Sevilla look to help FC Bengaluru United progress towards ISL dream

In January 2021, Spanish giants Sevilla FC became another major European club to enter the Indian football market, when they signed a five-year partnership agreement with budding Indian club Bengaluru United. The partnership is aimed at both clubs exchanging technological know-how, and a host of collaborative activities. While Sevilla took this opportunity to build a significant presence in the Indian footballing circles, Bengaluru United continue to receive much-needed guidance as they aim at promotion to India’s top-tier football leagues.

Earlier this month, the representatives from Sevilla FC — including the club’s president Jose Castro and Jose Paradela, the Business General Director of the club, visited India on a five-day tour. The main purpose of the visit was the renewal of ties between the two clubs, and Paradella spoke exclusively with Hindustan Times Digital to speak in detail about the partnership.

Excerpts:

There are many clubs in India operating at I-League and ISL levels. What attracted you to a club like Bengaluru United, which is yet to make its mark in India’s top-tier domestic leagues?

We feel there are many similarities between FC Bengaluru United (FCBU) and Sevilla FC, as surprising as it may sound. We are a very old club; 120 years old, while they are a very young club. But what we see in FCBU is a lot of passion and enthusiasm, and eagerness to grow and fight. That is something that inspires us. We think we can help them progress by providing them with the knowledge that we have, as much as we can. We have a strong connection. We have a second-to-none passion for innovation and technology, so those are the reasons we chose Bengaluru United and Bengaluru as a city for our entry point in India.

Many major European clubs that have ties with Indian football are also involved at grassroots levels to an extent, sending their youth squads for India tours. Can we see the same from Sevilla in the near future?

This is going to be a long-lasting relationship, a long-lasting partnership with the FBCU. We see it evolving every year, in terms of the elements included in the plan. For example, in the first year, it was important for us to establish a fan base. We organised ‘Match Parties’ for the fans, we had our first fan club in India. We also organised a hackathon, so these will remain the core elements for this year’s plan as well. We need to ensure continuity. For the moment, grassroots are not included in the plan but we will see this plan evolve. It may be included as another element or something led by the FCBU.

In India, football is probably the second-most popular sport after cricket, which is in stark contrast with the majority of European countries including Spain where football fan-following is at the top. How big of a challenge was that when you decided to invest in a partnership with an Indian club?

We need to be patient. Cricket is very big in India, but we see football is also growing at a very fast rate. We always see in football that it transcends geography, age groups, and genders as no other sport. It’s happening everywhere. We also see the popularity of football in India. It doesn’t require much; it just needs a piece of land, a ball, and something to play the role of goalposts. We see that happening here, and we are very hopeful for the future. It doesn’t stop us, but it instead encourages us to evolve in this market early on.

You launched a ‘match party’ for fans in India last year. Can the fans expect more of those from Sevilla for the upcoming season?

For sure. Absolutely. The pre-season is going to start very soon. It will be in South Korea, and for sure, we will have the match parties and fan events in Bengaluru (for pre-season and the 2022/23 season). There are no doubts about it.

La Liga has a huge presence in India, with their football schools at the very center of it. Are there plans to work with the league to further develop the talents in Indian football?

We collaborate with a La Liga school in Pune, so Sevilla FC is associated with that particular academy. Sevilla FC has a reputation for developing talents. What we want is to transfer our knowledge to our partners, which include FCBU. As far as grassroots are concerned, as I said before, we will take a further step, but that is not in our plan right now.

Talking about your club, you finished fourth last season. While you are serial winners in the Europa League, the Champions League title still remains a target. How do you rate this season and how you plan on improving on your CL performances?

Yes, we finished fourth. We qualified for the Champions League for a third consecutive year, which is not a small deal. We are up there with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona as the Spanish clubs which have been constantly in Europe over the last 10 years. So, to achieve this in such a competitive championship is not easy. This season, for us, I think it could’ve been better. We were running second for 31 matches out of 38, but we ended up fourth. But the margin of points isn’t that big when you look at the points table (between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th).