Charging ahead: (From top) Before kick-off; captain Bhaichung Bhutia flaunts the club jersey; at the club gym

Branded international playing, training, travel and leisure gear for the entire team. Residential training camps in five-star comfort. Organised fan merchandising and promo films on satellite TV. Lessons in public and media relations for the players. Medical insurance cover, professional physical trainer from overseas, air-conditioned locker rooms…

No, we are not talking the Theatre of Dreams here. Even as the Zidanes, Beckhams and Henrys waltz into our drawing rooms, a silent brand-building revolution has been unfolding in our own backyard.

In an era when cricket and its attendant icons threaten to gobble up all ‘minor sports’, the reinvention and repositioning of East Bengal (football club) as a marketable product has been a structured initiative off the beaten track.

The genesis of the wrap-sell push can be traced back to the emergence of Vijay Mallya as the messiah of Calcutta football in the 1998-99 season. However, East Bengal had read the mandate on the wall that with the benevolence of a few individuals, a club can’t go into any futuristic planning. And unlike Mohun Bagan, which was at that point looking only at funding, it aimed for total corporate support.

It formed a board of directors representing the United East Bengal Football Team Pvt Ltd, an independent company.

“We realised that we had pumped in a lot of funds, but weren’t able to encash the brand. It was clear unless ‘Brand East Bengal’ comes into play, the corporate association didn’t have the future of a positive rub-off,” says Amit Sen, director, United East Bengal Football Team Pvt Ltd from UB’s side.

The focused effort since then has been towards taking the East Bengal brand beyond the Calcutta Maidan. When Team East Bengal moved into Hyatt Regency for the pre-Asean Cup training camp, eyebrows were raised all around. It was an unprecedented gesture by the club management, thinking out-of-the-box and out of the stepmotherly straitjacket that has stifled soccer in this cricket-crazy country.

“We were simply heeding our coach Subhas Bhowmick’s advice. He wanted the team to stick together within certain comfort parameters to prepare well ahead of a demanding engagement overseas,” says Kalyan Majumdar, secretary of the club and managing director, United East Bengal. And the tremendous triumph in Jakarta has since vindicated Bhowmick.

Similarly, the coach’s plea for a well-equipped gym was answered, while the management is also putting in place a portable jacuzzi on the premises and converting the players’ dressing room into a fully air-conditioned bubble. “These are all steps to make the players feel at ease and raise their self-esteem,” adds Majumdar.

The most significant cog in the support-system wheel, perhaps, was the induction of Kevin Jackson, the South African physical trainer. “The difference in the fitness level is there for all to see. The recovery rate is extremely good, which is critical since these boys play more than 50 matches a season in unkind weather,” observes club president Pronab Das Gupta.

Notwithstanding all the trophies and accolades pouring in at the moment, the club management realises consistency is the key and that the ‘king of good times’ (the catchline of East Bengal’s sponsors Kingfisher) can be reduced to a pauper in a season shorn of silverware.

So, United East Bengal Football Team Pvt Ltd is on a consolidation drive. Negotiations with footballers for long-term contracts a la top European leagues have been kick-started, and the club proposes to groom the new season’s contingent in communication techniques, too, to project an “appropriate image” of the outfit.

A medical insurance cover for each player and his immediate kin is also being worked out. Leveraging the strategic alliance with English Premier League club Leicester City, East Bengal plans to take its squad to city schools along with a coach from the Leicester youth academy for weekend clinics. “We want to take the clinic to city institutions with deep-rooted sports culture like Don Bosco and St. Xavier’s,” declares Sen.

Taking the club brand beyond the Maidan and even onto the social circuit is necessary to sustain the push. But the stiffest hurdle remains visibility. Apart from Bhaichung Bhutia, the red-and-gold brigade doesn’t boast a single widely identifiable mascot yet. And for this hole in projection, blame the apex body that runs the game ever so shabbily in this country.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) bosses’ failure to fathom the power of television has cost us dear. Indian football missed the bus when AIFF dismissed IMG and STAR Sports (then part of STAR), in the wake of the successful beaming of the inaugural National League. From the hi-tech, high-value professional coverage from the Murdoch stable, the League fell into the inept clutches of Doordarshan, which has since done little to nurture the product.

It’s well nigh impossible to plug the chasm going it alone. Still, the new East Bengal has been chipping away. After the Asean Cup of joy, a promo film was run on 36 channels across the nation. “We have spent over Rs 7.75 lakh on TV coverage of our three home matches (on DD Sports) in the AFC Cup alone,” says Sen. Efforts are on to rope in a “core sports channel” for the club’s quarterfinal home tie in the tourney in September.

It also plans to go into fan merchandising with apparel sponsors Reebok. Replica variants of team jerseys, T-shirts, caps, etc will be made available to supporters from the club tent and other retail outlets.

A website will be launched next month. Plans are afoot to get in school kids to the Salt Lake stadium on match days to “expose” them to Brand East Bengal. Also on the agenda, albeit just a speck on the horizon now, is a blueprint for a stadium and a museum of memorabilia.