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Catch 'Em Young & Go for Goal: On the sidelines of the largest Under 21 youth tournament nationwide - the  Reliance Foundation Development League, host Arijit Barman sits down with India's most famous footballer Sunil Chhetri.In a candid tell-all chat, this Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awardee reveal what it takes to start young and strike big in the fast-moving football ecosystem in India. The captain of Bangalore FC and the Indian National Team dives into creating not just players but passion for football across the nation. 

Credits: Soccer Freak (G21)
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Catch 'Em Young & Go for Goal: The largest Under 21 youth tournament nationwide - the  Reliance Foundation Development League - with teams across 9 regions in India from ISL, I-League division 1st & 2nd division and even Independent Academies nominated is striving to build a robust pipeline of the future cohort of champions who can match the best in class. Simultaneously, for the last 2 years, the Next Generation Cup has been conceived in partnership with English Premier League to expose our domestic talent with peers who are poised to break out in England or South Africa or any other playing nation that are ranked far higher than us. 

Host Arijit Barman gets you this two-part special with 


Neil Saunders, Director of Football at Premier League 
Sunil Chhetri, India’s captain 
Siddharth Shanker, Head of Sports at Reliance Foundation 

On why developing young talent goes hand in hand with long-term success. Also on the show was a young player from Everton, James Collins, Head Coach of the Wolverhampton Wanderers, Chencho Dorji, Head Coach of the young and upcoming Sudeva Delhi – the first Bhutanese coach leading any club in the history of the I-League and many more in this power-packed show. 

Credits: aranFE

You can follow our host Arijit Barman on his social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/arijitbarman76

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arijit-barman-7233a129/
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Office teams that once produced the best playing talent and packed grounds that once saw nail-biting games lie bare and quiet. AIFF wants to start a home-and-away league for public sector enterprises. But sustaining it will be easier said than a kick-off. 

Host Arijit Barman speaks to Shaji Prabhakaran, AIFF’s Secretary-General, Jitu Chetry, Manager of Oil India Ltd’s football team and a Former East Bengal Goalkeeper, Dhronacharya Award Winner and legendary Air India Coach Bimal Ghosh, Bibek Bhowmick, Former ONGC Coach and a host of current PSU team officials from Central Railways, Bank of Baroda, and Income Tax Department among others to understand if this can work in 2023 when football lovers are glued to international tournaments more than local counterparts. For long politicians or babus who had nothing to do with football ran the sport and ran into the ground. Reviving the game among PSUs is one great step in taking football to the grassroots, to broaden its base. The present generation of fans does not recollect an ITI being joint-winners of the first Federation Cup and Air India, regularly causing upsets playing in packed capacities. We have had too many flash-in-the-pan efforts. We can ill afford such misadventures in 2023 when even smaller Asian countries like Vietnam, Bahrain and Jordan are ahead of us in FIFA Rankings.

Credits: Kisku Dada 1, I-League Official, Indian Football Edits 2.0, Wild FIlms India, Indian Football

You can follow our host Arijit Barman on his social media:Twitter: https://twitter.com/arijitbarman76Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arijit-barman-7233a129/
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The chief executive of Sports at Viacom 18 Media, Anil Jayaraj. fields bouncers, googlies and even an occasional doosra from host Arijit Barman as the battle for eyeballs gets played both on and off the field this season. It’s the first time the media rights are split between Viacom18 and Disney holding the digital and television rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL). Both sides are bowling beamers at each other, claiming superior viewership numbers and each asserting conflicting claims of superiority of their respective platforms. Recently, Viacom 18 even said over 2 crore concurrent viewers watched a game! But after bidding Rs 50 crore per match, adding up to a total Rs 20,500 crore for the next 5 seasons (2023-27) will there be any money left to be made, especially when streaming is free at least for now? To explain the high stakes game, Jayaraj pads up for the power play.Credits: CNN-News18, Jio Cinema, CNBC-TV18
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Rajeev Chandrasekhar a former telecom tycoon from the early 2000s turned politician who is well aware of the fractious relationship between the state and private enterprises, is now, as a minister, trying to play referee in another equally high stakes match involving a sector that is perceived to be a problem child to many and therefore has often been at logger heads with the taxman, regulators, politicians and the policymakers – online gaming. Last week he tried to bring in some semblance of sanity by notifying new online gaming rules through amendments to the IT Act… Industry calls it pathbreaking yet states like Tamil Nadu opted for an outright ban within a day of the Centre's notification. Yet in this ongoing chaos, the real illegal sites still run amok, despite an all out crackdown. Jay Sayta, Gaming & Technology Lawyer, Sarah Ramanauskas, Partner, Gaming Integrity, and Trivikraman Thampy,  Founder-CEO, Games24x7 join host Arijit Barman to download the changing game scape while retired Madras High Court judge K. Chandru argues why a ban is not a bane.

Credit: Parimatch India, CNBC-TV1, Campaign India, Hyvestudio, 

You can follow our host Arijit Barman on his social media:Twitter: https://twitter.com/arijitbarman76Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arijit-barman-7233a129/
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On part 2 we explore the potential solutions to this dilemma as our panel gets creative in recommending different methods of bridging the gap between what fans want and what they are currently experiencing. We speak with a crack panel of experts - G Srinivasan, someone who has worked across all aspects of the sports universe, Sudhir Shukla, a marketing and brand management guru, Hrishikesh Shende, formerly of Adidas and Rakesh Patel, founder of the Bharat Army as we break down the different types of Indian fans and ask the question - why are leagues and teams struggling to optimise fan monetisation and what are the challenges in a diverse socio-economic country like India
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