Ship-recycling cash-buyer supremo Anil Sharma could be seen in a recent webinar talking from a (presumably) home office adorned with several red and white football shirts on the wall behind him. Curious journalists asked why?
It turns out that Sharma’s GMS, at the behest of son Rohan, had purchased a Hero Indian Super League football club. And it seems the owner has adopted something of his recycling expertise to its management.
TradeWinds' column taking a sideways look at shipping news.
Delhi Dynamos FC had been one of the inaugural clubs in the Indian premiership when it was set up in 2014. But Sharma renamed the club for the 2019/2020 season and moved it close to the Bay of Bengal — a bit like buying an older ship, renaming it and sailing it to a spot just down the coast from Bangladesh’s demolition yards.
Renamed Odisha FC, after the Indian state where it is now located in the region’s capital city of Bhubaneswar, the team turned in a respectable mid-table performance. Playing at its new home at the Kalinga Stadium, Odisha came sixth in the league of 10 clubs.
Anil Sharma said before the move that although New Delhi was a great capital city, he felt the state of Odisha would be a good place to build a committed new fan base while Rohan, who is the club's president, was keen to develop a grassroots programme to develop young Indian players alongside experienced foreign footballers.
“Indian football is maturing and we, as owners, are starting to understand," Anil Sharma told the Indian Super League’s website. “So, we are really excited. It’s going to be really competitive.”
Unfortunately, this season has been somewhat harder. Odisha are currently bottom of the table of the now 11-club league with seven points from 12 games. They have only one win under their belts — a pulsating 4-2 victory against the side just above them, the Kerala Blasters.
TradeWinds suspects Anil Sharma might not totally appreciate a potential headline for the club’s plight: "Odisha need to scrap to survive".
