KOCHI: VC Praveen who is the president of newly-crowned I-League champions Gokulam Kerala FC has very a simple formula when it comes to running a football club in India.
"Our expenses remain the same whether we simply participate in a tournament or whether we win it. So the logic has always been to try and win in whatever competition we participate in," Praveen told this daily from Kolkata.
The club is the brainchild of Praveen as the Kerala-based business venture Sree Gokulam Group set-up this Kozhikode-based outfit back in 2017.
The Group previously had a failed venture in football with Viva Kerala FC which got dissolved back in 2012. Running a football club in India involves risks but Gokulam were prepared to take it.
"If you see, Parth Jindal (owner of Bengaluru FC) was not complaining when BFC kept on winning one title after another. Now, he is suggesting that losses are running into as much as Rs 25 crore. You can't run a football club in India without incurring losses. Even across the world, I don't know how many clubs are making profits. So trophies make up for it," he said.
And the journey has been slow and steady for the 'Malabarians' in that regard. Their first major silverware came in the form of the Kerala Premier League in 2017-18 followed by the Durand Cup in 2019. Their women's team lifted the Indian Women's League title in 2020.
At the start of the 2020-21 I-League season, the club decided to rebuild the squad to have a title at the big prize. They took the big call of parting ways with veteran coach Fernando Varela who had guided them to the KPL and Durand Cup titles (which included wins over East Bengal and Mohun Bagan).
The club also decided to call-up a number of players from their academy and took the gamble of appointing a young Italian coach with no previous experience in India.
Still only 36, Vincenzo Alberto Annese was always going to be a risk especially when he was replacing someone like Varela who was snapped up by Churchill Brothers.
"We chose to let the coach decide the players (foreigners) rather than recruiting them through video analysis or scouting. Vincenzo was allowed to assemble his own team," said Praveen.
In came players like Dennis Antwi, Sharif Mukhammad and Philip Adjah all of whom played a major role in the team's title triumph.
However, it wasn't the best of starts to the season though as they slumped to defeats against Chennai City and Aizawl FC inside the first three games while trying to play a free-flowing style of football.
A cagey draw against Real Kashmir and another defeat Mohammedan Sporting put serious doubts to their qualification hopes for play-offs as they picked up just seven points from six matches.
Pressure started building on the players and the coach but a win against TRAU FC galvanized the team and the turning point was a 3-2 win against Varela's Churchill. There was no turning back as the team tightened up defensively and kept outscoring opponents all the way to the title.
"This is a very special team and we try to play a very attractive brand of football. I think we deserved to win the title because we played like champions when it mattered," said Annese. The club wants to keep going.
"We don't want to just participate in Asia but give a good account of ourselves. We want to represent Kerala and India in the best possible way," concluded Praveen.