The Indian Super League begins today, with eight teams battling for supremacy. The league, which is modelled on cricket’s Indian Premier League, is the product of the efforts of the sports and entertainment joint venture IMG-Reliance, Rupert Murdoch’s Star Sports and the All India Football Federation. In July, Hero Motocorp signed as the title sponsor of the league.
A little history: in December 2010, the AIFF and IMG-Reliance signed a 15-year deal to create a new football league. In April, the winning bids for the eight franchises were announced. The selected cities/states were Bangalore, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune. But on August 20 Team Bangalore’s franchise was scrapped after its owners, Sun Group, pulled out on without giving an official reason. Sources say they pulled out because IMG-Reliance refused to allow a partnership between their team and Bengaluru FC, a team that plays in the I-League, the top tournament organised by the AIFF. The ISL has since announced that they will be replaced by Team Chennai.
The franchises were sold to the owners for Rs 12 crore per year, for a minimum of ten years. The only exception was Kolkata, which was the most expensive at Rs 18 crore.
In July, Freddie Ljunberg, a former Arsenal player, signed a three-month deal to promote Indian football around the world. Another former Arsenal player Robert Pires has also signed.
Each team will have one foreign marquee player, seven foreign players, four players from their respective cities and four players from other parts of India.
The tournament will be a round-robin format. Each team will play against each other in home and away matches. After the round robin there will be a two-legged semi-final and a one-off final.
In the opening match today, Mumbai City FC will play Atletico de Kolkata at the Salt Lake Stadium, in Kolkata. The league will run until December 20. The ISL has said that the final will be played at a neutral venue.
Here’s a look at the eight franchises taking part in the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League
Atlético de Kolkata
City: Kolkata, West Bengal
Owners: Sourav Ganguly (former cricket player), Harshvardhan Neotia (chairman of Ambuja Neotia Group), Atlético Madrid (football club and reigning La Liga champions), Sanjiv Goenka (vice-chairman of RPG Enterprises) and Utsav Parekh (chairman, SMIFS Capital Markets Ltd).
Players/Manager: The head coach is Antonio López Habas and their marquee player is Luis Garcia, a former Champions League winner with Liverpool. Other notable players are Climax Lawrence, Mohammed Rafi and another former Liverpool man, Josemi.
Stadium: They will play their home matches at the 120,000 capacity Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. It is one of the largest stadiums in the world.
Delhi Dynamos FC
City: Delhi
Owners: Sameer Manchanda, who owns the Delhi-based DEN Networks, a leading cable TV distribution company. The team has also entered an alliance with Dutch club Feyenoord.
Players/Manager: The head coach is Harm van Veldhoven, a Dutch-Belgian football manager. Alessandro Del Piero, 39 years old, is the marquee player. Piero has won the World Cup with the Italian national team in 2006, and the UEFA Champions League with Juventus during the 1995-1996 season.
Some of the players are Shouvik Ghosh, Govin Singh, Henrique Dinis, Hands Mulder, Steven Dias, Gustavo Marmentini and Wim Raymaekers and Bruno Herrero Arias. They've also signed the world’s tallest keeper, the Belgian Kristof Van Hout.
Stadium: The 60,000 capacity Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will be the home ground. The stadium was built in 1982 and recently renovated for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Kerala Blasters FC
City: Kochi
Owners: Sachin Tendulkar and Prasad V. Potluri (Chairman and MD of PVP Ventures).
Players/Managers: Former England goalkeeper David James will serve as player-manager and marquee player. He’s played 53 times for England and a host of clubs including Manchester City, Portsmouth and Liverpool. Some other players include Nirmal Chettri, Michael Chopra, Sandip Nandy, Renedy Singh and Mehtab Hossain, Colin Falvey.
Stadium: They will be playing their home matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. It has a capacity of 75,000.
Mumbai City FC
City: Mumbai
Owners: Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor has tied up with chartered accountant Bimal Parekh to buy this team. Bimal Parekh manages the investments of top actors and actresses in Bollywood.
Players/Managers: Peter Reid from England, will be the coach for the inaugural season. He has coached a number of teams in the Premier League including Manchester City and the England national team for 13 matches. He also was a pundit for various TV channels and now will head Mumbai City FC.
