While the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is slowly improving the efficiency of its own operations, another manner in which youth development is being improved in India is foreign investment from big European clubs. This latest development is unsurprising given the manner in which Indian Premier League cricket raised £1.1bn out of the blue.

While clubs see India as another potential talent pool to tap into, there may be bigger potential to market their own club products and merchandise, given the increase in interest in the European leagues instead of the domestic game. Supporters are likely to prefer to see players such as Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on the small screen instead of local stars Baichung Bhutia and Sunil Chettri (who had an unsuccessful trial at Coventry City), a trend which could be detrimental to the long-term success of the domestic game.

Ever on the commercial front foot, Premiership sides see India as territory ripe for exploitation. Yet Houghton is sceptical as to the extent to which such clubs are committed to improving Indian football:

“In October 2007, Manchester United had 5,000 kids in the Nehru stadium in Goa to select eleven boys to go to Manchester for a week’s training. It was horrendous. They were all believing they’d end up playing for United after three days of judgement. That sort of marketing is in nobody’s interest”

Manchester United made a similar marketing breakthrough in China, after signing Dong Fangzhuo from Dalian Shide in January 2004. The consensus is that if they find another star in India, it would generate great profit from sales of merchandise, irrespective of the player’s potential to succeed at the club. Such a ruthless business attitude is something that poses a clear threat to the future of Indian football, but as interest in this sport grows, so will the number of eyes viewing intently from European sides.

Far better examples of European involvement come from Liverpool and Bayern Munich. The German side decided on long term investment in India on the return journey after Oliver Kahn’s farewell in Kolkata was attended by 125,000 fans, according to Martin Hägele, the club’s head of international affairs. The club had an offer from the West Bengal government to build up a football school. Bayern will provide expertise on the construction of a new stadium, pitches and coaching based on the Bayern Munich footballing philosophy. Hägele commented:

“We’re not here to sell shirts. We want to show young Indian people that our know-how and coaching experience can create something special in Indian football, and you can only do that, if you start with the basics, with the very young guys”

While Liverpool’s opening of a Football Development Centre in Pune is based on a similar ideology, the club is also offering courses catered to improving the infrastructure of Indian football. The courses on offer include coaching, refereeing, sports science, sports turf technology and football industry management, all of which will aid the game in raising its technical level and the influence of the governing bodies to help spread the interest in football to some of the other states.

Along with these sides, Arsenal and Everton have also sent scouts, run training days and tournaments as they look for the most efficient way of developing the talent of some of the 20+ million Indians who play the game competitively. However some of these clubs conduct themselves, cynicism will always remain as to whether these clubs really have the best interests in Indian football at heart or not.