Sony Pictures Networks India recently renewed exclusive media rights for all UEFA competitions till the end of 2026-2027 season. Ahead of the UEFA Champions League 2023-24 semi-finals, t2 caught up with former England goalkeeper David James, who has also played for Liverpool and Manchester City among many others in his long career, on the football fans in India that he got to witness while he played and managed Kerala Blasters FC, India’s footballing hopes and the success story that is Manchester City FC.
What does the Sony tie-up with UEFA mean for Indian football fans?
It’s fantastic news. I enjoy working on Champions League with Sony and the guys. The one thing that really got me was the time we were doing a show, I think there were Barcelona and Real Madrid fans who had come on the show and they had the kind of passion for those teams in the way that I can have a conversation about English Champions League team fans here who had not been to the games physically. It really has changed my opinion (laughs) on what being a football fan was.
Growing up in England and having the best domestic league at least, on my doorstep, and having played in it, I know what football is and what fans look like, but having spent a lot of time in India, it gave an enriched value of what a sport it was and by being able to watch on Sony, the Champions League, the fans can support these teams with loyalty, with feeling and emotion and the fact that we can continue to do this for an extended period of time, is wonderful.
Do you keep a tab on Indian football?
I do, yeah, and I am still in contact with one or two players... things are improving in one sense, which is encouraging. Things like the Champions League being shown and seeing the best football in the world give you a benchmark where things need to be. With regards to Kerala Blasters, (I) keep in touch with what they are doing... I don’t know anyone at the club any more. We are talking about the Champions League in one sentence and how the former has changed there and looking at the way ISL has changed as well with qualification.... I do keep an eye on it... very very interested....
Do you have anything in your home that reminds you of India?
Loads! (Laughs) One of the things I do is I wear yellow a lot. Funny enough, since my time in India, yellow has become my favourite colour. Another thing that is interesting and quite warming as well is there are a lot of Keralites in England it seems and I would travel around the country and bump into people and it’s like: ‘James, James, I am from Kerala’ and we’ll have a conversation for a few minutes and move on. My time in India, when anyone asks me about it, I loved it. I can’t wait to get back... I am mainly (in touch) with Sandesh Jhingan.
What more needs to be done in Indian football to develop a bench strength?
It is difficult to come in with true clarity at the minute because I haven’t been in India for four-five years now... the one thing I did have concerns when I was out there, again coming back to the UK and travelling around the world, looking at other football countries and how they set things up, this is very simple stuff, like the infrastructure and training facilities in India. I don’t know whether this has changed, but I haven’t seen anything in social media to suggest it has, but having one training pitch per team is a limitation, which you don’t have in the UK. You can train more people at any given time.
I think the biggest concern would always be the league system. Not that it isn’t competitive. I think the ISL has been very competitive over many years now. It’s good to watch and good to be a part of it as a competitive player. However, there are a small number of teams who only play two games or play each other twice, so, in the end, a top player if he plays all the games, he might only play 24-25 games. When you consider their counterparts in other parts of Asia, more importantly, in the big European leagues, they are playing upwards of 38 games. Then every game is a chance for an experience. They are doubling the amount of games in the more competitive and larger leagues. I think that’s where the experience is being fast-forwarded for the younger players. Add that sort of facilities and opportunities to play more games even outside of the league system and then, I think, you are going to enhance the performances.
Having gone through the experience when I was managing in India, and knowing things haven’t changed here, is the opportunity for Indian players to play abroad. I think the key here is with India being outside of the top 70, the average of the top 70 for two years, even dropping into the 60th position for a year and then sort of going back up to 100, you wouldn’t qualify for automatic inclusion in most of the European leagues. If the national team could get into that position, which won’t happen for at least a couple of years, then players who have the opportunity to go abroad will be able to go abroad sooner.
This happens all over the place. If I can branch out to Hong Kong, they were also in AFC this year, like India , three games, three defeats and no goals.... If you are a young player looking at the national team, do you want be part of that if there is an alternative sport like, you mentioned cricket, where they are very successful?
