Indians driving football market: Businessman Ahsan Ali Syed

Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed, who is expected to complete takeover of Spanish Club Racing Santander on Monday, tells DNA that he has spotted a few talented Indian players during Asian Cup matches.

Indian businessmen seem to be actively involved in buying European clubs. What’s with this with sudden trend?
Whether you would like to call it a trend or mere business opportunity, fact is that last year the majority of business acquisitions worldwide were done by the Indians. This shows the strength and the prosperity of the Indian economy and the activism and foresight of Indian entrepreneurs.

You were in the running to buy Premier League side Blackburn Rovers too. What went wrong there?
I was bitterly disappointed to walk away from the Blackburn Rovers deal but I was left with no choice. I was asked to make concessions that were not in the best interest of the deal, the club and its supporters. However, I hold no ill feeling towards anyone associated with Blackburn. In fact, I can’t wait to meet them on the football pitch, and wouldn’t it be great if it was in the final of the Champions League!

What was the reason for you choosing Racing Santander?
After I had withdrawn my interest in acquiring Blackburn Rovers, I had other different options from different countries on my desk which I studied carefully. Also, I had the chance to get a deeper insight into the understanding of the technicalities of football. In the past month, me and my team were busy conducting an intense due diligence process and finally came to the conclusion that Racing Santander is not only a well-managed club but also has a large future potential which made it fit my overall, long-term strategy to invest in sports ventures via my Dutch entity WGA Sports Holding BV.

Compared to EPL, the Spanish League is less popular in India. How do you hope to bridge this gap?
I disagree with that statement. Spain is not only the current world champion but has also produced extraordinary individual players in the past. The world’s most famous players such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are playing in the Spanish league. Also, clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid are cut from
the same cloth like the big EPL clubs, and are internationally well-recognised, and equally popular.
With the Indians investing in clubs abroad, does it signal that the Indian football market isn’t luring enough to invest in?
Not at all! But you cannot deny that Indian football league is at a very early stage of development while the European leagues have matured. However, rather than comparing the two, one should bridge and leverage wherever possible in order to accelerate the potential of football in India even faster.

So will you be looking at Indian players?
As the main sponsor of the Bahrain national team, I had the chance to attend selected games from the ongoing Asian Cup in Qatar. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed the match between India and Bahrain. Both teams have very good talent in their squads capable of playing in Europe and I would be more than delighted to see this talent in Santander if opportunity permits.

Will you sign any big names to increase the popularity of the club?
Right now, I would not like to comment on this issue.