Paris Saint-Germain keen on investing in Indian football

The Ligue 1 giants are eager to a partner with a domestic entity as they look to make a foray into the lucrative market.

After news of the City Football Group investing in India, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) have also come forward expressing their interest to invest in the country,  a report by Sportstar read.

In recent years, Indian football has seen the likes of FC Basel, Borussia Monchengladbach, Atletico de Madrid, ACF Forentina among others taking an interest in Indian football. Following suit, the Paris-based side has revealed that the club and it's owners, Qatar Sports Investments, are 'assessing' India as a potential investment option and will only continue to pursue it if they find a partner in the country.

"For us [PSG], the Indian market is very important. If you break into the Indian market, the potential for business is massive. The problem is the game is not well-developed yet," said Jean Martial Ribes, PSG's Head of Communication.

Ribes also revealed that the Parisians had come to the Indian shores earlier, but found it a bit difficult in the initial years. "We are looking closely at what the English and the other clubs are doing and we will advance progressively. We were in India [before] and we found it difficult to develop the academies. For us, it's (India) one of our top markets, but it's not an easy one to break into," he quipped.

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"We need to find the right partners to build the academies, to develop even a PSG shop; because in Japan we opened one PSG shop and we are going to open a second one. Someday, it'd be great to have a PSG shop in Bombay [now Mumbai] or Delhi," he added.

The PSG official also pointed out that the Parisians were looking for a partner in the country who could help to represent the brand in India, much like the FC Basel-Chennai City and Borussia Monchengladbach-Minerva Punjab FC deals.

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"We have sponsors from China, we have sponsors from Indonesia, the United States, from many, many countries. We do not have sponsors from India, but it'd be fantastic for us to be able to have access to sponsors from India or to have Indian market people representing our brand. There are some very big companies in India, but we need to have the access and right now, we are missing access."

In recent years, India has seen several of the game's best clubs come to the country. However, they have seldom taken an interest in playing a game in the country.  Taking the fact into consideration the official added, "If we can find an Indian businessman who comes to us and says, 'I am ready to work with you and develop the brand' by opening stores or opening academies, we could bring in star players and we could imagine having a match in India with our team (PSG) some day. If we can find that person, we will definitely go. Just to go there and invest without knowing the right people is difficult."