La Liga keen to explore Indian football market

Bengaluru, January 25: Spanish La Liga is keen to explore the growing football market in India according to its president Javier Tebas.

La Liga has a big fan following in Asia, especially in India. To capitalise on that, in December, for the first time in history, the traditional El Clasico featuring archrivals Real Madrid and Barcelona had a 1pm local kick off time (5.30PM IST), primarily suited to the audience in the sub continent.

La Liga match timings to be adjusted to suit football fans in India said La Liga President Javier Tebas @LaLiga pic.twitter.com/3KmiMfxpXU

— World Football Forum (@wfootballforum) September 16, 2016

"According to the television data available with us there's a two-fold growth in the viewership in India compared to what we had with the original kick-off timings. In other words we've noticed an exponential growth of around 300 per cent in terms of people viewing La Liga in India," Tebas was quoted as saying in The Hindu daily.

Tebas said the growth of football in the country, which recently successfully hosted the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, as one of the main reasons behind the reason to put India on its football radar.

"We're trying all possible angles to get closer to India. We've opened an office in India. We're organising match-viewing events, where we had around 18,000 people watching the last El Clasico, in New Delhi on December 23.

"Apart from that we're reaching out to different schools to establish La Liga brand and are also planning to have Indian teams to come and play in Spain," Tebas dwelled further.

"In the social media we've employed people who're promoting La Liga in Hindi. We've been in talks with the All India Football Federation and are trying to sign an agreement. We've already organised some events with them and have also involved some Indian clubs," he added.