It’s official: ISL on its way to Guwahati
SHILLONG: Heralding what promises to be a new era in Indian football, with the North East as one of its centres, the eight franchises of the much-anticipated Indian Super League were announced in Mumbai on Sunday.
The big development for the region was the confirmation that Guwahati, the largest city in the North East, will be one of the hosts, with a joint bid by I-League club Shillong Lajong FC and Bollywood actor John Abraham proving a success.
Abraham is an avid sports fan and an owner of a Hockey India League franchise, while Lajong were the first North Eastern team to qualify for the I-League.
The club’s managing director, Larsing Ming Sawyan, is also an All India Football Federation vice-president and his side has had a long commitment to developing the sport in the region.
Other stars from the Indian film industry, corporations and Spanish club Atletico Madrid have felt the draw of the ISL and have bagged the rights to the other franchises.
AIFF president Praful Patel called it the most exciting period in the history of Indian football.
“No period in India’s long and proud history in football is more exciting than today. This day will go down in memory as a special day for Indian football,” he said.
Arguably one of the biggest bits of news is that Sachin Tendulkar is one of the partners in the Kochi franchise, with Salman Khan (Pune) and Ranbir Kapoor (Mumbai) also tossing their hats into the ring and adding additional glamour to the proposed league.
However, Shah Rukh Khan, who was rumoured to be one of the bidders, does not feature in the list of team owners.
The actor was said to be interested in the Kolkata franchise, which went to a consortium led by another former cricketer, Sourav Ganguly, who has partnered with current La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid, among others.
Although not without controversy when first mooted, the IPL-inspired ISL has garnered widespread acceptance with bidders pledging long-term futures with the new league and a commitment to invest substantial sums in the development of football at the grassroots with the aim of reviving a sport long in the shadow of Indian cricket.
However, there was much early opposition from noted ex-footballers in the country, along with the I-League clubs, resistance which has been gradually worn down.
While Sawyan backed the ISL in his role as AIFF vice-president, his club joined the other I-League teams in opposing the new initiative.
The I-League teams’ body – the Indian Professional Football Clubs Association – also decided as a group not to loan players to the ISL or to take on loan players already signed up with the new league.
That agreement broke down last year with Mohammedan Sporting and Rangdajied United crossing the picket line and signing several players from the ISL in order to boost their flagging debut seasons.
Reactions on Sunday from former players were mainly positive, with Chuni Goswami, IM Vijayan and PK Banerjee all excited by the development and expressing hope that football infrastructure and the U-17 World Cup – which India is to host in 2017 – will receive a boost.
The new football extravaganza was originally scheduled for earlier this year, but has been postponed to September-November.
There have been several copycat sports leagues in the wake of the IPL’s success, but the likes of the Indian Badminton League and Hockey India League have been smaller affairs.
It now remains to be seen how successful the ISL can be and how much of a splash it can make in Guwahati and the North East as a whole.
ISL franchises and owners
Guwahati
Shillong Lajong FC and John Abraham
Mumbai
Ranbir Kapoor and Bimal Parekh
Pune
Salman Khan and Wadhawan Group
Kochi
Sachin Tendulkar and PVP Ventures
Kolkata
Sourav Ganguly, Harshavardhan Neotia, Atletico Madrid, Sanjeev Goenka
and Utsav Parekh
New Delhi
DEN Networks
Bengaluru
Sun Group
Goa
Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas Dempo