The Official Indian Super League Thread

[LittleOzzy]

The league is organised by Cassius Management Group, who has signed a 30-year deal with Indian Football Association, the apex body of football in West Bengal. There will be 6 teams in the inaugural 2012 season owned by franchises, who will have to bid for the team for 10 years and will pay a yearly franchisee fee. They will be based in 6 different towns, namely Kolkata, Howrah, Barasat, Asansol, Midnapore and Siliguri. Each team plays every other team twice (once at home and once away). After the regular season the teams will play in a play-off style tournament in which there will be the semi-finals and final. The tournament will last only 7 weeks.

Each of the 6 teams will get a purse of USD 2.5 million to buy players at a player's auction to be held on February 10th, 2012. Each team can have a maximum of 4 foreign players and minimum of 6 under-21 Indian players in their squad

Coaches
Samson Siasia
Teitur Thordarson
Peter Reid
Marco Etcheverry
John Barnes
Fernando Couto
Colin Todd
Milos Rus

Icon Players
Robert Pirès
Juan Pablo Sorín
Maniche
Jay-Jay Okocha
Robbie Fowler
Fernando Morientes
Fabio Cannavaro
Hernán Crespo
Hidetoshi Nakata

Other Foreign Players
Santino Quaranta
Alonso Solis
Christian Lara
Joaquin Botero
Limberg Gutierrez
Emmanuel Gomez
Leider Preciado
David Cordoba
Diego Toro
Joselito Vaca
Stephane Auvray
Robert Egbeta
Daniel Varela
Jose Carlos Castillo
Cherno Samba
Diego Cabrera
Diego Madrigal
Gabriel Rios
Bryan Vega
Christopher Omoseibi
Erick Sanchez
Igor Hrabáč
Eddy Viator

There will be a maximum of 25 players on each team's roster.

Not sure if this league will garner any interest here but I thought it was an interesting concept. They sure are spending some good money to get it up and running, and having the U-21 team spread out across the league will help the country in the future.

[Slava]

I hope they don't regret that 30 year contract in 3 seasons.

Other than that West Bengal is quite a soccer crazy state and you will find more Argentina/Brazil flags in Kolkata than anywhere out of those countries during the world cup.

[jerrod]

Marco Etcheverry

now that's a name i haven't heard in a long time /obi wan

[LittleOzzy]

Former England and Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler has cast doubt on a new football tournament in India, dealing a further blow to the postponed event.

Fowler, one of the semi-retired world stars hired to play in West Bengal's Premier League Soccer (PLS), tweeted that the tournament now appeared unlikely to go ahead.

"Ah well.. India looks like its cancelled, boots are clean and looking for a new place to play," wrote the 35-year-old, who was sold for $530,000 to the Kolkata franchise at an auction last month.

The PLS, based along the lines of cricket's popular Indian Premier League, was postponed for a second time on Wednesday.

It was due to start on February 25, then put off until March 24, before the latest delay caused by problems organising grounds. No new date has been set for the event to start.

Former Argentina star Hernan Crespo, Italy's World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro and Robert Pires of France were among the stars signed to play alongside district-level players.

Six local business groups that bid successfully for a team to play in the PLS had splurged around $7 million to buy the foreign stars at the auction.

The PLS has faced numerous hurdles since the ambitious project was announced just a month ago.

The All-India Football Federation (AIFF) refused to allow Indian players from the official domestic I-League to join, saying the PLS was essentially a state-level tournament.

The latest delay is thought to be due to the reluctance of the state government to release grounds owned by it for the PLS unless details of the tournament finances and the source of funding were made clear.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... e944b7.ab1

[LittleOzzy]

They finally got this league off the ground, and it's did really well in it's first season.

Indian Super League was watched by 429 million on TV according to TAM data

An aggregate of 429 million viewers (TAM data CS4+ extrapolated to the universe using a standard conversion factor) watched the inaugural Hero Indian Super League football tournament live on their TV screens, making it the second most-watched sport in the country after cricket.

The league cut across demographic boundaries and captured the imagination of a diverse fan base, with women and children accounting for 57 percent of the 429 million viewers.

The final played between Atletico de Kolkata and Kerala Blasters, on December 20, was watched by 57 million viewers, culminating the over two months long league.

The final, with an average TVT of 1418 among M 15+ ABC, registered as the highest rated match of the tournament, 11 percent higher than the opening match of the tournament.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/spor ... 692508.cms