Sport | Football
Football aims to give IPL run for money
The tournament has already grossed more than Rs1b in franchise and player auctions
- IANS
- Published: 00:00 February 8, 2012
Kolkata: Indian football, riding high on the mega bucks and euphoria generated by the upcoming Premier League Soccer, has thrown a challenge to cricket, with a top PLS official saying the fare to be dished out by the proposed tournament would eclipse cricket's cash-rich Indian Premier League.
The dates of the two tourneys are clashing at a time when cricket is seemingly going through a crisis after dwindling crowd attendances and poor performances by the national team, which has also lost its sponsor Sahara.
On the other hand, the PLS has already grossed over Rs1 billion (Dh74.40 million) in franchise and foreign player auctions.
Termination
"Looking at the current situation, the IPL bosses should be more concerned about the PLS. I can say, through PLS, football is throwing a challenge at cricket," Indian Football Association (IFA) secretary Utpal Ganguly told the media here on Monday, days after Sahara India terminated its 11-year-old multi-million dollar sponsorship of Team India and also walked out of the Pune franchise of the IPL.
IFA, the governing body of the game in West Bengal, is co-organising the PLS in association with the Celebrity Management Group.
The PLS is tentatively slated to be played in six cities of the state, tentatively between March 4 and May 6, with six franchisees. IPL is scheduled to be held April 4 to May 27.
The PLS, which has lined up 35 matches and a total prize purse of Rs15 million, has already drawn industrial houses and former greats in international football.
Six industrial houses have already shelled out over Rs700 million for buying the six franchises — Kolkata, Howrah, Barasat, Durgapur, Haldia and Siliguri — at the first ever auction in the history of the game last month.
Later, players like Fabio Cannavaro, Hernan Crespo, Robert Pires were lapped up by the franchisees for astronomical prices at another auction.
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