HILLONG: In a big development for the nascent Indian Super League, local I-League football club Shillong Lajong FC are learnt to have bid for the Guwahati franchise of the proposed IPL-style tournament.
The club have submitted a joint bid in collaboration with Bollywood actor John Abraham, a national daily reported on Sunday. The newspaper added that former Indian national captain Baichung Bhutia is also a partner in the bid.
A reliable source at Lajong confirmed the news of the joint bid on Sunday evening.
The ISL has been a major sticking point between the clubs and the country’s football governing body, the All India Football Federation, who are organising the tournament with sports business IMG-Reliance.
When the ISL was initially mooted last year, there was widespread antagonism towards it from the I-League clubs and some former footballers, who felt that it would distract from the I-League and harm the development of Indian football.
The new competition is supposed to draw several retired football greats from abroad, including international stars Dwight Yorke and Fredrik Ljungberg. More than 50 Indian players have also signed up for the ISL, which will be contested between eight city franchises. Ten cities are in the running for the eight spots.
Perhaps to deflect criticism of the tournament, each ISL franchise will be expected to invest Rs 2 crore per year in grassroots football development.
Although Shillong Lajong the club opposed the ISL in partnership with the other teams in the I-League, SLFC managing director and AIFF vice-president Larsing Ming Sawyan backed the tournament when it was proposed in 2013. The same was the case of Dempo SC, whose chairman, Shrinivas Dempo, is also an AIFF vice-president.
However, despite the clubs’ steadfast pledge not to loan players to (or to take on loan players from) the ISL, there has been a growing acceptance of the new league.
Two I-League teams – Mohammedan Sporting and Rangdajied United FC – both felt pushed to hiring a few players from the ISL stable after they were struggling to get going in their maiden season of the top tier.
Additionally, investors are said to be eagerly eyeing the Super League, with La Liga team Atletico Madrid and Sourav Ganguly apparently jointly bidding for the Kolkata franchise, while Sachin Tendulkar and Shah Rukh Khan were sniffing around Kochi and New Delhi, respectively. Bidding had to be completed last week.
With the North East arguably one of the biggest centres for football in the country, a team based in Guwahati would have some major advantages. However, there are challenges to overcome, which were elaborated on by the Lajong source.
“The biggest challenge when it comes to a team from the North East is generating sponsorship,” the source said. “But if we can get the fans on board, backing us, then it can prove to be a success.”
Partnering with actor Abraham, who has many endorsements from the business community, could well give a boost to the proposed franchise, in the way IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders have profited from the association with co-owner Shah Rukh Khan.
Surmounting all the opposition and having to postpone the inaugural competition from earlier in 2014 to the latter half of the year, the ISL has already experienced a fair number of problems, but if the bid for Guwahati is successful a new development for football in India could also have a base in the football mad North East.