just about ability its about encouragement from families. How many Inidan parents in this country would encourage their ki=ds to be footballers rather then Doctors, Lawyers, businessmen? In fact many actually inhibit their progress. Until that changes (which I think it finally will in this generation of Indian new/would be parents brought up here many of who prefer football to Cricket etc) you can't make such a sweeping statement. In India the situation is even worse. The national sport is cricket thats where all the moment, fame and opportunities are. Again that needs to change and this footy Centre could help to start changing that. We have loads of scouts all over south America, I'm sure all the big South American clubs have the upper hand on finding the best young talent there and thats why no European team have set up a footy centre (just my opinion).

I see what you mean and I do agree with the 20 years scenario 100% and I've always said that. Yes most asian parents encourage their kids to go into education and not football. This will change with generations and I will encourage my children when (and if) I get married and have kids to go into sport if they're good enough. But at the same time, I've been playing football with asian people (bee it Pakistani or Indian) for the last 16 years of my life. I've played with asians from all over britain. I would regard myself as quite a competent footballer and as good as some of the best asian football players I've played with or against. I can honestly say that I'm nowhere near good enough to play football for even any non league team and never have been and can say the same for every asian I've played wth. Since moving to London, I now play league football after work with predominatly English/white people and I can say that I thought I was a half decent player but I feel that English people are far stronger, head the ball and tackle a lot harder. Also, English people are far taller too which always helps. The average height of asians is probably 5ft 8". I'm 5ft 11"(which isn't too short) and I struggle because these guys are too tall and strong. I'm technically better than them and definately have more skill them, but they have a little skill and more power which definately gives them the edge.

There is a couple of guys who did stand out and my mates used to wonder about 1 guy in particular who we thought could play football at some level (probably one of the lower league teams, in England's 4th tier possibly). Obviously, there will be the odd asian here or there who is good enough to play football profesionally and there has been one Pakistani player who has played in the premiership (Zeshan Rehman who played for fulham). I know Leeds had Harpal Singh but he never played for them. Michael Chopra is mixed race so it would be fair to say he can't be classed as fully Indian.

And you're saying the attitude is worse in India, how will 1 footy centre change this? It would be based in 1 town and wouldn't be exposed to the entire Indian population and even then the turnaround of getting people to change their attitude towards and then nurture a decent footballer would be 15 - 20 years - there will lots of quanitity but not much quality in a country like India. Whats the turnaround our own Academy? The last player to make it was Stephen Warnock and before that it was Steven Gerrard. In the last 16 years, we'd struggle to make name 10 players who made it rhough our academy, so how can it be expected that India would produce a player fgood enough to play for Liverpool. Setting up an academy in Brazil would ensure you are exposed to both a large quanity and quality of players. And no big club except the Spanish teams have the upper hand when it comes to signing the best South American players - the competition is so high in signing these highly rated players and Liverpool and Arsenal would never pay the amount of money the Spanish teams are willing to risk and have invested in players like Aguero, higuain etc etc.

[powerpack]

I see what you mean and I do agree with the 20 years scenario 100% and I've always said that. Yes most asian parents encourage their kids to go into education and not football. This will change with generations and I will encourage my children when (and if) I get married and have kids to go into sport if they're good enough. But at the same time, I've been playing football with asian people (bee it Pakistani or Indian) for the last 16 years of my life. I've played with asians from all over britain. I would regard myself as quite a competent footballer and as good as some of the best asian football players I've played with or against. I can honestly say that I'm nowhere near good enough to play football for even any non league team and never have been and can say the same for every asian I've played wth. Since moving to London, I now play league football after work with predominatly English/white people and I can say that I thought I was a half decent player but I feel that English people are far stronger, head the ball and tackle a lot harder. Also, English people are far taller too which always helps. The average height of asians is probably 5ft 8". I'm 5ft 11"(which isn't too short) and I struggle because these guys are too tall and strong. I'm technically better than them and definately have more skill them, but they have a little skill and more power which definately gives them the edge.

There is a couple of guys who did stand out and my mates used to wonder about 1 guy in particular who we thought could play football at some level (probably one of the lower league teams, in England's 4th tier possibly). Obviously, there will be the odd asian here or there who is good enough to play football profesionally and there has been one Pakistani player who has played in the premiership (Zeshan Rehman who played for fulham). I know Leeds had Harpal Singh but he never played for them. Michael Chopra is mixed race so it would be fair to say he can't be classed as fully Indian.

