Indian football gets a league of its own at last!

India is one of the few countries which does not have a great football team of its own but loves watching football very passionately, courtesy the EPL or the La Liga. Thus, football has been in the process of being privatized for long and the result will finally be seen in January 2014!

IMG-Reliance is the marketing partner of the All India Football Federation, so it is their brainchild to attract corporates to own franchises of eight cities like Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi, Goa and Delhi. IMG will be involved in managing the event pretty much in IPL style while Reliance is the main title sponsor which makes them venture into their second league after the IPL.

There have been rumours of celebrities such as SRK, John Abraham and Ranbir Kapoor interested in owning teams due to their love for the game. However, it remains to be seen if this turns out to be true. Otherwise the league would have to rope them in as brand ambassadors to attract audiences in watching the event at the ground or on television. This could be a crucial factor in it being a commercial success.

One of the major hurdles faced by the event is of I-League players banned from participating in it. The reason is definitely the fact that the I-League considers this tournament as a threat to their existence, having been there since 2007 as the country’s only premier football competition. Consequently, stars such as Bharat Chhetri would be missing in action.

Fortunately, IMG-Reliance has acted well in time to find national team probables and other young talent from all parts of the country to play in the event. Each team squad will have 22 players, with 12 of them being Indians and 1 of them being a marquee player.

There will also be foreign players who were stars back in the day such as Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Michael Owen and Dwight Yorke. They will undoubtedly make the ultimate difference, adding tremendous value to the league. Otherwise it would have been another I-League, which is certainly not feasible!

IMG-Reliance has also entered into a joint venture with Star India into a 10 year broadcasting contract worth Rs.1500 crore! Thus, even before the tournament has begun, there is a huge hype about it amongst the corporates, public and players alike and that is a major positive sign.

Although the IBL suffered an Rs.25 crore loss recently, yet IMG-Reliance can take inspiration from the fact that football is followed more and could start with a boom like the IPL and go on to someday become one of the richest sporting tournaments in the world.