Brand presence and sponsorship money likely to shrink as FIFA bans AIFF

Nearly 40-50 per cent of sponsorship money in football could be impacted, say media agencies

Fifa’s suspension of the Indian football federation this week has cast a shadow over investments by brands in the sport in India, with some stakeholders fearing the ban will effectively reduce sponsorship money by half.

For one, the Under-17 Women’s World Cup — which was slated to be held in October in Odisha, Goa and Maharashtra — will not be held according to the order by Fifa, the international football association, implying a missed opportunity for brands, media agency executives said. The second is the collateral damage to the larger football universe in the country, since it remains a keenly followed sport.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court, which is hearing the matter pertaining to Fifa’s suspension of the All India Football Association (AIFF), said the government should take proactive steps to lift the ban and ensure the Under-17 Women’s World Cup is held in the country.

Media, brand and sports marketing executives that Business Standard spoke to said they saw a 40-50 per cent drop in football sponsorship money owing to the negative publicity and issues of governance concerning the sport.

“The immediate impact is that the Under-17 Women’s World Cup, which would have given a big boost, especially to women’s football in the country, will not happen. Brands would have been excited to associate with such a tournament. The second impact is that advertisers may pull back some of their investments in football leagues such as the Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League, since the AIFF is associated with these tournaments,” Ashish Mishra, chief executive officer, India & South Asia, Interbrand, said.

While the I-League is organised and managed directly by the AIFF, the ISL is organised by AIFF along with its commercial partners, Reliance Industries (RIL) and Disney-Star. In the last few years, corporate houses such as RIL, JSW, Hero MotoCorp and the Adani group have joined the ranks of the Tatas to invest in football.

The Tata group, for the uninitiated, has been running the Tata Football Academy, an elite academy, in Jamshedpur for the last 35 years. Among other brands that have been sponsors in the ISL include DHL, Byju’s, Dream11 and Castrol.

A recent GroupM report on sports sponsorship in India says that emerging or non-cricket sporting activity, including football and kabaddi, contributed to 12 per cent of the Rs 9,500-crore overall sports advertising spends in 2021.

Cricket stands at about 88 per cent of the overall sports ad spends in India. The number for non-cricket sports has grown from around 8 per cent in the pre-pandemic period. 2020, which was marked by the first wave of the Covid pandemic, saw a blip in overall sports sponsorship spends in the country.

While cricket will remain a key contributor to sports advertising expenditure (adex) in India, given its wide following and reach, non-cricket sports will increasingly grow its share in the years ahead, GroupM said.

Events such as the Commonwealth Games, which concluded last week in Birmingham, did give a leg-up to non-cricket sports sponsorship, with the Indian contingent finding backers in as many as 9-10 sponsors including the likes of Adani Sportline, JSW Inspire, RIL, Amul, Adidas and Herbalife. Brands such as Thums Up and Nestlé also launched campaigns around the Commonwealth Games as India picked up 61 medals and finished fourth on the table.
 

“The Under-17 Women’s World Cup could have aided the momentum that non-cricket sports had seen this year, led by the Commonwealth Games,” said Ajimon Francis, managing director, Brand Finance India.

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