For a nation of 1.4 billion, India’s absence from the world football stage is a market failure of epic proportions. While the country’s cricket production line runs with industrial efficiency, its football pipeline is a broken tap. The root cause is not a lack of interest but a chronic misallocation of capital and talent development. The UK’s academy system, a finely tuned machine producing Premier League stars and generating billions in transfer fees, offers a blueprint India would be foolish to ignore.
Consider the economics. The global football market is worth over £30 billion, yet India’s share is negligible. The Indian Super League, launched with fanfare, remains a spectator sport for offshore talent rather than a nursery for homegrown players. The country’s grassroots system is a shambles: no formal scouting networks, little investment in coaching, and a cultural bias that channels athletic ambition into cricket alone. This is not a resource problem. India’s middle class is vast and its young population eager. The problem is structural.
The UK’s academy model, by contrast, is a study in efficient resource allocation. Every Premier League club runs a Category 1 academy, spending an average of £5 million annually on player development. The return on this investment is staggering: the top six clubs alone generated over £1 billion in player sales from academy graduates in the last decade. The system is ruthlessly meritocratic: boys as young as six are scouted, coached, and filtered through a pyramid that rewards talent at every level. It is a factory of excellence.
India could replicate this model, but only with disciplined capital deployment. The first step is to create a national scouting network to identify raw talent in rural areas, where football is often played barefoot with a rag ball. Private equity could fund these academies, with returns tied to future transfer fees or a share of player registrations. Government subsidies would be a waste of public money: the market should bear the risk. The Indian Super League clubs must be mandated to invest in youth development or face penalties, as the Premier League does with its Home Grown Player rules.
The talent is there. Indian footballers have the physical attributes — pace, agility, endurance — but lack the technical and tactical education. UK academies focus on small-sided games, decision-making under pressure, and modern coaching methods. A partnership with English clubs could fast-track this: exchange programmes, coach education, and even franchised academies on Indian soil. The cost would be a fraction of the £1 billion India spends on cricket infrastructure.
Of course, culture is a barrier. Football is still seen as a lower-class sport in India, while cricket is aspirational. But this is a branding problem, not a structural one. The success of the Indian women’s football team, which has climbed the FIFA rankings, shows that appetite exists. The men’s team languishes at 102nd in the world. There is no excuse for a country of 1.4 billion to be so poor at the world’s most popular game.
The bottom line is this: football is a market. India has the demand but not the supply. The UK academy system is the most efficient supplier of elite talent in the world. A joint venture would be mutually beneficial — India gains a pathway to the World Cup, and British clubs gain access to a vast, untapped talent pool. The alternative is more decades of failure. And in the City, we know that failure has a price.
