VfB Stuttgart continues to press ahead with its commitments in India as part of the club’s internationalisation strategy. Two VfB delegations travelled to the country in the first few weeks of the new year – one to Delhi, the other to Tamil Nadu. The youth partnership with Sudeva Delhi FC, which was announced at the end of last year, began in earnest, while VfB representatives also paid a visit to the ‘Vom Feld in den Fanshop’ (‘From the pitch to the fan shop’) initiative, which the club has supported for several years.
The youth partnership with Sudeva Delhi officially kicked off in India’s sprawling capital city. Coaches from VfB’s academy ran training sessions with the Delhi club’s youth teams from U15 to U19 level, imparting their expert knowledge and helping to foster coaches and young players. On 3 February, VfB Stuttgart and Sudeva Delhi were joined at Sudeva’s training complex by some very special guests from back home in Swabia: a delegation led by Dr Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Baden-Württemberg’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism, was there to witness the kick-off event and the training sessions, before being brought up to speed about the partnership and VfB’s other activities in India by Sudeva’s founder Anuj Gupta and Rouven Kasper, VfB Stuttgart’s Chief Marketing and Sales Officer.
Minister for Economic Affairs Dr Hoffmeister-Kraut welcomed the collaboration, describing it as the “perfect match”. She continued: “VfB Stuttgart is a strong brand that reaches far beyond our borders. Indeed, I’d say that VfB Stuttgart is one of our country’s most important brand ambassadors. The partnership will elevate relations between Baden-Württemberg and India to a new level and provide an excellent platform, not only for developing sporting talent but businesses too.”
Hoffmeister-Kraut also praised VfB’s involvement in the ‘Vom Feld in den Fanshop’ initiative. “What works well here on a small scale can also do so on a larger scale, for example when it comes to promoting technological innovations and thereby developing joint solutions for future global challenges,” she said.
Kasper added: “VfB Stuttgart is actively engaged at many levels in India and in the cooperation between India and Germany. We’re deliberately taking on a role as a sporting and social driving force as well an ambassador for Europe’s strongest innovative and economic region, Baden-Württemberg. Football and sport in general are natural ways of building bridges between cultures and nations. Our commitment is helping to further strengthen relations between Germany and India. This well-matched collaboration offers enormous potential for our entire economic region, our partners and sponsors, professional football in Germany and ourselves as a club.”
Kasper also addressed invited guests from the world of business, culture, science and politics at the official reception at the German embassy. He underlined the importance of VfB’s international activities and spoke about the club’s internationalisation strategy, as well as German football in Asia and India in particular. He reserved special mention for the ‘Vom Feld in den Fanshop’ initiative, which has proved a great success since being co-founded by VfB in 2022 and was also visited recently by club representatives.
In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, ‘Vom Feld in den Fanshop’ is committed to holistic and sustainable cotton cultivation. The initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the textile company BRANDS Fashion GmbH and several German professional football clubs is considered a flagship project in its field. During the visit, which lasted around a week, the delegation looked in on cultivation areas and production facilities and discussed further ways of developing the project with the management on site. As well as environmental and economic aspects of cotton cultivation and textile processing, the initiative also focuses on social issues. Particular attention is being paid to the advancement of women, preventing child labour and offering education on humane working conditions and occupational safety. In addition, over 1,000 children and young people are being supported through sports training programmes.
