Royals to open an academy in India

[Divvy]

http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/04/27/r ... -in-india/

While the EPL giants favor China’s market for an investment, Reading FC has decided to enter India and set up an academy with Eagle FC, Kochi’s Second Division I-League team.

Reading, which has gained a reputation as a top training centre, has decided to establish the Reading-Eagles Football Academy in Kochi.

“We have also decided to exchange players and coaches,” said Shaffi Mather, the Director of Eagles FC, after discussions with the top Reading officials here on Friday evening. “And a potential investment in the club, subject to entry in the I-League.”

If the tie-up works, there could be big rewards for both sides especially in Asia where there is a huge fan following for Premier League clubs and players.

“The presence of South Korean players in the Premier League has the Korean media following them closely,” said Christopher Samuelson, Director, Reading. “If there is a player in India who has the potential to play in the Premier League, we would like to train him at our academy.”

One of the big goals in the new partnership between the two clubs is have an BPL player from Kerala by 2018, a year after the 2017 FIFA Youth World Cup.

What Indian football needs is a big push,” said Nigel Howe, the Chief Executive of Reading. We see a huge potential but you need to develop the core strategies. And the I-League needs to be a sound, strong league.”

A couple of months ago, Reading signed an agreement to work together with Turkish giant Galatasaray. The English club also has a tie-up in Arunachal Pradesh to develop football.

[P!ssed Off]

Sounds more like 'Club Policies' than 'Team'.
This is clearly solely for merchandise/Indian fan base, the likelihood of Reading signing an Indian youth player for footballing reasons = 0

[LightwaterRoyal]

Didnt we sign an Indian lad a few months ago? What was nis name? Brandon Fernandes?

[ZacNaloen]

With an academy in india with appropriate investment give or 5 years who knows? It's a country with a massive population maybe it's time to start investing in football talent there?

[ZacNaloen]

Didnt we sign an Indian lad a few months ago? What was nis name? Brandon Fernandes?

Had him on trial didn't fit in with our style iirc

[Royal91]

Very good move by the club.

[Y21]

This is clearly solely for merchandise/Indian fan base, the likelihood of Reading signing an Indian youth player for footballing reasons = 0

What, ever? Why so negative...? India has a huge population, why wouldn't there be people there who are good at football? Just because they haven't got a long heritage of the game, there is no reason why they won't have kids who could play, given a chance.

[P!ssed Off]

This is clearly solely for merchandise/Indian fan base, the likelihood of Reading signing an Indian youth player for footballing reasons = 0

What, ever? Why so negative...? India has a huge population, why wouldn't there be people there who are good at football? Just because they haven't got a long heritage of the game, there is no reason why they won't have kids who could play, given a chance.

Not being negative. It is a very good link up for the club, but the benefit is predominantly in merchandise.

India does have a a very big population, but it is well known that they are not good at football. I also hope Reading does not sign an Indian player just to use them to generate cash, as seen with Man Utd when they signed a Chinese youth and completely wasted his career by keeping him in the reserves for years to just generate cash in foreign markets.

If India did have a few youths capable of playing in the BPL then surely they'd be in the Indian First Division and not the Second Division anyway.

The Reading-Galatasary link up is great for Reading, for footballing reasons. This link up is probably a good thing for Reading, but for the business side of football.

[Divvy]

I wonder what Venky's think about us moving in on what should have been their patch..

[ZacNaloen]

Indians aren't good at football because they is no money and little interest in the domestic game so their players never develop above their basic ability. There is nothing specific about Indians that makes them bad at football. They need investment and outside knowledge to improve. If we do setup an academy and get their coaches trained to a higher level. What we need to do is track down their best talent early and develop it like we would our own academy players. Then we'll really see how bad indians are at football.

[Divvy]

Indians aren't good at football because they is no money and little interest in the domestic game so their players never develop above their basic ability. There is nothing specific about Indians that makes them bad at football.

They're corner specialists to be fair.

[Wipped]

Indians aren't good at football because they is no money and little interest in the domestic game so their players never develop above their basic ability. There is nothing specific about Indians that makes them bad at football.

They're corner specialists to be fair.

[From Despair To Where?]

I wonder what Venky's think about us moving in on what should have been their patch..

Well, they've hardly proved they know what they're doing when it comes to football.

Of course this is driven in the short term by the merchandising possibilities but football is a minority participation sport in India, and it's dominated by Goa which is the smallest, albeit wealthiest province in India.

The failure of an Indian football superstar to break out is probably more to do with the dominance of cricket and the lack of investment in development. Maybe there isn't an undiscovered footballing genius out there but at least, by sticking our necks out investing in this way, we are giving ourselves a chance of being the team to discover one if there is.

I Iike the fact that TSI are trying to create a global presence for the club.

[croche]

I wonder if the academy will be more successful than the USA one.

[Norfolk Royal]

If the benefit of this is in merchandise alone the club had better up its game a bit. I bought a car air freshener tree thing from the club shop five years ago and it doesn't seem to work any more.

[St. Brynjar]

Excellent move. Always thought Indian football could take off at any minute - I can imagine they'd be ideal candidates to host the world cup in the next 30 years, certainly more so than Qatar. Nothing wrong with making Reading a more global brand.

[winchester_royal]

Big market. Rapid developing economy. Sports-mad people. Low competition in the area.

Could be a very smart move this.

[Clyde1998]

I wonder if the academy will be more successful than the USA one.

If you're referring to Ocean City: The Reading coaches that go over there don't just find talent at Ocean City, they find talent in the local area (which has brought us in a couple of youth players).

The coaches also help develop the Ocean City players while they are out there. That seems to have worked, they won their league last season.

The players that play in the USL Premier Development League probably aren't good enough to be developed into Premier League players, or maybe even Championship players. If they were they'd be playing in the MLS, or at least in the NASL. All of Ocean City's players are collage players. We might find the odd player that we can bring in from Ocean City though.

[AbovetheI]

The Ticket office call centre is being outsourced. Shame

[Barry the bird boggler]

Excellent move. Reading really should look at capitalising on the Indian market, be great to see something come of this and have a couple of Academy lads join from the sub-continent in the next couple of years.