adidas kicks off the football fervor in India!
adidas kicks off the football fervor in India!
Six lucky students win an opportunity to be the official ‘adidas FIFA Fair Play Flag Bearer’ at 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa
| Name | Age | City |
| Abhiveer Arjun | 15 | New Delhi |
| Vedaant Nag | 14 | New Delhi |
| Shubhro Bhattacharya | 14 | New Delhi |
| Hitansh Sadana | 16 | New Delhi |
| Gaurav Pai | 15 | Mumbai |
| Sarfaraz Singh Lega | 14 | Chandigarh |
May 16, 2010, New Delhi: As a constant endeavor to promote sports at the grassroots level, adidas, the World’s No 1 football brand, hosted a three city selection event in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh to select six students, football enthusiasts who will be the official ‘adidas FIFA Fair Play Flag Bearer’ at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
As part of the initiative, students with a passion for football, between the age group of 12 – 16 years were invited to test their speed and sportsmanship from various schools and football academies across the three cities. The fervor of the event across the cities was electric with football enthusiasts testing their lightening speed football skills. The star of the event was former India International Carlton Chapman, who is also coaching a local football club – Royal Rangers
At the event, children present undertook the ‘adidas Light Speed Test’ which was a test divided into four stages in order to assess the speed and sportsmanship of the participants. The ‘adidas LIGHT Speed Test’ consisted of tasks like sprinting over the ladder, dribbling around the cones, dribble around the obstacle and finally shooting the ball in the goal. The participants clocking the fastest time across the three cities were shortlisted and chosen as the final winners.
The six lucky winners will fly to South Africa and will carry the FIFA Fair Play flag on to the centre of the football field during the match between Portugal and North Korea at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South that will be played on the 21st of June.
Commenting on this unique initiative Andreas Gellner, Managing Director, adidas India said, “Football’s popularity in India has been on an upswing for the last 5-6 years and the passion for the game is intense! Fuelled by the teams and football stars of the Barclays Premier League, football has caught India’s sporting imagination and as the No 1 football brand in the World, adidas is in a unique position to provide access to once-in-a-lifetime experiences like being a FIFA Flag bearer at the FIFA World Cup. We believe such opportunities – to see world class events and interact with international athletes – will encourage greater participation and involvement in football & sports in general”.
Supported by Hindustan Times as the associate sponsor; the contest was open for students and football enthusiasts across the country. Registration was done via www.hindustantimes.com/adidas and on-ground registrations.
dear sir,
my son bahul bunger,15 yrs,from ST.John’s School ,had appeared in the competition organised by adidas for the selection of flagbearers and had achieved a time record of 10 seconds….and sarfaraz …the child who’s been selected from chd. had a recod of 9.85 seconds…..if the criteria of selection was one child per city then just to pacify my doubts i would like to know why are four kids being taken from delhi itself…..and if there are chances of more than one child from one city then pray tell me why my child was not given a chance despite of your team congratulating my child time n again…..and even taking all the info and assuring him that he has been selected……i personally feel my child was let down big time
19th May, 2010.
To,
Andreas Gellnar,
MD Adidas India.
——————————–
Re: My Game is Fair Play
Sir,
This is not a complaint but this is to inform you and other Higher Authorities of,
1. ADIDAS,
2. HINDUSTAN TIMES,
3. FEVER 104 FM,
Regarding your contest ,” Win a trip to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa as one of the six selected Adidas FIFA Fair Play Flag Bearers at ” http://www.hindustantimes.com/specials/football/fifacontest/index.aspx, which my Nephew Manish Singh Dhonna alias Mandeep Singh Dhonna participated online.
As per your Web Site page 2 which is attached to this Email reads in line no.23
***From Delhi 3 winners and from Mumbai, Kolkata, & Chandigarh 1 winner each will be selected.
On 13th May 2010, I received a phone call from phone no.: 03339104117, FEVER 104 FM, that Manish Singh Dhonna alias Mandeep Singh Dhonna, my nephew had won an all paid trip to New Delhi for Audition and if he wins the ‘Speed test’ he will be going to 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa . We received the Air Tickets from you and we reached New Delhi on 16th May 2010.
