If you were asked to name to most popular sports in India you'd probably be right if you answered cricket and hockey. In the last few years cricket has benefitted from the economic boom in India and money has been ploughed into the IPL bringing in top players from around the world to play in the tournament...and now the super powers in India have turned their attention to football (and no, I don't mean the Venky revolution).
It has been announced today that the Celebrity Management Group have gained the rights for a tournament to be held in India for the next thirty years. The initial tournament will feature six teams and will run from February 25th until April 8th and is rumoured to have already signed up a number of "world class" stars. Big names already signed up are Robert Pires, Fabio Cannavaro, Robbie Fowler, Hernan Crespo, Jay Jay Okocha, Fernando Morientes and Maniche...now one thing that immediately jumps out from this list, with the exception of Maniche and Fowler, is "I thought they'd retired".
Every team will be allowed to spend $2.5m in their first season and will be allowed a maximum of four foreign players and must have at least six Indian players under the age of 21. The domestic league in India isn't particularly well followed, however it is estimated that 60million fans in India watched the English Premier League. What the hope of the tournament will be is that the young players will learn from the old pros and boost the profile of the team in India and also boost the standard of the national team...maybe they'll even qualify for the World Cup before too long.
My fear is that rather than being a festival of football, this tournament is in danger of being a few old boys going through the motions to pick up one last big pay day. The main evidence for this (apart from the average age being about 83) is that none of the players have actually signed for a team, they've signed up for the league with 30 players and 6 managers being auctioned off in the city of Kolkata closer to the start of the league. Each team will be given a salary cap of $600,000 and be allowed to sign one 'iconic' player each...now the numerically astute of you will have noticed that there are in fact 7 'iconic' players listed, i wonder who will be the proverbial 'last kid picked in the playground'...I really hope its not Robbie.
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