The likes of Sunil Chhetri with his brief tour outside of India, he is still the guy people talk about. There needs to be another guy they should be talking about. If we can get an Indian player into one of the European leagues or a bigger league, then the eight-nine-year-old who is growing up, will be: ‘I want to be him’.
We need more icons...
That’s the word I am looking for, ‘icons’. It’s how the administration in India deals with that issue.
Manchester City FC may have been knocked out of the UEFA Champions League, but they have been a formidable force in world football. What have they been doing right?
Well, a number of things. The ownership was obviously the first thing, the investment of money... changing a lot of things, changing the training facilities, the stadium was already in position, the old Commonwealth Games stadium, they didn’t have to invest so much in stadium changes... they bought the stadium of the local council, which made a difference. They had a vision which was just beyond getting the best players to win the Premier League. There is a lot of investment in the local area. Some of this goes hand-in-hand with the conversation about Indian football as well.
When you have a football club in a community, it has to be part of the community, not just in the community. What City has done is that they have created, what they had many years ago, the community club. They invested a lot of money and time in the community. A lot of people benefit from what Manchester City can do. When you’ve got that kind of bond and relationship with the community, then people want to help you succeed rather than seeing you as an obstacle or an interference.
Signing Pep Guardiola was an absolute game-changer. His tactical awareness, everyone said for many years, is beyond anyone else’s and he is proving that. The recruitment has been phenomenal. We talk about City now in a way that they have got the best players in the world, but I can’t think of one player that they bought that was the best player in the world. They always bought quality players but they have turned them into one of the best players in the world.
The quality of the coach isn’t just about winning things. It’s about improving players around the squad, even to the point that he sold players. If you think of Cole Palmer, last season, potentially, he was the one who was going to stay in City forever, because he was a home-grown kid, but they have sold him off and made a massive profit and now he is doing well somewhere else. There are a lot of rungs on the successful ladder that City has got. I think without Pep though, it would never be in the position it is now.
And they dreamt big...
We could talk about City isolated, but when you think of Mumbai City, Melbourne City, Girona... the organisation has a lot of football teams and the vision was a lot bigger than just one team.
Going back to my time in India, and I’ll say it was a pleasure, which might be difficult for people to understand, the pleasure of playing Girona and Melbourne City, back in 2018... it was difficult for us (Kerala Blasters) because it was bang in the middle of a closed season. We didn’t have proper preparation and they were preparing for their season. We had two games and we lost 6 nil and 5 nil in Kochi. The results were unsurprising, but it gave our players a taste what it’s like to play against Girona, which has played in the La Liga... it is tough lesson to show players what it’s like to be at that level. It was a reality check, that is important in sports.
Looking at what the City (Football) Group has done or doing, is quite magnificent. Mumbai have won titles in the ISL, which they hadn’t done before, and City, obviously now, European champions, Girona, playing high at the moment. All this is a slow burner in some sense, but they get to the point that they have this table of clubs which is quite phenomenal and it is changeable within the staff, whether it is players or coaching staff. It is a well thought-out plan and is going very well for them.
Who are some of the players who will be in your top XI?
Alisson Becker, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Sergio Gomez, Kyle Walker, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Dominik Szoboszlai, Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah, Kylian Mbappé...
Your dream XI for t2 doesn’t have Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo...
No chance! Erling Haaland in my humble opinion was the best player in the world last season and should have won a Ballon d’Or. Cristiano Ronaldo... they love him, but he is playing in a league that’s not competitive compared to the best leagues in the world. They’ve had their time and not saying they can’t resurrect their careers in a competitive, best-in-the-world sense, but no... they might have an honorary position on the bench.
Watch UEFA Champions League 2023-24 semi-finals LIVE on Sony Sports Ten 2 SD & HD, Sony Sports Ten 3 SD & HD (Hindi), Sony Sports Ten 4 SD & HD (Tamil & Telugu)