Volkswagen to sponsor Viva Kerala

In a mouth watering prospect for Kerala football fanatics, German automobile manufacturing giants, Volkswagen has agreed to sponsor the Kerala-based I-League club Viva Kerala from the next season, FootballKerala.com understands. "The deal will be worth 4 million US dollars over a period two years", said a source very close to the Viva Kerala team management.

We have also learned that Viva Kerala's managing director P Bhaskaran played a key role behind the deal. Bhaskaran owns the dealership of Volkswagen India at Kozhikode and Thrissur, two major cities of Kerala. This helped the club officials during the negotiations.

The automobile company that began their operations in India in 2007 has seen a huge rise in their sales in the last couple of years and are hoping to widen their market in the country. The German company feels that association with football can help them in this process, especially in a state like Kerala that has a rich following of the sport. This has led to the cooperation between Volkswagen and Viva Kerala.

The German company has always had a passion for the beautiful game. Back home, the Volkswagen Group owns Vfl Wolfsburg, a German Bundesliga side who were the champions of Germany in the 2008-09 season. Apart from this, they also partner the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Football Association and Football New Zealand. Volkswagen India is also associated with the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament.

Viva Kerala has been searching for a sponsor for a long time and it has been very difficult for the club to survive with the backing of just a few football enthusiasts. The team was saved on the verge of collapse earlier this season when Kunnath Pharmaceuticals agreed to buy shares in the team and sponsor them.

But the Viva Kerala team will have one last hurdle to climb, which will be to avoid relegation, as the deal will only go through if the team manages to stay in the top division this season. Viva Kerala might have garnered 22 points from 23 games this season and are tenth in the table, but they find themselves just 2 points ahead of the bottom ranked HAL Bangalore who are on 20 points. JCT Mills FC is the other team in the relegation zone with the same points while ONGC FC and Air India has 21 points to their name and are placed eleventh and twelfth respectively.

A meeting of the members of the team was held last week announcing the potential sponsorship deal. "The players were told about the money involved and were asked to perform to their most in order to avoid relegation," the source told. "The players are seemingly pleased with the development and are willing to play their hear out to keep the club alive," the anonymous source added.

The team are also planning to shift their base back to Kochi and putting a stable youth development system in order. The team management is planning to lease a stadium in the city of Kochi for the next season. Viva Kerala had shifted their home ground from EMS Stadium, Kozhikode to Jawahar Stadium, Kannur this season to cut down on expenses.

Adwaidh Rajan writes for FootballKerala.com

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 28 April 2011, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.