Dempo Sports Club have been one of the most dominant teams in Indian football, exemplified by the club’s record of winning five national league titles in eight years. The Golden Eagles are now trying to return to the top tier, but club president and owner Shrinivas Dempo explains in this interview with TOI why they won’t spend mindlessly like it did in the past. Excerpts…On Dempo’s return to the I-League, now the second tier of Indian football, you had stressed on the need for the club to grow organically, without simply pumping in the money. Does that thinking persist?Yes, very much. Right now, all Indian Football League (IFL) clubs are actively discussing how much we need to spend. There is a limit on how much we can spend. I know 12-15 years back, I spent Rs 15 crores (annually on the team). I spend nowhere close to that money now, and I don’t want to go back to that route. If you tell me today, ‘Mr Dempo, I will give you a place in ISL and you continue losing Rs 15 crore every year’ that’s not an option for me. Because if I have that kind of money (to spend), I can put it to better use. I don’t want to be in the (top tier) ISL for the sake of it. Sustainability makes a big checklist for us. If there’s no sustainability, there’s no point of being there.Dempo came up with an impressive performance in the Super Cup last season with a side largely comprising Goans. Does the club consciously focus on promoting local talent?We want to give more Goan boys a chance. That’s how we came up (from the second division). My wish is to keep moving forward with Goan talent. Compared to other Goan teams, we had the largest contingent of Goans. The second option is to build an all-Indian side (and qualify for ISL) but many people including (coach) Samir (Naik) is not confident that we can do it. They said we need to include at least two or three foreigners. How much they contribute I do not know. Last season, I was not very pleased with the performance.What does Jamshedpur FC’s withdrawal from the Indian Super League (ISL) mean to Indian football? Do you consider this a warning sign?Corporates have shut football teams in the past. I remember when Mahindra (United) closed down, I phoned (executive director) Alan Durante and told him if Mahindra shuts shop, how can Dempo survive? He said the message from the promoters was clear: money must be put to good use. For Tatas, what they spend on the football team is not big money, but where is it taking them? They do so much of philanthropy and perhaps that kind of philanthropy gives them more goodwill equity than just putting money in football, bringing in foreigners and paying them. There should be a roadmap. I’ll spend money, I’m willing to lose money for the next two or three years, but does the roadmap show that I’ll ever gain? In Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT, where Dempo owns the Goa franchise), I get confidence from the fact that I will break even in two or three years. In football, there is nothing.In a lose-lose scenario, what makes you continue to spend on football?We always feel there’s hope. Through the academy, we want players to emerge. We want the number to increase. Otherwise, with the kind of figures that were discussed at the last IFL (general council) meeting, I am seriously concerned whether I will be able to continue. The model must be sustainable; the model has to eventually give you some commercial advantage. Maybe not profits now, but if you just tell me to spend money for the sake of it, you have to really evaluate whether that money is well spent.For the last decade, Dempo’s focus has been on the academy. Are you happy with its progress?We are spending a lot on the academy. Apart from philanthropy, which I enjoy, there are question marks if the academy model remains viable. The good news is that, at the academy, this time we are getting about six to seven players who are paying us over Rs 5 lakh. Somewhere down the line, parents are willing to take that risk. I also heard from our secretary Lector (Mascarenhas) that two parents came to the academy and asked if their boys could just train. They were willing to pay Rs 2 lakh, just to practice with the team. That is some light at the end of the tunnel. But we need volumes, and the volume is now there right now in Dempo.
