Astorm could be brewing in India’s
top-flight soccer, a glamorous and acrimonious world that encompasses Asia’s richest man, the cream of Bollywood and a self-styled former gangster.
Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire tycoon who commands the Reliance Industries corporate empire that owns the Indian Super League, is facing pushback to his family’s dominance from some executives in the country’s soccer association and clubs.
At stake is the financial future of soccer in a country devoted to cricket. The outcome of the power struggle could also help shape whether India can ever become a world force in the game, realising ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s description of being a “sleeping giant” - and, of course, the big dream: whether it can one day play in or even host a World Cup.
Ambani’s holding group launched the Indian Super League, an elite competition of newly created teams, in 2014 with the aim of attracting investment and big global names, much like the Indian Premier League has in cricket.
However tensions have been building over who ultimately calls the shots: the Indian soccer association, which technically governs soccer at all levels, or Ambani’s group which owns the top league of 10 teams.
It’s a rare power split in global soccer, and a recent dispute between Ambani’s camp and the association illustrated differing visions over the direction of the Indian game, whose national team is ranked 108th globally.
This year, before the COVID-19 pandemic, a top executive at India’s soccer association, Kushal Das, wrote to Martin Bain, the Ambani lieutenant who heads Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), a Reliance holding company that owns the league.
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