I continue to receive Leicester City FC’s press releases…..since 2004. How?

Shuchi Sen 01
I was working with ESPN and Star Sports and had to regularly cover the big three of kolkata – Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Muhammedan Sporting. I loved football and wanted to do something to change it all. If my city was this crazy about football, how come we functioned in such old fashioned ways, how come the players were not really professional in their attitudes, how come politics overtook management best practices. Then, I happened to meet a football agent from UK- Mr. Nigel Empson, with a FIFA license. I started Football Marketing and Management International out of my home in Kolkata. Humble beginnings. As a television sports correspondent I knew all who ran football in India and I met East Bengal and Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting several times, discussing various aspects of making them more marketable. I also had several meetings with Mr Alberto Colaco of All India Football Federation and with Indian Football Association. Nigel had a relationship with the 2nd Division English Premier League Club Leicester City Football Club. I went through several mails and discussions with Leicester City FC and they chose East Bengal over others after keen studies of which club was more rational and professional to build a relationship with. I needed another person and Supratik Sen, currently the CEO of USports, joined me as my associate.  We got East Bengal FC into a relationship with Liecester City FC. We also got AIFF into a U16 football squad coaching programme with LCFC. We also built East Bengal a sophisticated website to keep their records up to date. 
 
Why did Leicester City FC want to tie up with a top Indian club? – they have a huge and hardworking and well to do South East Asian community and they wanted to engage with them by helping their native country. They were also interested in the long run in pushing their brand in India. 
 
LCFC invited Indian under 16 squad to train at the LCFC academy and they invited East Bengal over to play a friendly tournament with them at the Fox’s Stadium. 
 
Leicester is a small town. The club was a second division side. But, yes there is a big But – they had a very impressive state of the art Walkers stadium that hosted premiere league matches. The grass on the pitch was awesome, the general seats had Fox branding, the VIP boxes could entertain parties, there were offices and board rooms businesses could hire for conferences, at their store you could buy a Fox Jersey with your name at the back. I was presented my own. It has Sen written at the back. They had mugs, key rings, Mr. Fox in various sizes and on a cap or hat. They had designed the stadium to fit in maximum television cameras to televise football in the best way possible. The dressing room was in Fox colours bright and beautiful blue and yellow. The opposition dressing room was purposely done up in dull colours – colours effect your mind. The Club had a proper management team – a CEO, sales and marketing heads, their own PR writer, their own photographer and video maker, both of whom sent photos, videos and reports through to local papers and TV within minutes of the match finishing and off they went to party at local pubs. 
 
East Bengal coach and team shared many coaching sessions and learnt new drills and recovery processes post match. On return East Bengal began dunking their players in ice pools. They also redid their dressing room to give the players pride and comfort. 
 
U16 Indian football team loved their time at the LCFC Academy. The academy had a very keen juniors programme in the community, they scouted for talent and then took on full responsibility of the ward they picked to coach to become a footballer. They raised him well and then played or traded him to other clubs. It was business but with plenty of education all round – including how to present yourself to the media and how to communicate, where to look to the TV camera and what to do with your hands when you spoke. Some of our boys were genuinely talented LCFC academy wanted to hold on to them but needed their stay funded. I could not raise the funds then with Supratik Sen but that was the germ of an idea that gave rise to Supratik and USports project – UDream. 
 
And after a baby and a being a full time mom I have joined Future Hope – a charity that uses sport to inspire children,to channelise energy- positive and negative, to work as a team, to be disciplined and become well rounded, healthy, sporty individuals of society – girl or boy. 
 
Leicester inspired Supratik and Me. It inspired East Bengal officials. It inspired Baichung, Rahim Nabi, Deepak Mandal, Malsawmtuluanga and all the rest. It’s not a wonder that they taught so many at EPL this season that grit and hard work with undying positive attitude can make real heroes out of a so called underdog.