Football fans living in a country obsessed with cricket have something to cheer about at last.
A consortium of extremely wealthy people comprising Reliance Industries,owned by Mukesh Ambani,India’s richest person, Rupert Murdoch’s Star India and sports agency IMG Worldwide have started the Indian Super League, a new football competition that I sincerely hope will raise the standard of Indian Football.
There are 8 teams in the league – each associated with a different Indian state or city.
Hollywood actors Salman Khan,Ranbir and John Abraham are co owners of Pune,Mumbai and Shillong respectively.Companies Den Network,Sun Group and Videocon are single onwners of Delhi,Bangalore and Goa.
Recently retired cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar (pictured above) is co owner of Kochi in association with business group PVP ventures and another cricketing legend Sourav Ganguly (also pictured above) is co owner of the Kolkata team along with Miguel Angel Gil Marin – owner of Atletico Madrid
The league matches will be played over three months starting September.
India has had a long history of domestic club football and football has many passionate fans in places like West Bengal, Goa,the North Eastern States and Kerala.
However India’s Fifa ranking is a dismal 145th – largely because football is mired in politics and nepotism.
So we can hope that this brand new influx of legends,money and glamour into the game will help India to raise that standard of football to more respectable levels.
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