The amalgamation of some very
passionate people has given shape to the United Sikkim Football Club. It is a football
club formed by dreams, passion and runs with
dedication and professionalism. It is the vision of USFC to set a new path in
the Indian football team with advanced technique of club management, club
marketing, and professional attitude .
USFC was established in the
year 2008 in the name of Sikkim United FC. The passion for football of two
person Baichung Bhutia and Arjun Rai (USFC’s current senior Manager) took shape of SUFC with the help of Sikkim govt
and SFA. Initially the focus was on player development. Players from an academy
of Namchi formed SUFC and participated in many local tournaments. They also
won Sikkim Gold Cup. Then Dubai based
company Fidelis World took over a
majority stake of the club in the year 2009-10. The club was then reformed with
a more corporate outlook, along with music legend Shankar Mahadevan, and was renamed
as USFC. The nickname, “Snow Lion” has been rightly given to USFC. The mission
and vision of USFC has always been to start a new era in Indian football from
Sikkim. And the process became easier when a corporate company joined hands
with USFC management. In 2010 they debuted in I-league 2nd division,
but missed the opportunity to qualify for the first division. However, their
promising performance got them the maximum brand value in that year. Finally, USFC
has qualified for I-league main division this year. The dream which was seen by
Baichung Bhutia, Arjun Rai, and also the Fidelis world management, finally came
true. And the journey towards a new era has begun.
Being a member of this club,
I would like to share with everyone, my experience with different key person’s
of USFC management.
Let's start with the Chairman
of Fidelis World and USFC, Mr. Anand R
Krishnan:
The most dynamic person I
have ever met in my life. His philosophy, his guidance adds something extra to
USFC management in terms of strategic direction,
investment strategies, and corporate governance. I found
he is a very passionate towards his work and his dedication towards USFC is
evident from the fact that he has attended all most all the important matches
and all the I league final round matches himself. Even though he stays in Dubai
but he is well aware about the current
football scenario in India It was my luck and privilege that I could closely interact with him
while working in USFC.
Secondly, the CEO of Fidelis
world and the brain behind the investment in Indian football, Mr. Navneet
Sharma:
His way of life related to
sports. A person with experience of 20 years in this industry and that too with
big companies like IMG, Total Sports Asia and many others. He is always keen
and prepare to add value to everything with his positivity. I learnt a very
unique thing from him, the style of management with a big smile. At our first
meeting, he asked me for the name of a certain company. Without being sure I
answered ‘Some venture’. He replied ‘Koushik, say anything after being
confident about that’ , and of course with a big smile. He was always there to
guide me. I also learned punctuality from him. Whenever he said 5 minutes, I
never found that to extend to the 6th minute. He is a person who
believes in waking up early in the morning
and then doing some physical training before the day starts. I feel lucky that
I could work closely with him and learn from such a great personality.
The next person is my friend,
philoshoper and guide in USFC, Amit R Krishnan. He is the head of Corporate
affairs and Business Strategy in Fidelis World-USFC. I was not aware that he is
from London School of Economics and on our first conversation I talked mostly
about Indian Economy. And he encouraged me to do so. A unique quality I have seen is that he is a very keen observer. In a meeting, when we were discussing about our marketing
plans and I was showing him some data analysis of TRPs of Indian football. I
found that he always tried to question me ‘in between the lines’ of that
presentation. He is a great listener and a great learner. I learned from him
that to be a good manager one has to be
a good listener and also a good learner. The person I miss most in my recent
days is Amit. It was such a privilege and a pleasure for me to work with him.
This writing will be
incomplete, without mentioning anything about Arjun Rai (Our very own Arjun da):
One of the main visionary of
USFC was Arjun da. The man behind the present success of USFC is Arjun da. Starting
from ground management to team management whenever we faced any problem, Arjun da
has been there with a solution always ready . He is the main person behind the success
of the current Indian star Nirmal Chhetri and Sanju Pradhan. Many Sikkim boys
are playing in Indian football only because of him. Moreover, as a person he is
very nice and honest. Even after a 100 year history will speak about Arjun da,
the visionary whose once small dream has taken the big shape of USFC. I always believe
on a statement that when passion become someone’s life then nothing in this
world hardly matters to him. Arjun da is the perfect example.
Last and the legend himself
Baichung Bhutia, The BB15:
What can I say about him? Everyone
in India knows about him.It is not my capacity to say anything about him. But Iwould
like to share two interesting things which I observed about him. One is his
energy. A person gets almost everything in his life in his field, and also becomes
a legend. I feel great to see him so energetic and enthusiastic on or off the
field . Many so called legend have been born in Indian football, but I believe
that, BB15 is a true legend and a true football visionary. Till now no Indian
players have contributed to the development of Indian football . Starting FPAI,
BBFS, USFC, and also another international standard academy in the pipeline
shows his contribution for the Indian football. The second thing is his
leadership quality. Everyone is aware about his leadership quality on the
field. But I have seen his off the field leadership quality also. It's very
difficult to be a coach cum player of any team. But he is the player cum
manager cum owner of USFC. I witnessed, how a person can multitask dedicatedly and
also be successful. This is a big thing to learn from him. I never found him
tired about football. A ver rare and complete mix of passion, dedication, mental
stability, physical ability and intelligence has produced a Baichung Bhutia as
a person. In our every meeting I learned
something new from him. I found the actual mix of my 4Is (Intention, Innovation,
Involvement and Integration) in him with the perfect proportions. I would not
say pleasure, rather say privileged and lucky to work with him.
USFC is now in I-league. I
feel sharing these experiences will help all to feel the real passion that USFC
is all about. I lived every moment of my life there, and learnt a lot from each
and every one. Apart from these 5 persons, Pema L Shangderpa, Shail Kapri, Ritesh
R Krishnan, Arunava Bhattacharjee all was there who loves this club dearly.
People often think
that a football team is only made by players and coaches. But the truth is
that, a football club is made with passion, dedication and proper planning. The
management is not only working for the sake of their investments but also for
their passion for this sport. USFC is not only the name of a football club, it’s
an echo of millions heartbeats, which initiated from the above mentioned names.
Whenever the name USFC will come up, these 5 people will surely be mentioned
for their dedication and success in making their dream come true. Now it's time
to hear the roar of snow lions in I-league main division, from this year
onwards.
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