Spotou: Introducing Sports Tourism in India

Spotou: Introducing Sports Tourism in India

Sports careers in India have come a long way from being frowned upon as 'inferior' or for people who cannot perform academically to being adored as rockstars in recent times? No, this isn't about Cricket. Cricket has had the attention of the whole nation since the 70's since the Gavaskar Era. but no, We aren't talking about that. We are talking about other sports like Tennis, Hockey, Football, Kabaddi and the likes.

The slow shift of brands and celebrities towards the other sports. Especially football. With the Advent of the ISL, India has seen a sudden switch towards football and also more and ore sponsors funding the forgotten/new sport of the country.

The potential for alternative sports in India led Mr. Sanjay Dheer to establish Spotou. A Sports Management and Sports Tourism after working in 60 countries over a span of 25 years. Spotou was established in 2014.

“When I came here I saw two industries show massive growth: one was the e-commerce business, where the evaluation of some companies has crossed multi-million dollars and are attracting foreign funding, as well. The next big thing that I saw happening to India was sports. With huge chunks of money corporates are pumping in it, sports is beginning to be a lucrative career in India,” says Sanjay.

Thus came about the idea of Spotou for sports training, sports events, sports infrastructure development, celebrity management and sports tourism. “Luckily for us the concept has been very well accepted by educational institutes and other sporting academics,” adds Sanjay. As a part of sports tourism, several sporting clubs of the United Kingdom, specifically football clubs like the Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea have tied up with Spotou.

Elaborating more on these tie-ups, Sanjay explains, “We take a lot of budding footballers to these clubs where they not only get the opportunity to rub shoulders with football legends and heroes, but also get trained and coached under the very same facilities their heroes are being coached.”

Sports Tourism can be really beneficial for all the sportspersons in India as they get to train with the best teams/sportsmen in the world depending upon the sport that they play. Not only train but this can possibly open the door for talented youngsters to get exposed to the international formats of the games and maybe get an opportunity to play outside India.

With the advent of the Indian Super League football tournament, the sport is gaining popularity and recognition, “so we’ve ensured that we’ve tied up with the best football clubs of the world,” adds Sanjay. Elaborating further he says, “There are several youngsters nowadays who want to learn football seriously and professionally.”

While there have been several highs,one of the major challenges Spotou faces is convincing people that a four week long programme is good enough for training. “Many would like to undergo a longer programme; however, because they need to focus on their academics as well, it’s not possible for them to spend long durations in United Kingdom. Convincing parents is still a challenge,” says Sanjay.

With the advent of the Indian Super League football tournament, the sport is gaining popularity and recognition, “so we’ve ensured that we’ve tied up with the best football clubs of the world,” adds Sanjay. Elaborating further he says, “There are several youngsters nowadays who want to learn football seriously and professionally.”