Sort listed from Kolkata Mandeep Singh Dhonna along with Amrit KN Pradhan completed the ADIDAS Speed test successfully in New Delhi. I have both videos with me. If you want to review it, I can provide it to you.
Mandeep Singh Dhonna completed the Speed test in 23.25secs.
Amrit Pradhan completed the Speed Test in 36.40secs.
Today I saw your result in one of the Web Sites. The result is :
http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/adidas-kicks-off-the-football-fervor-in-India/4841462472
As a constant endeavor to promote sports at the grassroots level, Adidas, the World’s No 1 football brand, hosted a three city selection event in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh to select six students, football enthusiasts who will be the official ‘adidas FIFA Fair Play Flag Bearer’at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Name
Age
City
Abhiveer Arjun
15
New Delhi
Vedaant Nag
14
New Delhi
Shubhro Bhattacharya
14
New Delhi
Hitansh Sadana
16
New Delhi
Gaurav Pai
15
Mumbai
Sarfaraz Singh Lega
14
Chandigarh
Hindustan Times 18th may 2010 reported as :
I am surprised to find no winner from Kolkata.
As per the information received from FEVER 104 FM and your Web site : http://www.hindustantimes.com , one of the winner should have been from Kolkata.
My Dear Managers, will you please inform me,
1. How the whole selection process changed overnight?
2. Why you brought 2 sortlisted winners from Kolkata all the way to New Delhi and then forgot them and forgot what you have written on your Web Site?
3. You have selected one winner from Mumbai ,one from Chandigarh and four instead of three from Delhi. Why did you kept your promise with them and not Kolkata?
4. Are you not getting any business from Kolkata?
5. Why you asked people of Kolkata to participate through Fever 104 FM, ESPN and your website?
6. Are the winners already selected before the show and it was just an Eye wash?
7. Do you know Kolkata is the most Football Crazy city in India? Kolkata is called “The Football Capital of India.”
8. If Mandeep Singh Dhonna and Amrit KN Pradhan did not completed Speed test well, where is your one winner from Kolkata as per your terms and condition?
You have wasted our time, because a person from the event organiser whose name is Bhasker (Ph: 09999808733) told us to stand in queue with Delhi participants to submit a fresh form for the Audition i.e Speed Test. I showed him the above printout from your web site about Kolkata participant. He replied that they were told to select 4 winners from Delhi and have no information about Kolkata sortlisted participants.
Please reply, waiting for your call. I really want to know how world’s No 1 football brand Adidas and India’s No. 1 News Paper Publishers Hindustan Times did such mistake. Or just say sorry to the Football Crazy people of Kolkata, who had participated in this show.
Thanks for the great show.
Best of luck to the winner kids.
MY GAME IS FAIR PLAY.
Surinder Singh,
Any person who needs all the details from me please contact at surinderin@gmail.com
21st May 2010.
To,
Mr. Andreas Gellnar,
MD Adidas India.
———————————-
Sub: IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING.
Dear Andreas,
Thanks for sending Mr. Deepak Modi, Adidas India Marketing Pvt. Ltd., Area Sales Manager – East along with Mr. Neeraj Saraswat, Station Head- Fever 104 FM Kolkata.
They met my nephew Mandeep Singh Dhonna and me at my office at around 4.30PM today. The meeting continued for about 3 hrs. with 2 rounds of tea.
Mr. Neeraj is a smart guy and insisted me to withdraw all the objections I had put with Adidas. Here are details of some of the conversations we had:
· He said,’ Fever 104 FM is not accountable to you or the people of Kolkata. Are you concerned about yourself or about Kolkata’ ?
I think on several occasions he forgot his accountability to the people of Kolkata who had participated in this contest and want to know the name of the winner from Kolkata. We have trust and faith on the brand like “Adidas” and that’s more important. I asked them why did you mentioned that kids will be selected from different Cities like 1 each from Chandigarh, Bombay, and Kolkata and 3 from Delhi and why not 6 kids will be selected from India ?
· What did that kid do that he should go to South Africa? Do you think the competition should be between 2 kids only?
