Internet Desk: Football fans in India and particularly East Bengal club in Kolkata will be proud of Leicester City’s achievement so far in English Premier League. The Foxes are on the verge of achieving something special, close to winning the Premier League title this season.
This will not be the first time Leicester City made headlines in our country. LFC’s alliance with Indian football takes us back in 2004 when the Leicestershire based football club made its way into India. The Foxes, forged a strategic partnership with All India Football Federation and Kolkata giants East Bengal.
Leicester City became the first English football team to value and analyze India’s importance as a major market.
“As part of a campaign to forge closer links with the Asian community in Leicestershire county and abroad, the Foxes have officially twinned with Indian soccer champions Kingfisher East Bengal FC and signed a partnership agreement with the All India Football Federation,” was quoted by a club statement announcing the move to woo Indian supporters.
Mr Nigel Empson, business expert of Asian football was instrumental in forging this path breaking partnership between East Bengal and Leicester City.
“These agreements will open the doors to a wide range of footballing and commercial benefits for all parties and promote the name of Leicester City throughout the Asian subcontinent,” said Paul Mace, the then-COO of Leicester City.
The deal did have an impact on ground. East Bengal club was invited to participate in Leicester’s 120 year Celebration tournament. The Pepsi Max Challenge tournament saw East Bengal, RCD Mallorca (Spain) and Maritimo (Portugal) take on home team Leicester City. The tournament was played in the newly built Walkers Stadium which is now the home of LCFC and has been re-named King Power Stadium.
According to Amit Sen, who was part of that tour said, “It was a wonderful experience visiting the Walkers stadium.The team was felicitated in the House of Commons by the British Dy PM John Prescott and Leicester’s MP Keith Vaz and CEO of LCFC Paul Mace took the team for a visit to 10 Downing Street. Dr. Vijay Mallya who came for the tournament in Leicester was felicitated by the Board of Directors of Leicester CFC and was presented with a honorary citizen’s key to the City of Leicester. Our coach Subhas Bhowmick also visited the training venue of LCFC in Belvoir Drive and the Academy located in Middlesex Road, Aylestone.”
The exposure that the Subhash Bhowmick coached side got was enormous. East Bengal put up a brave fight against the home team before going down by a solitary goal through a disputed penalty. The exposure was not limited to only on-field aspects. Commercially there was huge interest about the ASEAN champions visiting England. The entire East Bengal team was invited to the House of Commons and the Bhaichung Bhutia led team had the rare opportunity to even share a cup of tea with Deputy Prime Minister Mr. John Prescott.
Later on Leicester City extended their technical knowhow to the All India Football Federation as well. Their Academy director John Rudkin coached the India U-16 team to prepare them for the AFC Championships. The U-16 team coached by Rudkin went onto play some highly competitive series of friendly matches. The Indian U-16 team put up brilliant display against the academy teams of Leicester, Birmingham, Stoke and Liverpool!
But the three years agreement between Leicester City and East Bengal came to an abrupt end as the Foxes got relegated to the Championship’s which lead to a major financial crisis in the English club. Despite a strong start to the agreement, the relegation of Leicester City and lack of active backing by East Bengal’s sponsors to capitalize on the opportunity meant that the deal fell through after the first two successful years of execution.
The arrangement will always remain special for India as Leicester City officially became the first English team to enter into a formal tie up for the betterment of Indian football and provided great exposure and platform for Indian football talent in all levels.