NEW DELHI: After Mahindra Group, a lot of corporates are having a re-think about their investment in Indian soccer clubs.
As Indian football saw the last of famed Mumbai outfit Mahindra United Thursday

, another corporate United Breweries (UB), sponsors of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, indicated that they may also go the Mahindra way as they are not getting enough returns from their investment.
Both the Kolkata clubs get around Rs 50-70 million anually from the UB Group. Mr Fraser Castellino, chief operating officer of sports marketing business of UB Group, made it clear that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has a lot of work to do in revamping the I-league if they don’t want corporates shutting down clubs in future.
“It is unfortunate that Mahindra is closing down. But at the end of the day, AIFF should understand that we (corporates) are investing in Indian football because we expect more in return,” said Mr Castellino Thursday on the sidelines of Indian Football Forum here organised by SportzPower. “We are not getting the kind of return that we expect. But we remain optimistic about that. A lot has to be done by the AIFF to ensure that corporates stay in Indian football. We hope that we would get it and we are giving it a year’s time to see how things shape up in the I-League,” he added.