Arunava Chaudhuri has been a familiar figure in Indian football circles, running a popular football website and being involved in several initiatives in the past. He’s now the chief operating officer at Mumbai City FC and spoke to indiansuperleague.com on the eve of the match against FC Pune City at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai today. Here are some excerpts:What have been the most significant developments off the field since the club was launched two months ago?If you look at the backroom staff, the technical team, the level of involvement with regard to preparing the team — I have never seen something like this in Indian football in the past. So that’s great to see, and it's part of the whole professionalisation of club football in this country.How much inputs have come from the co-owners especially Ranbir Kapoor?Ranbir is not only a football enthusiast, but he’s very much interested in the sport, he’s a good footballer himself, so a lot of things come from him, not only from him but our other co-owner Bimal Parekh as well. They’re involved in the running of the club and that adds a lot of value to us.Can you reveal more about his specific contributions to the cause?If you take the design and colour of the jersey, that’s one of the areas in which he was very much involved. The look and feel of the stadium was another area where Ranbir gave his inputs. It looks very good — at least, I like it, very, very much!How have your foreign players bonded with their Indian counterparts?That’s one of the strengths of Mumbai City — we’re one unit. Compared to the regular Indian clubs, the number of foreigners are much higher than normal, so overall there has been camaraderie and bonding and gelling going on which will hopefully help the club in the weeks ahead.Manuel Friedrich seems to be the leader of the pack. What does he bring to the team?Manuel is a natural leader. The experience he has in the Bundesliga and German football is something that you cannot get here. Plus, he’s learning Hindi as well and is very much integrated into the system. He’s a jolly fellow; he knows when to have a laugh and when to be serious. These are the kind of players we’ve not had in Indian football, so he can guide and mentor our boys.What about the celebrity support for the team? Are you expecting a lot of star power for your home matches?We’re Mumbai City and we’re in the home of Bollywood. We have Ranbir and Bollywood’s brightest stars with us. That will certainly increase fans' interest in us. That’s an interesting aspect of the franchise, to be able to draw a lot of Bollywood stars coming out and supporting us. You’ve already seen it on social media, and we hope to see them in big numbers at the ground.How big is the interest in the ISL in Europe?The interview requests for our players from Europe has been incredible. Out of my own experience, over the last three weeks, I’ve see more interest from Germany than over the last 16 years of my involvement in Indian football. And it’s not only Germany but also UK, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and elsewhere. There’s massive interest in the ISL and we’re getting a lot of coverage. It’s unheard of and a very good sign. We need to keep working hard so that Indian football stays in the news around the world for the right reasons.
