India has the largest football fan base in the world at 170 million fans. The Indian Super League (ISL) has become the 6th most followed football league globally on social media. While only about 14% of India's population supports football currently, the number of football fans in India is projected to reach 482 million by 2020. The growth of the ISL and establishment of football academies in the country could help develop football at the youth level and allow India to qualify for the FIFA World Cup by 2030.

1. Football in India 2015

2. India is the Home to world’s largest football fan
base (170 million). Brazil comes second.
Image Source: www.thehardtackle.com

3. 170,904,506
49,748,175
50,041,035
17,990,700
18,406,397
11,460,312
Number of football fans in India are greater than all the fans
combined in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and USA.

4. Percentage of Fans in various Countries
Italy
Brazil
Germany
England
Spain
India
US
83.64%
83.37%
61.71%
39.40%
39%
13.82%
3.63%

5. 4 2 1 536
ISL is the 6th most followed league in the world

6. SSI* Score of Various Leagues
*Simplify360 Social Index
The SSI score incorporates the Social presence on channels
like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

7. Total PR value from Social Media to Sponsors on association
with Indian Super League is
USD 1.5 M

8. ISL has reached to 3.02% football fans in India
Image Source: www.sportskeeda.com

9. Only ~14% of India’s Population are
Football Fans
Image Source: http://www.footballparadise.org/

10. ISL reached to 5 million people in India on
Social Media.
Image Source: www.indiatvnews.com

11. Barclays Premier League (14 million fans) and
Spanish League (9.6 million fans) have the
maximum Social Media reach in India

12. Social Media Reach of Messi and Ronaldo
combined is 14 million in India
Image Source: www.theguardian.com

13. 20 million unique Indian football fans are active
on Social Media, which is 119% of the
population of Netherlands

14. 99% of Indian football fans are male, and India still
has 200,000 female football fans.
Image Source: http://im.rediff.com/

15. The Football fans in India will
reach to 482 Million by 2020.

16. Future of Indian Football
For a country with a population of over 1 Billion, not being able to make it till the
Football World Cup has surely something going wrong at the base level.
It is surprising that the fan following of Football in India stands at a whooping 170
Million however the reach of football is only limited to a few millions.
ISL (average audience per game stood at over 24k) has already performed much
better in terms of viewers attendance in the stadiums than MLS.
ISL has also beat MLS in terms of social presence and influence.
Next step:
India may take a long time to present in World Cup but ISL is likely to beat Italia
Serie A next year, and may overthrow BundesLiga by 2025 and join Top 3.

17. Barcelona, Arsenal setting up Football Academy in India is great
for the country.
Tata Football Academy, Premier India Football Academy and
Arsenal Schools are helping build Football at the grass root.
India likely to play FIFA World Cup by 2030 as the young players in
these academy mature.
Sponsors and investors may invest in Football as the sport has
clearly shown a great promise.
ISL has done great job in marketing; I league and their Clubs need
to better it.
Some Other Interesting Observations
and Recommendations

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21. Assumptions and Methodology
For all clubs and Leagues reach in Facebook was taken from Facebook Ad Console.
Total reach is simply the sum of reach of all Football related pages.
Assumptions:
1. 50% unique fans among the people who liked any Football related page.
2. 24% of Football fans in India are active on Social Media [only 8% of India’s population is
active on Social Media]
3. 50% of Football fans like at least one page related to the sport.
4. The growth rate of fans active on Social Media remains the same in next 3 years from last
3 years.