Indian Soccer Team Pune FC to be Sponsored by IT Company

After becoming the first Indian I-League team to face English Premier League opposition, Blackburn Rovers, Pune Football Club has announced a partnership with information technology company Infosys fo promote the game in Maharashtra state’s second biggest city.

Chirag Tanna, head of operations of Pune FC, said: “It is an absolute honour to tie up with a company like Infosys. The football scenario in India has changed considerably in the past couple of years. Associations between large corporates and I-League clubs will help football become a more broad based and popular sport. We look forward to this being a long and fruitful partnership between both our companies.”

Speaking about Infosys’ foray into football, Mritunjay Singh, vice-president, Infosys, praised Pune FC for its professional approach towards playing and organising football.

“We are happy to be associated with a club – Pune FC – that has taken serious steps in being leaders to promoting the sport in the way it should be done involving the community and likewise spread the word. We as a community promote this ideology in our institution and similarly extend our hand to all those who do the same,” Singh said, adding that the Infosys would raise the sponsorship amount by 20 per cent in the second year.

Singh continued, “We did an Inter-IT tournament together early this year and are committed to host its second edition – Dribble v2.0 as well and that’s because we liked the way it was organized.”

The deal will entail that Pune FC will sport Infosys logo on the sleeve and on all common branding spots of the club.

In turn, its coaching staff will train Infosys personnel, the IT giant’s football team and whoever are serious about learning football. Also, monthly sessions will be conducted for the children of Infosys employees.

“Apart from that we will help Infosys out in various other football activities,” added Tanna.

So far, Infosys’s association with sport was with cricket, but the partnership with Pune FC began when Infosys sponsored the first Inter-IT football tournament Dribble v1.0 that was held from June to early August.

Founded in 2007, the club rose on Pune city’s football scene dramatically by qualifying for the top division I-League within two years of existence. Pune FC finished third in its inaugural year in 2009 and in 2010 it ended up 5th in the 14-team league.