‘Eight years too short to develop loyalty between fans and clubs in ISL’

La Liga head Cachaza makes a case for building stadiums only for football

Many years ago, Jose Antonio Cachaza used to go to Atletico Madrid’s matches in Spain with his little son. And that’s how the beautiful game became a crucial part of their lives.

“I remember the day Fernando Torres retired. In his speech to fans, he said he became an Atletico fan because he used to go with this grandfather to the stadium,” said Cachaza, the Managing Director of LaLiga India, in a chat with The Hindu here on Wednesday.

“And that’s a part of our relationship with our local club and basically you know that from September to June, every other Sunday or Saturday now, you go to the stadium. Always. That has been my case too, I have to go to the Atletico stadium with my son, now my son goes there with whoever he wants.

“That father and son relationship is quite basic in the relationship of fans and clubs.”

The Indian Super League has completed eight editions and Cachaza feels it will take longer to build such a loyalty.

“In eight years it’s very difficult to develop that loyalty in India. Why do you have that loyalty in Kolkata, that’s because those guys have been going to see Mohun Bagan or East Bengal matches since they were kids,” said Cachaza who was in Kochi to celebrate the Spanish premier league La Liga’s ‘five years in India’ since the opening of its India office. Incidentally, Kerala is the largest contributing market to LaLiga viewership (23%) on Viacom18 in India.

“In Kerala, Kerala Blasters is a new team but the relationship with football comes from far so it’s a different situation. So, you need to develop these loyalties.