Mr. Shaji Prabhakaran Launches Association For Sports Industry Professionals (ASIP)

The Founder of The Sportz Planet, Mr. Rishi Sutrave had a chance to interview Mr. Shaji Prabhakaran on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, as Mr. Prabhakaran recently launched the Association For Sports Industry Professionals (ASIP). A Bit About Mr. Shaji Prabhakaran Mr. Shaji Prabhakaran is an Indian Football Administrator who has held roles in sports governance. He currently is a part of the Asian Football Confederation and South Asian Football Federation as the elected Executive Committee (board member) member. Prabhakaran previously served as the General Secretary of the All India Football Federation (AIFF). He also served as the President of Football Delhi (Delhi Soccer Association). Prabhakaran worked as the FIFA Development Officer for South Central Asia. A native of Kerala and brought up in Bengal, Prabhakaran developed a passion for football at the age of 8. However, due to the lack of professional coaching and limited popularity of the sport in his school, he also engaged in volleyball and cricket during his early years. 1. What was your vision behind establishing the Association For Sports Industry Professionals? My vision behind establishing ASIP is to create a vibrant and unified platform that would foster professional development opportunities for the sports industry professionals, attain unprecedented growth in the sports sector, advocate collaborative approach, intensify networking opportunities and build credibility for policy advocacy. As I have found there is no organisation that is providing a platform for 365 days to the sports industry to come together, and without coming together the sports industry won’t grow to its potential in India. All these years I was waiting to be part of such a platform but eventually I thought to go ahead when I found that there are many from the industry looking for a platform to network and grow in the sports industry in India. 2. How will ASIP bridge the gap between various sectors within the sports industry? Our plan is to identify key growth sectors in the sports industry and create sectoral specific task forces involving domain experts from those sectors, and to have a focus approach to identify the gaps and work towards finding solutions to attain growth. Key growth sectors include sports infrastructure, spectator sports (leagues & mega events), sports technology, esports, sports apparel & equipment, sports marketing & sponsorship, sports education, sports tourism, sports media and broadcasting, sports science and high performance, school & college sports, sports turfs & manufacturing, etc. We will create dialogue forums between all the sectoral task forces to have a cohesive approach and that way we will be able to come up with purpose driven policy advocacy actions. Synergic approach would lead to focus on priority areas and thus, we will be able to advocate policies to bridge the gap. 3. How impactful do you consider networking in the current era? Networking is an essential element to cultivate professional growth in any industry and in the current era, though digital platforms provide added advantages for quick virtual networking opportunities, traditional networking opportunities remain significant in the current era. Therefore, ASIP is going to provide multifold networking opportunities through formal and informal options. I personally experienced the power of networking and having the right network in the right geography or in the right place helps in multiple ways. From learning to opening the toughest doors of opportunities and meeting those high achievers, your role models from the industry, and finding a lifelong mentor to co-founders to seed funders to investors, etc. What I believe is that, ASIP success and future growth are depended on this one key aspect, i.e. Networking. How strong ASIP is going to be in Networking aspects and that would define its success and future growth. 4. What challenges do you foresee in the growth of sports industry professionals in emerging markets and how can ASIP address them? The major challenge sports industry professionals would face are the following: 1. Limited job openings from middle to senior level positions in many sectors. There are serious funding gaps and capital is not easily available for many sports sectors. Thus, for the next 3-4 years there will be a big challenge unless we experience significant capital inflow in key growth sectors. 2. Not finding the right kind of job openings. Majority of young professionals get demotivated when they don’t find the right kind of job opening in their area of interest and this challenge will remain for the next few years. ASIP plans to create three levels of Career Counselors and also there is a thought to launch a mentorship programme to prepare and help young professionals and all our members in career advancement related issues and address the skill gap pertaining to specific sectors. Stay tuned for further updates. The Sportz Planet Desk,Atharva Shetye.