Edit On 9 December 2010, the All India Football Federation signed a 15-year, 700-crore deal with Reliance Industries and the International Management Group of the United States.[5] The deal gave IMG-Reliance exclusive commercial rights to sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, video, franchising, and rights to create a new football league.[5] This deal came about after the AIFF ended their 10-year deal with Zee Sports five years early back in October 2010.[6] The first rumours of a Indian Premier League-type football league started during the conflict between the owners of the I-League clubs and the AIFF over lack of communication. The rumour was that IMG-Reliance had planned on reforming the I-League along the lines of the IPL and Major League Soccer in the United States.[7] On 25 April 2011, the first version of an IPL-type football league was officially launched when the Indian Football Association of West Bengal launched the Bengal Premier League Soccer with the first season scheduled for 2012.[8] All six franchises would be based within West Bengal. The league would feature top players such as Fabio Cannavaro, Robbie Fowler, Hernán Crespo, and Robert Pirès.[9] However, in February 2012, it was announced that the league would be postponed to an undecided date before finally disbanding officially in 2013 due to financial reasons.[10] Despite the Bengal Premier League Soccers failure, the AIFF approved the IMG-Reliances proposal of another IPL-style league for 2014 but this time to include all of India.[11] Early hits towards the proposed league followed soon after with owners of the I-League clubs fully going against this idea.[12] The owners formed an organization known as the Indian Professional Football Clubs Association and stated that they would go against loaning out their players to IMG-Reliance for the league and go against signing any players already signed by IMG-Reliance.[12] However, in August 2013, it was reported that IMG-Reliance had already signed the required amount of Indian players needed.[13] The Indian Super League was officially launched on 21 October 2013 by IMG-Reliance, STAR Sports, and the AIFF.[1] It was also announced that the league would take place from January 2014 to March 2014.[14] However, on 29 October 2013, it was announced that the ISL would be postponed to September 2014.[14] Also in October, it was announced that former Manchester United player and France international Louis Saha had become the first marquee signing for the Indian Super League.[15] At first, it was announced that bidding for the eight Indian Super League teams would be complete before the end of 2013 and that there was already high-interest from big corporates, Indian Premier League teams, Bollywood stars, and other consortiums.[16] However, due to the rescheduling of the league, the bidding for the teams was moved to 3 March 2014.[17] It was also revealed around this time that not only would bidders need to comply with a financial requirement but they would also need to promote grass-roots development plans for football within their area.[18] Finally, in early April 2014, the winning bidders were announced.[19] The selected cities/state in the end were Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune.[19] Former India cricket player Sachin Tendulkar, along with PVP Ventures, won the bidding for the Kochi franchise. Another former Indian cricket player, Sourav Ganguly, along with a group of Indian businessmen and La Liga side Atlético Madrid, had won the bidding for the Kolkata franchise.[19] Meanwhile, Bollywood stars John Abraham, Ranbir Kapoor, and Salman Khan had won the bidding for the Guwahati, Mumbai, and Pune franchises respectively. Bangalore and Delhi were won by companies while Goa was won by a partnership between Videocon and I-League sides Dempo and Salgaocar.[19] The first team to be launched officially was the Kolkata franchise as Atlético de Kolkata on 7 May 2014.[20] Then, on 7 July 2014, the team announced the first head coach signing in Indian Super League history when they signed Antonio López Habas.[21] The next day, Kolkata also announced the first official marquee signing in the Indian Super League when they signed UEFA Champions League winner Luis García.[22] A few days later, on 16 July, the second marquee signing was announced with Guwahatis Northeast United signed 2010 World Cup winner Joan Capdevila.[23] On 22 July 2014, the Indian Super League held its first ever draft for Indian players.[24] Notable names from the India national team to be available in the draft were Subrata Pal, Syed Nabi, and Mehtab Hossain.[24] At the end of the draft it was reported that a total of 24 crore were spent during the Indian players draft.[25] The third official marquee to sign for a team was then announced on 30 July 2014 when former Juventus striker and World Cup winner David Trezeguet signed for FC Pune City.[26] On 14 August 2014, it was announced that the Bangalore franchise would disband before the start of the season.[27] However, the team was quickly replaced when it was announced that Chennai would be awarded a team in place of Bangalore on 21 August.[28] Eight days later it was announced that Alessandro Del Piero had signed with the Delhi Dynamos FC as their marquee player
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 17:21:56 +0000
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