 Bala Devi is a story and why she is a story is because she is the first Indian woman footballer to secure a professional contract with a top club, Glasgow Rangers, one of the biggest clubs, most storied clubs in global football from the home of FA football, where football began actually. One of the most historic rivalries in global football is Glasgow Celtic versus Glasgow Rangers and Bala Devi is going to be a part of that story and this is a massive massive story in the general picture of what's happening in Indian football for a variety of reasons for the what when how how this happened. Ajun Pandit is in the studio and he's got all of the juice right from the horse's mouth. Yes sir. Yes sir indeed. We're talking about Bala Devi and what like this really really great bit of news yeah. But many times we were expecting it. For someone who's been playing for India for the last 15 years and you know even when her case was presented to Rangers they said 15 years from the age of 15 it doesn't happen too often in women's football whether it is in India or even in Europe. It's not as evolved as 15 years career. So this was a exceptional career and happy that of course she's made it but you're saying when did these conversations begin right. These conversations begin one way to look at it is when BFC did that deal with Glasgow Rangers. Now for those of you don't know what BFC is because there are a few producers of ours on NewsClick who said Bhai BFC pashore but who is BFC. Ignorance is bliss. So we're assuming but BFC is Bengaluru FC right and when Bengaluru FC did a deal with Glasgow Rangers somewhat there were the origins of this deal as well. Not specifically but somewhat that deal was made of a non-commercial deal seeing how can we benefit Indian football as far as knowledge sharing is concerned players, coaches and so on. I think knowledge being the top part of being there right and the other part of this deal is origins of this deal is that Glasgow Rangers for as big as they might be in men's game up until now up until the season starting in Scotland they were a semi-professional team. This season onwards they've decided to go full professional. So before that their team they had say about eight fully professional players who were on their roster who played the whole season. The rest of the players were semi-professional. So they were doing some work, some teacher, some other person and of course you're coming on weekends, practicing in the evening and you're taking out your season. This season they decided to go full professional. Which is essentially sorry to interject but like essentially the women footballers in India are all semi-professional right because fortunately or whatever because of Eastern Railway, Manipur Police and a couple of such organizations women footballers at least those that make it to the national team get government jobs. So they're semi-pro in the sense that the government takes care of their salaries and the clubs only pay them when they play. Agreed and much love and respect to these institutions. We need to professionalize everything these institutions. They are playing a big part. Now these institutions are not there. So do you think Bala Devi is sustainable? No, she is not sustainable. Okay, we won't digress because every time we go to the socialist angle. But coming back to the deal now of course they said when the deal was taken by BFC two Rangers saying how can we get some women playing there because let's agree as much of the lens might be on men's football. Women's our team is ranked 59th in the world. Men's team is what? It's somewhere in the top 100 or even higher than 100. So chances of a woman going and playing abroad in Europe was much more than a guy playing in the men's league. Like we say about the World Cup also, when will India play the first World Cup that they qualify? The chances of the women's team qualifying are far higher than the men's team. Exactly. In terms of. So these conversations happened with a certain someone called Amy McDonald who's the head of their women's development or something I don't know the exact designation and when the case of Bala Devi was taken to her and like I said at the start that they said oh here someone is playing for 15 years and then you have that record of 52 goals or so when 50 odd matches they jumped at it they said why not call her we're not going to sign her straight away but let's get her on a trial. So November 2019 the date was set for a seven day trial with Bala Devi. So how did that trial go like what was because we of course we knew about the trial and trials have happened now consistently because agents are making contact with agents outside and everyone is understanding that Indian football is something that's taking off right so there's a it's a growth story essentially yeah there's a market here to be established etc etc Sunil went abroad before that Baichung went abroad so efforts have been on consistently over time Goorpreet of course to get Indian players playing in leagues outside and then tap into a billion yeah and at the same time build the capacities of the Indian players right so it's supposed to be like a cohesive ecosystem that works for the benefit of everyone the clubs involved the players involved and overall the market so in this context how did that trial go and where where did sort of the conversation become beyond just a trial for the sake of some social media action versus something that they were seriously looking at like as a full-time player signing this Bala on see by the thing is the the fact is one must remember the fact that they're going professional they needed to sign a lot of new players on their roster so total of 14 players have been signed on their roster beyond the players you already have to make a full squad of I think bees yeah by his kapura squad bana gale on Chaudhame se apne Bala Devi ka naam apka through whatever way through through your conversation or your association ho unka naam haan paanchi kya initially kya impact ho