14.4.14

ISL update


Cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, and actors Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and John Abraham are among a clutch of celebrities and businessmen who have emerged successful bidders for the upcoming IPL-style football league in the country. Rupert Murdoch and Mukesh Ambani-promoted Indian Super League (ISL) has announced the eight ‘league partners’ out of 30 bidders for the club football tournament, the first edition of which will be held in September-November this year. Winners have bid up to Rs.200 crore for a 10-year contract, a person close to the bidding process said. The base price was Rs. 120 crore. The name of the highest bidder could not be ascertained. While Tendulkar has teamed up with PVP Ventures for the Kochi team, Ganguly is part of a heavyweight consortium that includes Spanish football club Atletico Madrid, Harshavardhan Neotia of Ambuja Neotia Group, Sanjiv Goenka of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group and stock broker Utsav Parekh that has bagged the Kolkata team. “We will invest to develop talent at the grassroots level and also tap into global coaching talent to develop our club,” said Prasad Potluri, managing director at PVP Ventures, which has interests in real estate, media, film production, entertainment and sports through the Hyderabad franchise of the Indian Badminton League and the India team in the Mahesh Bhupathi-promoted International Premier Tennis League. IMG-Reliance and Star TV-promoted ISL is expected to revive the popularity and fortune of football in India by bringing top international talent to perform in the country along with local talent, and attracting big money through sponsorship and advertisements for investments in facilities and training. The main criterion for the bids was a plan by the bidders towards grassroot development of football in India. Ranbir Kapoor and Bollywood's favourite chartered accountant Bimal Parekh teamed up to win the Mumbai team. Salman Picks Up Pune Team
John Abraham joined hands with iLeague football team Shillong Lajong to buy Guwahati franchise and Salman Khan partnered Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan of the Wadhawan Group for the Pune team.
Other winning bidders include Sun group for Bangalore, Sameer Manchanda-led Den Network for Delhi and Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon, Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas Dempo for Goa. The new football league had also reportedly attracted other celebrity bidders such as Abhishek Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, said people familiar with the process. Other aspiring team owners included Emerging Media, the owners of Rajasthan Royals IPL team, GMR, which owns Delhi Daredevils, UB Group, which owns Royal Challengers Bangalore and former UTV boss Ronnie Screwvala, people said.
Celebrities and businessmen have flocked to associate with sports in India ever since the Indian Premier League twenty20 cricket tournament kicked off in 2008. Corporates across the spectrum see sports as a lucrative branding opportunity and in the long run a sound investment bet.
IPL saw Bollywoodstars Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Juhi Chawla among others buy stakes in teams and that has been a big draw for youth and fans towards the IPL.
For ISL, too, celebrities are expected to help raise viewership for football in the country. Sameer Manchanda, managing director of Den Networks that owns the Delhi ISL team, said football was missing an eco-system in India. “Once that comes up, there will be a transformation. We want to be part of that,” he said. Manchanda said his plan was to bring in the best managers from across the globe and get into foreign club tie-ups that will improve the game. “Our benchmark is ManU. It’s a $3-billion Nasdaq listed entity,” he said. For Den, he said, ISL will be a good mix with its new broadband business.
Dhoot, who won the Goa team along with owners of Goan iLeague club teams Salgaocar FC and Dempo Sports Club, said, “We will get the best of players from Brazil and Portugal and there is a lot of local talent as well. Football is very popular in Goa.”
He said the consortium is in talks with a few film stars to sell a small stake in the team. “The returns from football are very good compared to cricket. You don’t need big money in this game and the gestation period is low,” he said.
Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, said the tie-up with Atletico Madrid brings a huge value to the Kolkata team. “They will be an active partner. There will also be a lot of learning from Sourav and this league will help a lot more people take up football, just like it happened with cricket earlier,” he said.
Atletico Madrid currently leads the Spanish La Liga football league ahead of richer and more fancied rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid, and it knocked Barcelona out of the UEFA Champions League European club championship this week.
The football league got a boost last October when Star India had picked up one-third stake in a company jointly owned by Ambani's RIL and IMG for Rs.2,000 crore. The deal also gave Star the broadcast rights for the league for 10 years.
IMG-Reliance had acquired commercial and marketing rights for football in India in 2010 from the All India Football Federation for Rs 700 crore, to be paid over the 15-year period of the deal. The deal included starting a new football league.
Football, the world’s most loved sport, has been gaining popularity in India in recent years. In 2011, there were 83 million TV viewers watching football in India, about two-thirds  of the 122 million people who watched cricket. A study by TAM Media Research showed that between 2005 and 2009, audience for football rose 60%.
However, much of this audience is for foreign leagues like the UEFA Champions League, English Premier League and Spanish La Liga.
ISL can potentially woo these viewers — not just on TV but to stadiums as well — by bringing in top players and managers from around the world.

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