We were informed, as mentioned in my last email that 2 kids are randomly sortlisted from Kolkata out of several hundred entries and one of them will be selected on the basis of the Speed Test. The mode of participation by the kids in Delhi was different from Kolkata. In Delhi most of the kids came to the venue of the Adidas Speed Test on 16th May 2010 and registered themselves. Thanks to Hindustan Times & Fever 104 FM for advertising that. About 2000 -3000 kids participated. My believe is that if same open to all process of selection applied in Kolkata as in Delhi more than 5000 kids of that age group would have participated. According to me the whole process of eliminating Kolkata is manipulated scientifically by the event organizers and not by the client. I don’t think Adidas is here to select Maradonas and Ronaldos, they need some Football Crazy Kids to hold “My game is fair play flag.” We had to stand in line with those 2000 plus kids of Delhi to register ourselves.
· We did not get sufficient no. of entries from Kolkata. We took decision on 11th May 2010 that Kolkata shortlisted Kid is flying to Delhi. Whether we updated the website or not doesn’t matters. We are not bias and we did no mistake?
Mandeep uploaded his details on 12th May 2010 and got the printout of your website. But the Kolkata Speed Test venue shifting to Delhi was never mentioned or updated on your website till the end of the contest dated 14th may 2010. I have got all the printouts with me.
On one occasion Mr. Modi told that according to him cancelations of Kolkata event was well updated on the website. On my objection Mr. Neeraj replied that it matters least whether they updated it or not. He showed me page 2 of the terms which reads as, ‘The selection process and decision on selected candidate is at the sole discretion of adidas.’ Adidas should suggest Fever 104 FM and Hindustan times to sack immediately, the person responsible to update the website from time to time. Such a big event like FIFA
· Eastern India is the weakest market for us in terms of business but that matters least.
Hindustan Times in Kolkata has least local reach and unfortunately Adidas had selected them as the Partners to market the event in Eastern India. Let me tell you that next morning after any of the FIFA matches most of the Kolkata people knows the score of the last match, the name of the player who scored that and in which minute and second (time) it happened. I visit Delhi and Mumbai a lot and found people not interested in Football at all. There you will get answers like —- FIFA what ? Adidas should first promote Sports in its true spirit as promised by them. Business is a secondary matter and it will automatically increase.
· We understand your pain. What do you want us to do?
I know as a client ‘Adidas’ did their part well and in good spirit of the game and will be charged full fees even if the event organizer did a blunder mistake by not informing the changes in contest in advance to us. 2 shortlisted kids from Kolkata had to compete 2000 plus kids of Delhi and you select 4 winners from Delhi. You call it a competition but I think it’s unfair. If you had given chance to at least 200 Football Crazy kids of Kolkata to compete with 2000 kids from Delhi, you would have got at least 2 out of those 4 from Kolkata. Both of us know it.
If you think my complaint in this regard is right. I demand from you to take Mandeep Singh Dhonna and one of his guardians to South Africa to watch one of the Fifa matches as promised by you to the citizens of Kolkata and deduct the cost of that from the bills of the Event Organizers, for their fault. Because according to me why the good reputation of ‘ADIDAS’ suffer and why a kid Like Mandeep should suffer due to the technical mistake done by the Event Organisers. The one who is at fault should bear.
· It is not possible now to take Mandeep to watch FIFA. But this is an experience for us and your feedback will help us to improve our future events
Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes. You will gain experience out of this but why a kid from Kolkata loose an opportunity for mistakes done by you ? You may loose Rs. 2-3 lac out of your profits from this event but our feedback will help you gain Rs.20-30 crores in future.
· Please except a little gift from us.
I refused and said them thanks for coming to my office.
At the end both parties didn’t get what they wanted. Mr. Deepak Modi and Mr. Neeraj Saraswat wanted me to keep my mouth shut and I wanted them to compensate the kid for the blunder they did in the mid of the selection process or say sorry to the people of Kolkata through their Newspaper or Radio Fever 104 FM.
Now you can decide better, whether I am wrong or right.
Impossible is nothing.
Thanks and Regards,
Surinder Singh,
Anybody interested in this information contact me at surinderin@gmail.com
Check the video of whole Adidas manipulation at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBSQl2OZWC0