India's Mohammedan Sporting FC may 'Go Public'

After taking a year to consider, India's century-old heavyweight club Mohammedan Sporting has decided to proceed to the preliminary stage of offering the club as a public limited company. A five-member review committee has been formed, which has reportedly decided to appoint an experienced chartered accountant to analyse the entire project before proceeding.

If the company is floated, it will launch a number of profit-seeking football-related businesses such as a football multiplex, football academy for youth developmen and merchandising programs which would see much of the initial investment coming from the underwriting bank.

According to a Newsline report quoted by Sudeep Pakrashi of Express India, Md Sporting's secretary, Sultan Ahmed, is non-committal on the development. “Nothing has taken shape. It is in the preliminary stage. We have desperately tried to find a sponsor in addition to vice-president Bipin Vohra over the last couple of years. As for the join-venture program, under no circumstances will the name of the club be changed though. Let the review committee analyse the project. We can proceed only after that,” he said.