Indian football ready for drastic IPL-style makeover

[TF S4DK]

Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler, Italy's World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro and ex-Arsenal playmaker Robert Pires are set to feature in an Indian football competition that hopes to replicate the success of cricket's Indian Premier League.

Some 30 players and six coaches from abroad will be auctioned off in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata for the tournament taking place between February 25 and April 8.

Other signed-up players - all at the end of their careers - include former Chelsea players Maniche and Hernan Crespo, former Bolton star Jay-Jay Okocha and ex-Liverpool striker Fernando Morientes.

'We have signed seven 'icon' players for the auction and each of the six teams will have one such player with a $600,000 (£390,000) salary cap,' Bhaswar Goswami, executive director of Celebrity Management Group (CMG) said. CMG has signed a 30-year deal with the Indian Football Association for the league and has floated tenders for franchises.

'We have started with six teams this year, all in the state of West Bengal but have already been approached to expand the league to other parts of the country.

'Every team will have $2.5 million (£1.6m) to spend in the first year. They will have a maximum of four foreigners and a compulsory six under-21 Indian players in their squad.'

Cricket's IPL dazzled fans with its exciting Twenty20 format, player auctions, post-game parties and heavy advertising and now football - which has failed to produce top-class Indian players - is poised for a similar makeover.

'The league is modelled on Major League Soccer and of course IPL,' Goswami added. We saw the hype and buzz around players' auction in IPL and feel it can be an equal success. It's a brilliant concept. We expect owners to make profit much earlier than the IPL franchises. We are also in the process of finalising television rights for live broadcast across south-east Asia.'

Goswami was bullish about the league's future and said it would change the face of Indian football.

'I think we made the right start by launching it in West Bengal. It's a soccer-crazy state where 100,000 people throng to watch the local derby between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.

'It will be a massive boost for local players to share the dressing room and field with some of the players they grew up idolising.'

A cricket-dominated India ranks a dismal 162 in the FIFA rankings despite its huge population, but some 60 million Indians tuned in to the English Premier League's 2009/10 season, roughly the same as the number of people living in Britain.

Nearly 120,000 fans gave a rousing farewell to Oliver Kahn in the German goalkeeper's 2008 Bayern Munich swansong in Kolkata and Argentina great Diego Maradona virtually brought the city to a standstill during his visit the same year.

No wonder World Cup winner Pires is keen to give the new league a shot.

'Since I had nothing in Europe, why not try something completely unknown? I've never been over there,' Pires told L'Equipe.

'I am proud to be the first Frenchman to go and play there. And eight weeks is nothing.'

Pires said he would at least be paid 395,000 euros for seven weeks.

'If my president likes me, it could be 790,000 euros (£650,000). It is a lot of money. I'm not going to complain about that am I? But I'm not going there as a tourist. It's a new adventure.'

[Guest whowantswhat]

inb4jokesaboutshopsbeingbuiltaftereverycorner

[The Somalian]

well the cricket premier league done well can see this as an alternative MLS

[Mic Man]

So it will be Crespo playing alongside a bunch of unknowns?

[The Somalian]

Yep for 8 weeks bit like masters football

[time_bomb]

india is going nuts they seem like they have cash to splash, they just build a beautiful multi-million dollar arena for ice hockey and are hosting some asian championship, they never even had ice hockey in the country before last year.

[Fighting Weight]

India is a shithouse.

[The Somalian]

Depends what region tbf

My mum goes India to the temples and stuff they just stare at her they never seen a black in the flesh b4

[Guest whowantswhat]

So it will be Crespo playing alongside a bunch of unknowns?

-------------------Patel------------------

--Singh----Singh----Singh----Singh--

--Singh----Singh----Singh----Singh--

-------------Singh---

------------------------Crespo----

[Fighting Weight]

Surely Khan gets in the first XI.

[Guest whowantswhat]

Surely Khan gets in the first XI.

academy/reserve team player!

[Guest whowantswhat]

lulz

[CrillzCity]

Depends what region tbf

My mum goes India to the temples and stuff they just stare at her they never seen a black in the flesh b4

I'm Asian but somehow blacks atleast on the sly more and more seem to dislike Asians, look at the stupidness in this topic about Singh, Patel etc yet if an Asian said a joke about black names or sterotypes people don't like that. Also blacks seem to hate Asians not all blacks obviously but some for the most petty reasons like Asian women not dating blacks which is just immature.

[The Somalian]

Yeah because this is more or less a Black forum, I have been on white ones where people take the piss with yeah blud talk and bare mockery of blacks no one batters an eye lid probaly get the same on asian ones