And you're saying the attitude is worse in India, how will 1 footy centre change this? It would be based in 1 town and wouldn't be exposed to the entire Indian population and even then the turnaround of getting people to change their attitude towards and then nurture a decent footballer would be 15 - 20 years - there will lots of quanitity but not much quality in a country like India. Whats the turnaround our own Academy? The last player to make it was Stephen Warnock and before that it was Steven Gerrard. In the last 16 years, we'd struggle to make name 10 players who made it rhough our academy, so how can it be expected that India would produce a player fgood enough to play for Liverpool. Setting up an academy in Brazil would ensure you are exposed to both a large quanity and quality of players. And no big club except the Spanish teams have the upper hand when it comes to signing the best South American players - the competition is so high in signing these highly rated players and Liverpool and Arsenal would never pay the amount of money the Spanish teams are willing to risk and have invested in players like Aguero, higuain etc etc.

Hello mate, agree with a lot of what you say. I just think its an opportunity to tap into an unknown Market. There's a billion people in India and I find it hard to believe that given the chance, the right training etc that not one of them couldn't make it as a top Premiership player. Players don't have to be strong, hard tacklers to make it look at little Garcia, everyone is different and has different attributes, players of all heights, strengths, races can make it, sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time (or given the chance to). Agree one centre isn't going to change everything but as I said it could be a start. Also see it as an opportunity to make some money from a growing economy if we play this the right way.

[red g]

I am not sure if this stat is true, but i am sure i read globally that 1 in 5 people are indian .......i was amazed and its probably wrong

[saj]

Hello mate, agree with a lot of what you say. I just think its an opportunity to tap into an unknown Market. There's a billion people in India and I find it hard to believe that given the chance, the right training etc that not one of them couldn't make it as a top Premiership player. Players don't have to be strong, hard tacklers to make it look at little Garcia, everyone is different and has different attributes, players of all heights, strengths, races can make it, sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time (or given the chance to). Agree one centre isn't going to change everything but as I said it could be a start. Also see it as an opportunity to make some money from a growing economy if we play this the right way.

I agree with that 100% and always have done. But at the same time, every player needs to have at least one supreme trait. If they're not so strong or good at tackling then they would have to be supremely skillful (in terms of dribbling) to make it as a player. Have you noticed how all the so called lighweight (who aren't very strong or good at tackling) footballers in the footballing world are always supremely skillful - Garcia, Robinho, Joe Cole etc etc. I can't see a nation such as India which is new to football, could ever produce either a player good enough for the premiership until it becomes more mainstream, be it a very skillful player or a very strong tackler etc etc. can you see an avearge Indian person ever being more skillful than the average Brazillian? It would be at least 20 years for it to become mainstream. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack the size of the whole universe. I know it sounds on paper to be quite an exciting idea for the asian people born and raised in this country but it in reality, it really is a pointless exercise which is going nowhere - remember when we linked up some Ghanian football team a couple of years ago, well what has been the point of that and what has it produced...NOTHING. In fact, most people on this forum probably don't even remember this happening and it literally was set up only 2/3 years ago. And Ghana is a footballing nation and has produced (and still is producing) some quality players - but they are few and far between.

And in terms of the growing economy, the gap between the rich and poor in places like India is still MASSIVE. How can you expect the poor people in India to puchase say a Liverpool football top when the cost of it is far higher than their monthly salary. And then assuming if Liverpool FC became mainstream, the amount of counterfeit LFC goods being sold in that country will just increase as it is not properly regulated like it is in the UK. You've probably seen the fake Liverpool FC tops being produced in Thailand. Appraently they are amazing quality and there will be nothing stopping proper sport shops (say the equivalent of JJB if there is one) in India selling these tops on the cheap as there is no firm law against it. The market for revenue from the sale of merchandise is just not big enough.

[Joe King]

From reading Saj's comments, he is extremely jealous because Liverpool aren't building a football centre in Pakistan

[saj]

From reading Saj's comments, he is extremely jealous because Liverpool aren't building a football centre in Pakistan

Ha ha - I knew someone would say that. What I've said also applies to Pakistan. I'm not pakistani by the way

[Joe King]

Ha ha - I knew someone would say that. What I've said also applies to Pakistan. I'm not pakistani by the way

Bo juute boltaa hai.

[Vermilion]

This is typical of H&G, 'oh i know, target a country with a big population..yeah, loads a money', instead of targeting a population that actually gives a **** about the game.

Although, i'm not sure how welcome or how well thought of Hicks would be in South America, after his last attempt at football ownership over there.

[saj]

Bo juute boltaa hai.

Nah I'm not (juute-ing!) even though I understand what you wrote!

[Joe King]

Nah I'm not (juute-ing!) even though I understand what you wrote!

Juuteing TP