The Grassroots Revolution In Indian Football with Siddarth Sabapathy

Beyond The Field: Inside India's Sports Industry

How do we bridge the gap between grassroots sports and elite sports?

In this episode, Nadeem talks to Siddarth Sabapathy about kicking off football from the community level to making the Vile Parle Premier League a league of their own!

Siddarth is a sports strategist and co-founder of Sporko- a sports management company that develops and promotes sports at the grassroots level. He talks about being the General Manager of Ahmedabad Defenders- the team that represented India for the first time at the international club volleyball level, the untapped potential of grassroots sports, and why the backstage is completely different from the mainstream glamor of the sports industry!
Tune in to learn more!
Siddarth Sabapathy
General Manager- Ahmedabad Defenders, Co-Founder- Sporko
https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddarth-sabapathy-b6000955/
https://www.instagram.com/sidwin22/?hl=en
'Beyond The Field' is a podcast where we give you an all-access pass to the business side of sports and decode India’s multi-billion-dollar sports industry.

Nadeem Sheikh is a sports professional with 6 years of experience who turned his passion into a profession. He has worked with multiple companies in the sports industry like KheloFantasy, CricketGraph, and YouTooCanRun. LinkedIn - / nadeemsheikh

Creative Supervisor: Aishwarya Javalgekar
Producer: Shreya Ahlawat

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Kapitler

1. Beyond The Field Intro (00:00:00)

2. Introduction to Siddarth Sabapathy (00:01:18)

3. How Bappi Lahiri transformed a football match (00:04:00)

4. Why Siddarth returned from Germany to work for grassroots sports (00:07:00)

5. History of Indian Football (00:08:55)

6. Why it's important for Indian football to grow (00:10:48)

7. Impact of Indian Super League (00:13:35)

8. Grassroot initiatives taken by Indian football clubs (00:16:25)

9. Football culture in India vs the rest of the world (00:18:35)

10. How corporates are investing in sports development (00:20:53)

11. Do international collaborations aid the growth of Indian sports? (00:22:42)

12. Why fans are the heartbeat of sports (00:24:15)

13. How good is the infrastructure of sports in India? (00:29:33)

14. How the Mumbai Football Association is transforming grassroots football (00:34:32)

15. Why media coverage is the key in sports development (00:37:16)

16. Opportunities in the industry and behind the glamor of sports (00:38:00)

17. How important are role models in sports? (00:42:08)

18. Representing India for the first time at international club volleyball (00:45:30)

19. What does it take to work in the sports industry? (00:49:13)

20. Rapid fire (00:51:00)