it would be foolish to say he was only on a playing basis it could also be you know you're representing a billion people yeah it's a market you want to get into that partnership with BFC clearly indicates that so this could probably be that but then when I spoke to Bala Devi's agent right if we apana to hum jante hai nahi he said as soon as she reached there they wanted to sign her straight away because they thought she fits into the playing level straight up yeah right so then I think the entire thing changed I will say man like this is like a like she's really fun to walk I mean she's by any stretch like a phenomenal footballer I haven't seen her play man goals by the bag and like just the intelligence the movement also the leadership role because like we look at it's very similar in a way sorry I keep going off on these little bits but it's sort of like Baichung and Sunil yeah right Bambam and Bala yeah sort of like that that kind of shift in the dressing room in in the leadership of the team and and we'll talk a bit maybe later on about yeah so so Bala has been this sort of like lead figure in women's football in India for a while now right whether it comes to talking about players dues rights all of that and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and you dance just and and and that his personality of my everything you know in a similar They are studying at the top division university football in Canada. So that is also a similar trajectory. Of course she is good enough to play. That's the fundamental. If you are playing, they are feeding you. So they are not feeding you just about the market. When Satnaam Singh went, he was drafted in the NBA. No doubt about it. He didn't play in the NBA game. Straight away, he went to the D-League, G-League, whatever it's called now. That team and there also he played very few games. These are not those kind of stories. Yeah, totally. So the foundation is that the player is that good that she fits into the system. No matter how you've gotten into it. Yeah, however you've gotten into it. Initial conversation. Absolutely. Something has to open the door for you for sure. True. So currently, if you look at their team getting back to the 11, generally when these deals happen, we ask how many of our players are going to play. Here, the situation is that you can get a lot of things to play. And you could be an integral part of the team. And strategies could be woven around you. Or you could be an important part of strategies on the field. Currently they have two Scottish international in their side. They wish to add more and more of them. So to say that this is the Glasgow range of the men's side, it's not the right way to say it. Because they're not there right now. They want to be there. Their aim is to play in the Champions League as far as women's are concerned. Now you spoke about the Glasgow, the Rangers and the Celtic rivalry. Currently the biggest team in women's football in Scotland is Celtic. They've had seven of these championships. And all seven have gone Celtic's way. There are two spots in that league up for qualifying for the Champions League. So to beat Celtic straight away, because they were also a semi-professional team, they're going fully professional now, they're going to be a little tough because they have some of the biggest internationals as far as Scotland's radar is concerned. But their aim is to get that second spot and get playing in the UEFA Champions League. I mean that would be huge bro. Imagine Bala Devi is starting for Glasgow Rangers in a UEFA Champions League versus a Lyon. Some of the big names in football man. It's amazing. So you look at how many people watch the Champions League today. Any Champions League right? In India, theoretically football is popular. There are a lot of fans from the United States, Chelsea, I don't know where they are. They're not welcome here. Anyway, there are a few fans from the clubs. But if you look at the Champions League, there's a time difference. How many people watch it? The minute you have, okay, yes, we're saying that the women's game is not anywhere close to the men's game in terms of popularity, reach, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But why are these forward thinking people trying to get it there? I think, at least if she does play against Lyon, one of these big teams, those Champions League matches might just be in this country. The most viewed Champions League matches outside of a final or something big. The flavour of the season is nationalism. You might hate it, you might like it. No, hate it. For the way it's been thrust upon you in the political sphere. But when I don't know anything about football, I'll give you a serious example. When Bhai Chum was playing that charity game, with the likes of Sadov, Luis Figo and so on, people who would never follow football, people who knew Bhai Chum Bhutuya as Dan Siddiya Danso, whatever that championship he was winning, they had all tuned in to watch the game. So clearly there's going to have that kind of effect if she's an integral part of the team. And I really don't see her as a problem. The agent has said that she's fit in straight away. And she seems to be someone who could be an integral part of the team moving forward. Okay, that's the agent's job. Even if you take it with a pinch of salt, and in any case, if you sign a two-year deal, which you're about to tell us, but it leads into a two-season deal. Like Gurpreet signed a five-year deal. That shows intent. That if your player is fit, then there's a role in their system. So now we'll come to this. You've been identified. Okay. You've caught a good player. After that... The biggest obstacle. The biggest obstacle. There are labour issues. There are labour mobility issues. How do you get a visa? We only think that the people who go to India work outside. They go to techies, bankers, etc. But that's not the case. All kinds of labour needs to move from place to place and have access to those opportunities. Then four