After venturing into football through the Indian Super League and now the Indian Premier League, industrialist Sanjiv Goenka "is now looking at opening a football academy in Kolkata, and a possible acquisition of an overseas football team," according to Ravi Teja Sharma of the ECONOMIC TIMES. RPSanjiv Goenka Group Chair Goenka said that "he has been enjoying his tryst with sports." Going forward, his company "plans to foray into other sports as well or expand into more activities in the sports they are in already." He said, "Hypothetically it could be buying a football club overseas. We could look at it." On a more immediate basis, the company "is planning to get into football at the grassroot level with a football academy in Kolkata on a land that it already owns" (ET, 2/16). The INT'L BUSINESS TIMES' Rajarshi Majumdar wrote his investment in Indian football "yielded positive results" when his co-owned team Atletico de Kolkata was crowned champions of the first edition of the ISL in '14. Meanwhile, Goenka's IPL side Rising Pune Supergiants is "yet to name a sponsor for the upcoming season of the IPL." The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group's in-house brands like Spencers and CESC "will also bid, along with other sponsors." Goenka said, "We are close to signing one brand. In-house brands will bid as any other brand. Whether they will get (the sponsoring rights), time will tell" (IB TIMES, 2/16).
