Indian Super League gets enthusiastic response for franchise bids

Bidders for the Indian Super League franchises will have to ensure they have their grass root development plans for football in their home city is in place if they are to own a footbball club in the tournament. Apart from the usual financial criteria that a bidder must fulfill for being eligible to own a team, the Invitation to Bid document (ITB) states that one of the main criteria is that the bidder should have a plan ready to develop football at the grass root level in the city.

A source from IMG Reliance reveals, "It has been seen in the past that clubs will spend huge amounts of money annually on player salaries, but a very little part of it is spent on developing the sport. Thus one of the main eligibility norms in the ITB is development of football in the city the club represents."

IMG Reliance and Star India's upcoming football league - the Indian Super League, has received an enthusiastic response in the bid process which started earlier this week. According to sources from the league promoters, corporates I-League club owners and celebrities from the sports and film fraternity come forward to buy the tender bid document.

While it is known that Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan will be bidding for a team from Kolkata, sources reveal that he may face tough competition from former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly. Others in the fray include model, actor and producer John Abraham, Ronnie Screwvala, Rhiti Sports, Mahindra and JSW Sports.

The tender document is available for Rs 5 lakh and the base price price has been fixed at Rs 120 crore over a tenure of 10 years. Bids have been called from nine cities - Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune, of which top eight will be selected to represent teams in the league. Reportedly, Hyderabad was also considered in the list, but was dropped due to political instability in the region.

Each team needs to have a minimum of 22 players which includes 8 international players, and 14 Indian players from the national team, clubs and junior players (from the under 23 and under 19 groups). Of the 8 international players, 1 will be the marque player for each team. IMG is in talks with international players to come on board and has already received confirmation from Dwight Yorke, Fredrik Ljungberg, Robert Pines, Louis Saha and Hernen Crepo.

"The marque players will be recently retired international players who have represented their country in the World Cup and played in the major international football leagues," informs the source from IMG Reliance.

The player auction is expected to take place in May. IMG Reliance will take a call on the criteria for player auction once the franchises are formed and it has had dialogue with them regarding the same.

Under the agreement between IMG Reliance and Star India, the television network, which is a 30 per cent partner in the league, will be responsible for the marketing of the tournament. It holds the exclusive media rights to the ISL and will be responsible for roping in on-ground, title and broadcast sponsors.

PTI