La Liga keen to organise club friendly in India next season

The Spanish top flight is working to increase its profile in the country in collaboration with the ISL.

A few days ago, rumours circulated around the Indian football vertical. It stated that two La Liga teams might come to India to play friendlies with the clubs here. Apparently, La Liga is looking forward to increasing its cooperation with the Indian Super League. Regarding the matter, the officials of La Liga have held discussions with the CEO of Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), Martin Bain.

Recently, the managing director of La Liga, India, Jose Antonio Cachaza spoke to The Telegraph. Here’s what he said.

About the Discussions

“We keep in touch with both AIFF (All India Football Federation) as well as the ISL officials. I spoke recently to the (FDSL) CEO and had discussions with him. I can’t reveal much about our discussions, but it was mainly about trying to find ways of increasing cooperation between La Liga and the ISL,” claimed the managing director.

About the Strategy

Jose Antonio Cachaza also revealed about their strategic plans, “We’re celebrating our first five years in India and at the heart of our strategy is increasing our connection with the fans here. That’s what we’ll keep doing, and we’re looking to find new ways to keep getting our clubs and players closer to the Indian fans. We have a good fanbase in India already.

“Besides, we came out of two years where nothing practically happened because of the pandemic. Hopefully, this Covid nightmare is over and we can get down to real business,” he added on the prevalent pandemic situation throughout the country.

About the pre-season plans

La Liga is trying to pitch in two clubs to play a friendly here in India in 2023. Cachaza opined, “Next year, having one pre-season game is a possibility and we’ll work towards it. It certainly is an important part of our strategy to bring more La Liga teams to India.”

He also shed light on why it would not be possible to play a friendly this season, “For this season, bringing teams here makes no sense because nobody will take the risk of getting into a big event when there’s no guarantee that you will not again have any limitation on (crowd) attendance.

“So being a businessperson or a promoter, you would want to play as safe as possible,” he concluded.