AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon will travel to India this weekend as the league deepens its push to build a foothold in one of the world’s largest sporting markets, with meetings planned across sport, media and business in a trip designed to test what “footy in India” could look like at scale.
The week-long visit will include a stop in Mumbai, with the AFL’s head of strategy, Walter Lee, also joining the delegation. AFL figures are expected to meet a range of Indian sports administrators and business leaders as the league seeks partnerships, pathways and commercial insight in a country where global sports consumption has accelerated alongside rapid growth in digital audiences.
While the AFL has long maintained small international programs, India has moved into sharper focus due to its large population size, young demographic profile, and the reach of mobile-first sports content. The AFL’s premise is straightforward: even modest growth in participation, viewership and community engagement can translate into meaningful scale in a market of more than a billion people—particularly when paired with the large Indian diaspora in Australia.
Participation in Australian rules in India has risen sharply, from approximately 150 players nationwide to more than 20,000 across 11 states. This figure, which the league is using internally as evidence that the sport can travel when local pathways are resourced and visible, is a notable increase.
The India trip is the latest marker in a broader AFL strategy that has combined offshore participation programs, targeted broadcast experimentation and diaspora engagement. In 2025, the AFL backed alternate-language broadcasts—most notably Hindi coverage—aimed at lowering barriers for new audiences and signalling that the league is prepared to invest in cultural accessibility, not just export a product. The league has flagged plans to repeat Hindi commentary offerings in 2026.
The AFL has also launched and promoted AFL Desi, a content and community handle created to connect South Asian audiences—both in Australia and abroad—with the sport through culturally tailored storytelling, simplified explainers and community-led promotion.
The league’s India work sits alongside its wider multicultural participation agenda at home. In 2025, the AFL launched a Cultural Diversity Action Plan, aiming to grow participation and strengthen pathways for communities that have historically been underrepresented in the code—an effort the league has positioned as both a participation priority and a long-term sustainability strategy.
On the elite side, the AFL has also pointed to emerging representation as a signal that pathways are developing. Collingwood’s selection of Jai Saxena through the club’s Next Generation Academy system was promoted as a milestone, with the club describing him as only the second dual-Indian heritage player drafted to the AFL.
The AFL’s international approach has typically relied on incremental steps—participation programs, academy tours and broadcast tests—rather than headline-grabbing exhibition matches. The league revived its US Draft Combine and has continued offshore academy travel, presenting these as part of a broader pipeline strategy rather than isolated events.
What remains unclear is how quickly the AFL expects India to shift from an “emerging participation” market into a meaningful commercial one. The league has not publicly committed to an India-based competition, franchise model, or touring match, and observers note that India’s sports market is intensely competitive, dominated by cricket and increasingly shaped by global football, basketball and combat sports content.
However, the AFL’s view—reflected in its recent multilingual broadcast experiments and diaspora-facing content strategy—is that a long runway matters more than immediate returns. The India visit is expected to inform next steps, including which partnerships are viable, how the game can be presented to new audiences, and where investment would yield genuine participation rather than one-off promotional spikes.
For the AFL, the near-term objective appears to be establishing sustained presence: building relationships with Indian sports decision-makers, improving the quality and consistency of local participation pathways, and expanding culturally relevant coverage that can be consumed in both India and Australia. The longer-term ambition—making Australian rules recognisable beyond its traditional heartlands—will depend on whether those foundations can translate into repeatable growth.
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