Foreigners in IPL-style football league likely to be a mixture of retired and current stars

The IPL-style football league which AIFF’s commercial partners, IMG-Reliance, are proposing to host next year will comprise of several high-profile foreign players, but they would not necessarily be only retired stars, a source who is working closely with the new tournament has confirmed to Sportskeeda.

With the tournament likely to be a two-month event starting in January 2014, there were some suggestions that just like the Premier League Soccer (PLS) that eventually didn’t happen in Bengal, several retired World Cuppers would feature.

But the source said, “Foreign players will be a mixture of retired and current stars. Players can always come on loan from leagues like the MLS (that won’t be in action during January-February) and even from the ones that will be functioning.”

The number of franchises for the new league could be between eight and ten and it was learnt that each team could have five to six foreigners with one of them being the icon player.

12 Indian players have already signed an agreement to play in the new league but the source explained that the players would be owned by the franchises that they will be allocated to, and not by IMG-R.

Gouramangi Singh, Subrata Pal, Syed Rahim Nabi , Renedy Singh, Sanju Pradhan are some of the big Indian names that have already agreed to feature in football’s IPL, with another media report claiming that the signing of former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia inspired other players to follow.

All those of who have signed so far are free agents and thus the likes of Climax Lawrence, Samir Naik, Anthony Pereira, Sandip Nandy are also in talks, while India captain Sunil Chhetri is yet to decide his future.

Most I-League clubs though are not in favour of this new tournament and have refused to release any of their players for two months and promised not to sign any player who is part of the IMG-R league. But a meeting of the IPFCA (I-League Professional Football Clubs’ Association) will take place on June 5 in Mumbai with members expected to discuss this issue besides the other key decisions of AIFF’s emergency committee that introduced various changes in the I-League.

It was also learnt that IMG-R are close to getting a global broadcaster for both the new league and I-League.

Support from Darby

The majority in the Indian football fraternity might remain skeptical about football’s IPL, but one of the most reputed coaches of South-East Asia, Steve Darby, is positive about the new venture.

“I am very much interested in the new IPL style tournament that is coming up as I think it has a great potential to lift the national interest in the game,” the former Mohun Bagan coach told Sportskeeda.