Neel Shah is an experienced sports management professional and educator. He has worked for over two decades on the development and commercialisation of football in North America, Asia, and Europe. In his current position with India On Track, Shah is responsible for running the Global Institute of Sports Business as well as securing new business for the group.
Prior to joining India On Track, Shah was the Chief Executive Officer of DSK Shivajians FC and the Liverpool FC International Academy - DSK. Within this role, Neel oversaw all business operations for the Pune-based professional football club. Before stepping into professional club management, Shah served as the Business Director for Libero Sports. At Libero, he was responsible for guiding and advising Indian football stakeholders with their investments and facilitating strategic partnerships to further the industry. In addition, he created commercially viable avenues for international football entities to enter the Indian market and has successfully supported football giants Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Liverpool FC, and FC Bayern Munich build their brands and business in India.
Prior to moving to India, Neel spent seven years with New York based Major League Soccer serving as the league’s Director of Fan Development. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing the league’s national grassroots programming, working with MLS clubs to build their local market relevance, and liaising with club supporter groups.
He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Economics w/emphasis in Sports Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He then received his MBA in Sports Management from Seton Hall University, located in South Orange, New Jersey.
Shah is also a certified Life Coach and a regular TEDx speaker.
The session started with Mr. Visahl Jain asking questions about the difference each panel member sees, as far as Indian sports are concerned as cricket is dominating in most of the Sporting space available. As was explained by Neel Shah who runs a management institute in Mumbai that they are making efforts to spread football in India and his efforts are getting good results also. Mr. Yash Lahoti explained that the women are also showing interest in sports. Mr. Abhijit Barse informed the audience that his efforts are supported by FIFA the apex body in football through finances and other infrastructure support. All three guests explained their journey in the sports field. Mr Neel Shah being experienced in managing football with top European football clubs is attached to football activities in India too. Neel Shah is in the field of women's T20 tournaments and told how he is taking efforts to start women's IPL in the coming time.
The conversation was very interesting where in Parmesh Shahani explains the difference between ‘Gender’ and ‘Sex’, elaborating he explains that gender is the organ that we have and sex is our behavior with it. Parmesh also talks about his journey and coming out of the closet and telling his family the truth about his sexuality expressing that it was not easy but his family gracefully accepted him. In the conversation, Manvendra Singh Gohil who is an Indian Prince also talks about his journey and how he gets calls and messages every day about the people who are facing the same situations as he was facing he also says that there would be a movie made on Parmesh life.