The marquee player for this season will be former Arsenal player Fredrik Ljungberg. He’s 37 years old and has played 75 matches and scored 14 goals for the Swedish national team. During his long stint at Arsenal, he won 8 titles.
The most well-known foreign player other than Ljungberg will be Nicolas Anelka, a former French national team player. He played 69 matches for them and scored 14 goals. Amongst the clubs, he’s been at Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea. He had a three match ban imposed by the English Football Association but the AIFF have cleared him to play in Mumbai FC's first match tomorrow.
India’s number 1 keeper Subrata Paul is the most well-known Indian in the team. Others include, André Preto, Diego Nadaya, Raju Gaikwad and Syed Rahim Nabi, German international Manuel Friedrich. Diego Fernando Nadaya, Andre Matos Dias Pereira.
Stadium: DY Patil Stadium in Nerul, Mumbai will host the home matches. It has a capacity of 55,000 and is primarily used as a cricket stadium.
NorthEast United FC
City: Guwahati
Owners: This team is jointly owned by John Abraham, the Bollywood actor, and first division I-League side Shillong Lajong.
Players/Managers: Ricki Herbert of New Zealand is the head coach. Herbert was the coach of New Zealand for 9 years, from 1980-1989. Spanish World Cup winner Joan Capdevila is their marquee player. Some of the other players are Robin Gurung, Luis Yanes, Milan Singh and David Ngaihte, Alexandros Tzorvas, Guilherme Felipe de Castro, James Keene.
Stadium: Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium will be the home stadium and has a capacity of 35,000. It’s one of the smallest stadiums in the inaugural Indian Super League.
FC Pune City
City/State: Pune, Maharashtra
Owners: Salman Khan, another famous Bollywood actor, is joint owner of the team along with the Wadhawan Group. They are also in partnership with Italian club ACF Fiorentina.
Players/Managers: The head coach is the Italian Franco Colomba, who has been managing clubs since 1990. David Trezeguet is their marquee player. Trezeguet is a French footballer who played 71 times for the national team. He spent the largest stint of his career with Juventus, playing a whopping 245 games for them. He famously missed a penalty in the shootout of the 2006 World Cup final, as his spot kick hit the crossbar.
Other players include Andrés González, Lenny Rodrigues and Joaquim Abranches, Andres Felipe Gonzalez Ramirez, Daniele Magliocchetti.
Stadium: Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune will host all the home matches this season. It has a capacity of 22,000. It was the venue for the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games. It is also one of the 8 stadiums selected for the U-17 Fifa World Cup in 2017.
FC Goa
City/State: Margao, Goa
Owners: It will be owned by Videocon Group, a $5 billion global conglomerate, Dattarao Salgaocar, whose company has diverse interests in mining, hospitality and shipping, and Dempo Mining Corporation Limited.
Players/Managers: Former Brazilian national team player, Zico will be the manager of FC Goa. He played for the Brazilian team for 71 matches and scored 48 goals. He’s coached CSKA Moscow and the Iraq national team.
Former Arsenal player and midfielder, Robert Pires is the marquee player. At the age of 40, Pires has had an illustrious career with Arsenal and even won the World Cup with France in 1998.
Most of the players come from Dempo itself, like Jewel Raja, Clifford Miranda, Peter Carvalho. Andre Santos, Peter Carvalho, Miguel Herlein. Grégory Arnolin is one of the highest priced foreign players.
Stadium: Fartoda Stadium in Margao is the home venue. It has a capacity of 24,500.
Chennaiyin FC
City/State: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Owners: Chennai was a last minute edition after the Bengaluru franchise backed out. The franchsie is owned by cricket Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan.
Players/Managers: Macro Materazzi, famous for the head-butt he received from Zidane during the World Cup 2006 final, has signed on as player and manager. This centre-back was very impressive during his ten seasons at Inter Milan. He won the Seria A league title five times and the UEFA Champions League trophy.
The Brazilian, Elano Blumer has signed on as the marquee player. He played 50 games for the national team and clubs like Manchester City. Former Arsenal and Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre, has joined to assist Materazzi in defence.
Some of the player include Abhishek Das, Bernard Mendy (the highest priced international player in the draft), Jeje Lalpekhlua and Eduardo Silva.
