Pitch problems postpone start of India league
Reuters - Wednesday 22 February 2012, 07:35
The inaugural edition of
India's Premier League Soccer (PLS), featuring World Cup winner
Fabio Cannavaro and former France international Robert Pires,
has been postponed because of a lack of venues, organisers told
Reuters on Wednesday.
The six-team competition, modelled on the successful Indian
Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament, was slated for
a March 24 start in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal but
the organisers said they could not secure the stadiums owned by
the state government.
"Discussion is on with the state government but even if it
is sorted out by the end of this week, we would need time to
prepare the fields," Dharamdutt Pandey, CEO of the event
management company which conceived PLS, said by telephone.
Secretary of All India Football Federation's (AIFF) West
Bengal unit was in touch with the state sports minister and the
issue would be resolved soon, Pandey claimed.
"These are minor issues and PLS is very much on. We are now
targetting a mid-April start for the league.
"It would require at least one month to upgrade the stadiums
to an international standard. So we are now looking at
mid-April," Pandey added.
PLS is the second such league which set out to replicate
IPL's success before teething problems led to postponements.
Earlier this month, promoters of an IPL-style nine-team
motor racing league deferred the 12-race competition to next
year because of logistic issues.
HOTTEST PROPERTY
In an otherwise cricket-crazy India, football is popular in
pockets but nowhere more so than in West Bengal.
Nearly 120,000 fans gave a rousing reception to Oliver Kahn
in the German goalkeeper's 2008 Bayern Munich swansong in
Kolkata and Argentina great Diego Maradona almost brought the
city to a standstill during his visit in the same year.
The January 30 auction of PLS players - mostly in the twilight
of their careers - and coaches further whetted that appetite.
Franchises spent nearly $7 million in the auction where
Argentine Hernan Crespo proved the league's hottest property,
fetching $840,000.
Italy's 2006 World Cup-winning captain Cannavaro ($830,000),
Pires ($800,000), Nigerian Jay-Jay Okocha ($550,000) and
Liverpool great Robbie Fowler ($530,000) were also auctioned as
"icon' players among franchises based in different cities in
West Bengal.
Among the coaches, former Manchester City and Sunderland
manager Peter Reid and Marco Etcheverry, arguably the greatest
Bolivian player, went for $200,000 each.