"India is the new Brazil" I just wanted to be the first to say that. The idea makes sense though. Minimal cost to us, get an early look at any young talent over there worth scooping up.
Easy to be dismissive but we have next to no commercial income compared to most Premier League teams so have to try things and won't cost us anything. With our Turkish, Chilean, Colombian and now Indian fans anything is possible.
I always wondered what these sorts of partnerships entail, you see a lot of clubs with sister clubs, similar to us and Udinese (albeit other partnerships have much more joined up thinking!), but what's the deal here? Are we basically trying to nab the first Indian superstar?
Steven Taylor now plays for Wellington Phoenix in the Australian A League, so we have missed out on him. I would prefer to sign Jerry Mawihmingthanga just for the commentators.
I imagine we’re trying to build relationships with Indian clubs to build our profile there and earn some more fans More fans, more tv/ commercial revenue. I can see us going on some pre season friendlies there, and maybe having some sort of official spice partnership in a few years time.
All good. Forget Bushey, the new stadium could be there as well, cheaper land so bigger capacity for our extra fans. Might make the travel a little more awkward, but I imagine there'd be plenty of parking.
Hopefully this Partnership will raise our profile on the Indian sub-continent and even here in the UK, as Watford and the surrounding area has a fair sized South East Asian population.
Absolutely. Excellent chance to tap into the local South East Asian market who are all just watching the Indian Premier League and have never heard of Watford.
Good to see The 1881 have also gone into partnership with the Odisha Juggernauts Ultras or as I like to call them, The 2019.
Indian football is like Chinese football yet to get off the ground and probably in a worse position than China. Despite the Super League over there there is a lack of infrastructure, pitches and coaches for such a large population and the pull of cricket and also hockey. Had India competed in the 1950 World Cup for which they qualified and were then disqualified for not wearing boots things might be a lot different. You can see how Odisha would benefit and Indian football as well. For us it might be a little exposure but fans in the subcontinent are generally those addicted to the top six. Still it's a bold enterprise although I would prefer to see us hook up with academies in West Africa for instance or South America like Envigado. It's pretty tawdry but we have to try and get stars of the future this way given the likes of Abu Dhabi have created numerous partnerships abroad.
You want to be looking for footballers in places where there are a lot of young players who are (unfortunately) too poor to have options other than athletics for entertainment. Those are the places where kids will spend the thousands of hours necessary to develop the skills. That's where the rivers of cheap talent are. The places where there are hosts of profit-making academies churn out talent, but it's pricey.
Who's that Danish club who have a partnership with an academy in Ghana (?), is it Midtjylland? Sounds a lot more ethical than most European dealings with young African footballers Edit: Just checked, it's Nordsjælland