Stadium: Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, which has a capacity of 40,000 will host the home matches of Chennaiyin FC.
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A little history: in December 2010, the AIFF and IMG-Reliance signed a 15-year deal to create a new football league. In April, the winning bids for the eight franchises were announced. The selected cities/states were Bangalore, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune. But on August 20 Team Bangalore’s franchise was scrapped after its owners, Sun Group, pulled out on without giving an official reason. Sources say they pulled out because IMG-Reliance refused to allow a partnership between their team and Bengaluru FC, a team that plays in the I-League, the top tournament organised by the AIFF. The ISL has since announced that they will be replaced by Team Chennai.
The franchises were sold to the owners for Rs 12 crore per year, for a minimum of ten years. The only exception was Kolkata, which was the most expensive at Rs 18 crore.
In July, Freddie Ljunberg, a former Arsenal player, signed a three-month deal to promote Indian football around the world. Another former Arsenal player Robert Pires has also signed.
Each team will have one foreign marquee player, seven foreign players, four players from their respective cities and four players from other parts of India.
The tournament will be a round-robin format. Each team will play against each other in home and away matches. After the round robin there will be a two-legged semi-final and a one-off final.
In the opening match today, Mumbai City FC will play Atletico de Kolkata at the Salt Lake Stadium, in Kolkata. The league will run until December 20. The ISL has said that the final will be played at a neutral venue.
Official logo for the Indian Super League.
(Indranil Mukherjee/AFP)
Here’s a look at the eight franchises taking part in the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League
Atlético de Kolkata
City: Kolkata, West Bengal
Owners: Sourav Ganguly (former cricket player), Harshvardhan Neotia (chairman of Ambuja Neotia Group), Atlético Madrid (football club and reigning La Liga champions), Sanjiv Goenka (vice-chairman of RPG Enterprises) and Utsav Parekh (chairman, SMIFS Capital Markets Ltd).
Players/Manager: The head coach is Antonio López Habas and their marquee player is Luis Garcia, a former Champions League winner with Liverpool. Other notable players are Climax Lawrence, Mohammed Rafi and another former Liverpool man, Josemi.
Stadium: They will play their home matches at the 120,000 capacity Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. It is one of the largest stadiums in the world.
Delhi Dynamos FC
City: Delhi
Owners: Sameer Manchanda, who owns the Delhi-based DEN Networks, a leading cable TV distribution company. The team has also entered an alliance with Dutch club Feyenoord.
Players/Manager: The head coach is Harm van Veldhoven, a Dutch-Belgian football manager. Alessandro Del Piero, 39 years old, is the marquee player. Piero has won the World Cup with the Italian national team in 2006, and the UEFA Champions League with Juventus during the 1995-1996 season.
Some of the players are Shouvik Ghosh, Govin Singh, Henrique Dinis, Hands Mulder, Steven Dias, Gustavo Marmentini and Wim Raymaekers and Bruno Herrero Arias. They've also signed the world’s tallest keeper, the Belgian Kristof Van Hout.
Stadium: The 60,000 capacity Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will be the home ground. The stadium was built in 1982 and recently renovated for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Kerala Blasters FC
City: Kochi
Owners: Sachin Tendulkar and Prasad V. Potluri (Chairman and MD of PVP Ventures).
Players/Managers: Former England goalkeeper David James will serve as player-manager and marquee player. He’s played 53 times for England and a host of clubs including Manchester City, Portsmouth and Liverpool. Some other players include Nirmal Chettri, Michael Chopra, Sandip Nandy, Renedy Singh and Mehtab Hossain, Colin Falvey.
Stadium: They will be playing their home matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. It has a capacity of 75,000.
Mumbai City FC
City: Mumbai
Owners: Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor has tied up with chartered accountant Bimal Parekh to buy this team. Bimal Parekh manages the investments of top actors and actresses in Bollywood.
Players/Managers: Peter Reid from England, will be the coach for the inaugural season. He has coached a number of teams in the Premier League including Manchester City and the England national team for 13 matches. He also was a pundit for various TV channels and now will head Mumbai City FC.
The marquee player for this season will be former Arsenal player Fredrik Ljungberg. He’s 37 years old and has played 75 matches and scored 14 goals for the Swedish national team. During his long stint at Arsenal, he won 8 titles.
