The Premier League Soccer was formally launched today in Kolkata by CMG and Indian Football Association. The 7 week football extravaganza will involve a host of big names in World football.
French World Cup winning Roberto Pires who has also played for Arsenal will be one of the 6 icon players for the 6 franchisee teams representing the cities of Kolkata, Haldia, Durgapur, Barasat, Siliguri and Howrah
The 6 icon players
Juan Pablo Sorin (Argentine World Cup winner)
Robert Pires (French World Cup winner, Euro Cup winner)
Maniche (Portuguese World Cupper)
Jay Jay Okocha (Nigerian World Cupper)
Sergio Paulo (Portuguese World Cupper)
Fabio Cannavaro (Italian World Cupper)
Salary Cap for icon players is USD 6 Lakhs
“We want to put up at least 8-10 icon players and coaches which will give the franchises best options in the auction,”
Bhaswar Goswami, CMG
The category A players
There will be current International players from senior and U21 teams of countries like Brazil, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Columbia and Nigeria. They will be auctioned. The teams will be able to buy 4 foreign players but only 3 will be playing at a time.
Salary Cap for these players is USD 2 Lakhs.
The Iconic Coaches
The six ‘icon’ coaches with whom the organisers have negotiated include Barnes, Adams, Reid, former Barcelona star Marco Etcheverry and Teitur Thordarson of Iceland. They will be auctioned too along with the players.
Local Players
Each team can buy 9-14 Indian footballers who will be U21 and will be brought in from different academies and leagues including Kolkata League. The salary cap for these players will be USD 1 Lakh
Saurav Ganguly as a franchisee
Saurav Ganguly is keen on buying a team, preferably Kolkata or Durgapur with another business group. There has already been a lot of interest from at least a dozen corporate groups.
The organizers are hoping to expand the league later on to span the whole West Bengal and also to all over India in future.
We are starting off with these six towns. But the aim is to have a pan-India presence. There will be television telecast through which we will get a national presence. We are targeting the youth segment who are hooked to the English Premier League. Bhaswar Goswami
The Format
The format will be of home and away matches for the six outfits and four teams will advance into the semifinal league which will also be played on home and away basis. The two top teams will clash in the final.
Again… Cricket & Ganguly had to be in 🙁 Why cant it just be football??
he was a football player and the connection with him will increase popularity