footballers, because India is ranked outside anything of significance in the global scheme of things, these are problems. So break it down for us. How did she get this visa? So basically, requirements for visa, like you just mentioned right now. This was in the past with our star players. Sunil Chhetri. When Sunil Chhetri went to QPR. The thing is, when you're outside of that limit, then it is up on the club to whether they can make a special appeal to the FA of that country. QPR didn't appeal in front of the FA. There was an appeal in Bala Devi's system. So the criteria is that you need to be a player. If you want to play in the UK, United Kingdom, you need to be someone within the top 40 in the world. India is currently ranked 59th. Then you need to have played 75% of your games for the national team, which she has pretty much 100% I would say. Those games need to be A-grade games. What are A-grade games? A-grade games are world cup qualifiers, Asian cups, major club tournaments. Right? Oh, India is not that good. When you play Saif Championship, you go to Nepal, you go there. So she wasn't qualifying in that. So a special request had to be made. This is where again BFC stepped in. Right? They said, look, how can we help? So it was when they of course got in chatting with Rangers, it was decided that a lawyer was appointed by Glasgow Rangers. An immigration lawyer probably. Yeah, exactly. Because essentially the case becomes one of, these are specific criteria for football players, but essentially the idea is to demonstrate that at least while the United Kingdom was part of the European Union, that not only no one in the UK can do the job, but no one in all of Europe can do the job. That's why you're looking outside. Exactly. That's how you make, I suppose, make a case. So what are the technical qualifications? And in the case of an athlete, these things are very intangible, hard to measure in a team sport. Okay, if you run 100 meters and you run in 9 seconds, everyone knows that you're the best in the world. There's no 50-50 in this. But if you're a footballer, then you play team games. So there's a little... There's employment in the service. You're talking about the team, so there's employment. And to pass some criteria for employment, a lawyer was appointed. A lawyer appointed, he had to go and present a case to the Scottish FA. If this was a legitimate case or not. Or not. Of course, a certain amount of things were there. One, she's been playing for the country for the last 15 years. Goal-scoring record. Award she's won. The AFC Award helped a lot as well. There was so current that you could say, look, right now she was nominated there. Then, on top of that, a letter of recommendation was taken. Taken from whom? From the president of AIFF, Praful Patel. A letter was taken from Bambam Devi, legend as far as Indian football is concerned. Rocky. Rocky Maimour. Maimour Rocky, who was the coach of the current Indian national team. Then Bhai Chung Bhutia also gave a letter. And the current captain of the national team, Sunil Chhetri. After all these letters, a case was presented to a six-member panel. And they unanimously favored a decision in granting her a special request for Visa. And that visa was given to her in exactly one day's time. It was all done. So, it's a simple thing. If you are playing from any country, no matter how lowly ranked you are, if you have convinced your team that you have the power inside me and I tick all the boxes, then they can pull all strings and corners to make sure that you get a visa and get work permit to play in the UK. And I mean like I suppose wider, often we talk about like how sport has this ability to bring people together across divides and sort of transcend some of these political, man-made barriers and boundaries that we have for people to connect with each other, move from one place to the other, all of that. You can see how like in this case, it's actually worked out. Now, in the wider context with how Scotland voted for Brexit and all of that, what is the impact that those changes will have on how football as an industry will function? Because suddenly, you were following European Union laws. So, your player base, local player base, domestic player base was very big. Now, all EU players, theoretically, I don't know how it will pan out but this is like, I mean, I'm sure very serious people, not us, are having these conversations and trying to figure it out. Yeah. But what we understand the chances are that Europe will become the same as in India or in Africa, like countries in Africa or North America, South America. So, all of these players will now come in the same basket. So, clubs in the United Kingdom will have the opportunity to pick from all of these equally instead of focusing only on Europe. I'm not giving a pro-Brexit sort of... You are. But I'm saying this is how some of these wider politics plays into each of our industries. So, that's also a factor. Scotland's own sort of dispensation is a factor and the fact that rangers have all of this big history going for them and trying to make an impact that also plays into it. Fair enough. Fair enough. So, we have got a visa. Absolutely. We have got a visa. Now, days ahead. Let's go and see. Let's go and see. The first game of the day is being made. If you have to call someone on a junket, then we would like to say that we will be wearing good clothes. The camera isn't cut. The gentleman will shave. No, not even that much. Not even that much. No, not even that much. We will make a hipster. We will do something, sir. So, call us. Call us. And we will make good coverage from the bottom of our hearts so that back home, the 25 people who we want may change in 26. And you can also enter the Indian market that you want. Finally, just days ahead now. Sorry, one quick also. An established connection is also there in the form of David Robertson, right? Who has been Real Kashmir as head coach for a couple of years now. He's a legend in Glasgow, like in those parts. And I mean, so the