INDIA SET FOR NEW ISL
Two-month soccer championships set for kickoff in September
dubai – Recently retired cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar in partnership with PVP has bought the Kochi franchise of the newly proposed Indian Super League (ISL) two-month soccer championships slotted for kickoff in September, according to media and television news on Sunday.
Past legends like Hernan Crespo, Robbie Fowler, Thierry Henry and Dwight Yorke may seen in action in the ISL, the reports stated. The names already confirmed to be auctioned later this year are Yorke, Fredrik Ljungberg, Robert Pirès, Louis Saha, and Crespo. Team managers confirmed so far include Peter Schmeichel, Marcel Desailly and Kenny Dalglish. It has also already been confirmed that 59 Indian players had already been signed up for the league as well.
IMG, the promoters, have reportedly laid down that merely spending huge sum of money in bidding is not going to win a club for the bidder, rather the bidding party should have plans to operate international standard grassroots football programme in their club based region.
They have laid out strict guidelines for the bidding parties to follow in order to win a bid for a franchise team, according to a website. Also in line is Sourav Ganguly who will back the Kolkata outfit. Ganguly had reportedly tied up with Atletico Madrid for the Kolkata operations. Ranbir Kapoor and Salman Khan of Bollywood fame are the other probable owners of the much awaited Indian Super ISL event which was announced on Sunday. The main contender for the Delhi franchise is Den Cable, owned by Sameer Manchanda, according to the reports.
Salman had shown his interest in the Pune franchise. The eight cities who are likely to make the cut are Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Goa, and Guwahati. The ISL is managed by IMGReliance, commercial partners of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) in association with Star India, reports added. A top AIFF official, who wished not to be named said Sun TV, which owns Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad, are likely to get the Bangalore franchise.
A consortium, involving family members of mining giants Dempo and Salgaocar, are doing the rounds for the Goa franchise, the news agen- cy IANS mentioned. Bollywood’s John Abraham’s name may pick up the Guwahati franchise. John has reportedly formed a consortium with a top football administrator from the north-east, who also owns an I-League club. Some 30 corporates had picked up tender documents for the new IPL-style football league but only eight made the final cut. Audit firm Ernst and Young evaluated the bids for IMG-Reliance. “Once the franchise line-up is final, the owners will start development activities in their area in the run-up to the inaugural tournament,” an IMG-Reliance official told IANS on the condition of anonymity.
Sources in the AIFF told IANS that some high-profile names like Shah Rukh Khan, who owns IPL fran- chise Kolkata Knight Riders, and Abhishek Bachchan may have lost out in their bids despite showing initial interest. The league is expected to run along the lines of the Indian Premier League better known as IPLand the American football league of the United States. The tournament has reportedly been criticised by many observers for the threat it poses to India’s premier football division, the I-League. The reserve price for each city-based franchise is Rs120 million per year for 10 years. Rs20 million must be spent in the first year on developing Indian soccer at the grassroots level, website sources revealed. Each team would have a roster of 22 players each which would contain 10 foreigners, 8 domestic Indian players, and 4 local Indian players.
Reuters adds: Leading Spanish club Atletico Madrid is among the owners of eight franchises of a new Indian soccer league set to kick off later this year. “I am very excited to have won the Kolkata Franchise of the ISL and being the first international team to be directly owning a club in India we along with our Indian Partners and IMG-Reliance aim to revolutionise football in the country,” Miguel Angel Gil Marin, the owner of Atletico, said.