Indian Super League: What It's All About?

The Indian Super League, India’s very own football league is going to start from October 12^th, and as the nation gears up for the first football league, here is what you should know about it.

Bringing Indian football out of hibernation
The Indian Super league was founded in 2013 after seeing that many Indians are crazy about football craze, but sadly, have no national football league to follow. The Indian Super League aims to turn the table.

It would function like Twenty20 cricket IPL and will comprise eight franchise teams, owned from people and companies across the country. The league will commence in October and end in December.

Slugging it out
Eight teams that will compete in this league are as follows:

· Atlético de Kolkata, coached by Antonio López Habas, with Spain as the foreign draft.
· Chennai Titans, coached by Marco Materazzi with Italy as the foreign draft.
· Delhi Dynamos FC, coached by Harm van Veldhoven with Netherlands as the foreign draft.
· FC Goa, coached by Fatorda Stadium Zico with Brazil as the foreign draft.
· Kerala Blasters FC, coached by David James with England as the foreign draft.
· Mumbai City FC, coached by Peter Reid with England as the foreign draft.
· North East United FC, coached by Ricki Herbert with New Zealand as the foreign draft.
· FC Pune City, coached by Franco Colomba with Italy as the foreign draft.

Who’s who in the ISL
The league is owned by Reliance Industries Ltd, Star India Pvt. Ltd. and IMG Worldwide Inc. It would be broadcast exclusively on STAR Sports and will have Hero MotoCorp as the title sponsor; thus the name Hero Indian Super League. From Bollywood, we have John Abraham who co-owns the team North East United FC, Ranbir Kapoor who co-owns the team Mumbai City FC, Abhishek Bachchan who co-owns Chennai Titans, Salman Khan who co-owns FC Pune City, and Varun Dhawan who is the brand ambassador of FC Goa. From the field of Indian Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar is the co-owner of Kerala Blasters FC and Sourav Ganguly is the co-owner of Atletico de Kolkata.

Rules of the game
Every year, the league would be played between October and December. Each team will play against all other teams twice on a home-and-away basis, almost like the Pro Kabaddi League. The top four teams will qualify for the finals.

While building their teams, each team will have to sign:
· At least seven foreigners, out of which two will be from the club and five will be from the foreign player draft;
· One marquee player, which in the words of AIFF is "A foreign recruit who has represented his country in any of the continental championships like the European Championship, Copa America, African Nations Cup, Asian Cup, or FIFA World Cup will be called a marquee player;" and
· 14 Indian domestic players, four of which have to be local players from the city the team belongs to.

Stake money
Team owners’ investments in the ISL are worth having a look. Different teams have shelled out crores to buy foreign players—the date is given below:

Goa: Rs 2.46 crore
Chennai Titans: Rs 2.34 crore
Atletico de Kolkata: Rs 2.17 crore
Mumbai City: Rs 2.10 crore
Kerala Blasters: Rs 1.98 crore
Pune City: Rs 1.75 crore
Delhi Dynamos: Rs 1.62 crore
North East United: Rs 1.62 crore

With people from Bollwood and Indian Cricket taking up various roles in this league, be it owners or promoters, the league is surely going to be one gala event to watch out for.