Adams says the professional football he encountered when he relocated to India from Britain in the early 1990s was "amateurish" and held back by the government-controlled Sports Authority of India and the AIFF, which administers association football in India and controls the top-tier I-League.
Those high margins are protected, of course, by a ring of defensive regulations, Bar Association rules and deeply ingrained habits that make it hard for an investor-controlled business to crack the legal profession.