Today, merely thriving in their own countries or even their own continents is not enough for the most successful sporting leagues. They are increasingly ravenous beyond their own borders, in pursuit of becoming even more lucrative. Within this context, La Liga has declared their ambitions for India to become their largest overseas commercial market within five years. At first glance, this is curious.
Football remains towered over by not just cricket but also the growing force of kabbadi. Indian coverage of foreign football leagues is aired exclusively on pay-TV, in a highly fragmented TV viewing market. But then consider that, within five years, India will overtake China as the most populous nation on earth - indeed, some believe that it already has.
That is why India are hosting the ongoing U World Cup, the first time the country has ever hosted a Fifa global event. It is why the Indian Super League, launched in , had an audience of 41 million for the final last year. So far, global superclubs have made occasional forays into India, but have essentially treated the country as an afterthought compared with the USA, and East Asia. No longer. La Liga organised big screen fan parks of an El Clasico last December in Mumbai and Delhi, attracting 20, fans, and opened its first office in India last year.
Meanwhile, the clubs themselves are becoming increasingly alert to the opportunity that India provides. Naturally, Real Madrid run schools in India too. A game starting at 8. But, this year, something is being done about it. All of this amounts to down payment on taking La Liga matches to India. Even more significant is the prospect of La Liga becoming the first major European football league to take regular season matches abroad.
The Premier League still has no intentions of taking regular season matches abroad, but La Liga is pressing ahead with the idea of taking one round of matches a year to foreign lands. As part of that effort we are discussing the option of playing some of the league matches outside of Spain.