documentary that BBC Scotland did on Real Kashmir, I think one of BAFTA or one of these big awards, yeah. We haven't seen it because it's not available in our geography. But like, they are seeing people here. So, I mean, they see a lot of people there. If BBC Scotland is making something, how many in Scotland? There are 10-15 people. They haven't seen it all. So, they have an idea that even in India, football is being played. So, why not be a part of this story? Fair enough. So, this story has come to an end. Now, your season is going to start in February. I said next season, they'll be, of course, matching exactly what the men's league is doing. But this season is a feb start and it'll probably go on for another six months, right? Season starts in feb, probably not being a part of the first game because she's still in India right now. She's going to go back and by the time she goes back, I think there's about two days left for the season to begin. So, ideally, I don't think the coach will blood her in straight away. So, you might not be in the playing level of the 6V games. You might see bits and pieces of her. But the hope is that there will be three or four games and she's coming into the playing level. Because also, automatically, fitness levels, match sharpness, all of that, it takes time. She'll work with the local setup and it'll take a bit of time. Exactly. Exactly. Some, I don't want to disclose, but it's a considerable jump from what she was earning over here in India. So, money for police, firstly, they should be given a leave. This year, they've given you a leave for 18 months. So, you go and play. So, her sum, I can say, it's like a three-fold jump from what she was earning in India, which is great news, man. A decent amount of money that she's earning as far as Indian standards are concerned and keeping in mind that her stay will be taken care of and so on and Joe, of course, gives you clubs. Now, Baladevi's and the amount of interest BFC has shown, any person would think is BFC looking to get into women's football. We talked about this at the Indian Women's League last year and the league is on right now in Bangalore. The league is happening in Bangalore and there are other teams from Bangalore that are participating but BFC doesn't have a team. In fact, what we talked about was that Gokulam Kerala is the only I-League or ISL team that, I think, if I'm not wrong and like, I'm sure you guys will call us out for making a mistake. We make a mistake but wider point is made. So, none of these I-League ISL teams put women's teams up for the league. So, okay, you want to already have a system in place that makes it worthwhile to put up a team. I get that argument but at the same time someone has to make a start as well. So, yeah, tell me about BFC. When I did call up the CEO of Bangalore Mandar Tamane and so I said, listen, of course you are doing this and you're looking to make a foray into women's football. He said, look, we've been looking to make a foray into women's football for the last five years, bro. But the point is this, bro, sorry, they didn't say bro. They said, look, how can we make a team when you have a three week season? The last I-W-L, Indian women's league, he's saying a lot of teams got together for the very first time on the day of the match for the very first time. So, it doesn't make sense. He said, if we want to get into it, we want to get into a proper professional setup where you have a team, you have a ten month full season. If you give me a three month league in the beginning, then we don't have any problem to make a team. We're ready, we've kept the budget on the side. And the thing is, if you're asking the people who are watching this, what about other women's players? Our current national team. So as far as the UK visa is concerned, I'm ending it now. It's very difficult, only an exceptional case like Bala got into it. Some of them didn't get into it. Someone else doesn't have that experience of playing for the national team for 15 years or so. So it doesn't mean that you don't aim for Europe. It just means you go out to the UK and you try into countries where that immigration law is a little more lax. So you go into countries like Norway, you go into countries like Sweden. So in the coming time, coming few months, don't be surprised if you hear that this and this is going for a trial to Norway or Sweden to try their luck. So, because the English women's team and English women's football is decently structured and quite popular and several very talented very good players. So even for big clubs in mainland Europe, continental Europe, to bring players from England earlier because you're domestic, right? That works out easier. Now the reverse is also true, right? Europe can make players from outside as well, or the same rules apply. So it's a wider net. Yeah. And on Mandar's point, I mean it's a little bit of a weak argument because I get what he's saying. But if other people can take the lead, you can join in. I mean a professional structure will come and superimpose, right? Sir, it won't be in 3 months. No, but in making it, you should also have the courage, right? You can't get ready-made. And if you are an example, for example, in men's football, how a club should be run, why not do the same there? Extend the same knowledge. You have the people in place. You have the budgets in place. You have the infrastructure in place. So why not make a start, man? How much? It's not a massive investment, I would argue. Agreed. Not a massive investment, which is why he's also probably saying that we are ready, that you give us a 3-month window and we are ready to put a team out there. But I think while going, I'm looking forward to not just I'm really looking forward to when she's playing in the Champions League. Sure. Brother, there's an anthem, that iconic anthem. And you have a certain Bala Devi there. And hopefully the story only moves up and up and more up. Yeah? Yeah. Super stuff. Done. Thanks for watching, guys. We'll see you soon.