Seeking to revolutionise football in the country, organisers of the much-anticipated Indian Super League (ISL) unveiled the eight franchises on Sunday, with cricket legends, Bollywood stars and industrialists winning the bids for owning the franchises.
The forthcoming two-month tournament marks a latest attempt to popularise football. Cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, and high-profile film actors Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and John Abraham have bought franchises in the league that is scheduled to kick off in September.
This is being seen as an unrivalled football championship in the country once called 'sleeping giant' by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, and it aims to foster local talent by featuring international stars. Playing with a superior level of foreign professionals will also help India's local players to improve their game even though the iconic footballers that the franchises are expected to hire may be past their prime.
Each franchise is expected to register a minimum 22 players for the two-month affair, out of which 10 will be foreigners and five can be fielded in the playing XI. The initial success of the ISL will depend on the icon players such as Thiery Henry, Robert Pires, Hernan Crespo, Dwight Yorke, Louis Saha and the like. These big names will surely attract crowd to the stadiums and will increase the popularity of sport in the country.
For long, the industrialists and business houses have been shy of investing in Indian football. But with the coming of the ISL, some big businessmen have come forward to pour money in Indian football, which will surely help Indian footballers in the future.
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