Despite the presence of veteran football
stars Alessandro Del Piero, Robert Pires, Luis Garcia,
David Trezeguet and Nicholas Anelka, the inaugural
Indian Super League is selling itself using top
cricketers.
The pecking order of Indian sports is underlined by
the ISL's decision to market its high-profile
stakeholders; India cricket captain Mahendra Singh
Dhoni part owns Chennaiyan, retired superstar
Sachin Tendulkar co-owns Kerala Blasters, and
former captain Sourav Ganguly and batsman Virat
Kohli have stakes in Atletico de Kolkata and Goa.
The eight-team league, organized by IMG-Reliance in
collaboration with Rupert Murdoch's Star India group
and the All India Football Federation, is intended to
lift the moribund standard of football in the country
of 1.2 billion, and plans to nurture a strong local fan
base and develop young Indian players.
The mission is daunting.
Though FIFA President Sepp Blatter called India a
"sleeping giant" during a visit here in 2007, the
national team, which is looking for a new manager
after Wim Koevermans signalled his departure this
week, is 158th in the FIFA rankings.
The future does not look too bright either as the
under-23s crashed out early at the Asian Games in
Incheon, without scoring a goal. In fact, the team
almost never left for Incheon as the government
refused to fund it, saying it had no realistic chance of
doing well, before relenting.
Kerala's marquee signing, former England
goalkeeper David James, says India needs more than
foreign players to improve standards.
"The ISL has to be a league of Indian players," James
said. "Every year you can't expect foreign stars to
come and make the tournament a success. The main
aim of the ISL should be to ensure that facilities and
coaching get better in India."
Dhoni hopes India football authorities take full
advantage of the league to promote the sport.
"A team can't make it big unless it has proper
development at the grassroots level," Dhoni said. "I
look forward to an exciting season ahead, but at the
same time it's important that we develop the
grassroots level and produce more football stars in
India."
India football's heyday was the 1950s and 60s, when
India came fourth at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics
and won two Asian Games.
But sponsors have come aboard the new league,
which starts on Sunday and runs for 10 weeks. Star
India chief operating officer Sanjay Gupta says six
associate sponsors have signed up with main
sponsor Hero India.
They have a fight on their hands for eyeballs, in a
country which already has franchise-based leagues in
cricket, field hockey, and kabaddi among others.
More importantly, it will have to compete with
European league matches that are beamed live
across the country on satellite channels.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
Posted by Segun on Friday, October 10, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
Description : Despite the presence of veteran football stars Alessandro Del Piero, Robert Pires, Luis Garcia, David Trezeguet and Nicholas Anelka, the in...
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