The most well-known foreign player other than Ljungberg will be Nicolas Anelka, a former French national team player. He played 69 matches for them and scored 14 goals. Amongst the clubs, he’s been at Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea. He had a three match ban imposed by the English Football Association but the AIFF have cleared him to play in Mumbai FC's first match tomorrow.
India’s number 1 keeper Subrata Paul is the most well-known Indian in the team. Others include, André Preto, Diego Nadaya, Raju Gaikwad and Syed Rahim Nabi, German international Manuel Friedrich. Diego Fernando Nadaya, Andre Matos Dias Pereira.
Stadium: DY Patil Stadium in Nerul, Mumbai will host the home matches. It has a capacity of 55,000 and is primarily used as a cricket stadium.
NorthEast United FC
City: Guwahati
Owners: This team is jointly owned by John Abraham, the Bollywood actor, and first division I-League side Shillong Lajong.
Players/Managers: Ricki Herbert of New Zealand is the head coach. Herbert was the coach of New Zealand for 9 years, from 1980-1989. Spanish World Cup winner Joan Capdevila is their marquee player. Some of the other players are Robin Gurung, Luis Yanes, Milan Singh and David Ngaihte, Alexandros Tzorvas, Guilherme Felipe de Castro, James Keene.
Stadium: Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium will be the home stadium and has a capacity of 35,000. It’s one of the smallest stadiums in the inaugural Indian Super League.
FC Pune City
City/State: Pune, Maharashtra
Owners: Salman Khan, another famous Bollywood actor, is joint owner of the team along with the Wadhawan Group. They are also in partnership with Italian club ACF Fiorentina.
Players/Managers: The head coach is the Italian Franco Colomba, who has been managing clubs since 1990. David Trezeguet is their marquee player. Trezeguet is a French footballer who played 71 times for the national team. He spent the largest stint of his career with Juventus, playing a whopping 245 games for them. He famously missed a penalty in the shootout of the 2006 World Cup final, as his spot kick hit the crossbar.
Other players include Andrés González, Lenny Rodrigues and Joaquim Abranches, Andres Felipe Gonzalez Ramirez, Daniele Magliocchetti.
Stadium: Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune will host all the home matches this season. It has a capacity of 22,000. It was the venue for the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games. It is also one of the 8 stadiums selected for the U-17 Fifa World Cup in 2017.
FC Goa
City/State: Margao, Goa
Owners: It will be owned by Videocon Group, a $5 billion global conglomerate, Dattarao Salgaocar, whose company has diverse interests in mining, hospitality and shipping, and Dempo Mining Corporation Limited.
Players/Managers: Former Brazilian national team player, Zico will be the manager of FC Goa. He played for the Brazilian team for 71 matches and scored 48 goals. He’s coached CSKA Moscow and the Iraq national team.
Former Arsenal player and midfielder, Robert Pires is the marquee player. At the age of 40, Pires has had an illustrious career with Arsenal and even won the World Cup with France in 1998.
Most of the players come from Dempo itself, like Jewel Raja, Clifford Miranda, Peter Carvalho. Andre Santos, Peter Carvalho, Miguel Herlein. Grégory Arnolin is one of the highest priced foreign players.
Stadium: Fartoda Stadium in Margao is the home venue. It has a capacity of 24,500.
Chennaiyin FC
City/State: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Owners: Chennai was a last minute edition after the Bengaluru franchise backed out. The franchsie is owned by cricket Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan.
Players/Managers: Macro Materazzi, famous for the head-butt he received from Zidane during the World Cup 2006 final, has signed on as player and manager. This centre-back was very impressive during his ten seasons at Inter Milan. He won the Seria A league title five times and the UEFA Champions League trophy.
The Brazilian, Elano Blumer has signed on as the marquee player. He played 50 games for the national team and clubs like Manchester City. Former Arsenal and Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre, has joined to assist Materazzi in defence.
Some of the player include Abhishek Das, Bernard Mendy (the highest priced international player in the draft), Jeje Lalpekhlua and Eduardo Silva.
Stadium: Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, which has a capacity of 40,000 will host the home matches of Chennaiyin FC.