Kochi: The list of celebrities from Mollywood who are investing in sports business is getting longer, with leading producer and distributor Listin Stephen being the latest addition. Listin has ventured into the field of sports by acquiring a majority stake in Thrissur Roar FC, a football team in Super League Kerala (SLK). The co-owners of the team are Kaz Patafta, CEO of the Australian football team Brisbane Roar; Benoit Joseph of Magnus Sports and Mohammed Rafeek of Nusym Technologies.
Actor-director-producer Prithviraj Sukumaran was the first celebrity from Mollywood to get involved in SLK. Along with his wife Supriya Menon, Prithviraj is a co-owner of the team Forca Kochi FC. Top film personalities in Kerala have invested in the newly-created Kerala Cricket League (KCL) also, with directors Priyadarshan and Sohan Roy purchasing two teams in the cricket league.
Prithviraj co-owned Kochi Pipers FC rechristened as Forca Kochi FC
Corporate involvement
Apart from celebrities from the movie world, corporates based in Kerala have also shown a keen interest in sports business. While Muthoot Pappachan Group is the owner of Kochi Blue Spikers, a pro-volleyball team, executive chairman of IBS V K Mathews owns the SLK team Calicut FC.
Sports enthusiasts believe that the involvement of film stars and corporates in franchise leagues would enable faster development of sports in Kerala as well as attract more viewers to competitions. Bollywood stars and leading corporate houses in India have been spending crores for sports-related activities for some years now and their counterparts in Kerala too are now following suit. The business group which has made the biggest investments in sports-related activities in the country is Reliance, which is among the top corporate entities in the world.
