It may not be in the league of cricket's money spinning IPL. But India's first professional football league - Premier League Soccer - kicked off to a healthy Rs 100-crore start during the initial auctioning of franchises and players. The commercial interest generated for the tournament, to be rolled out in Kolkata and five other cities in Bengal, was definitely a positive sign for the ‘beautiful game'.
If the organisers managed to collect a cool sum of over Rs 71 crore from the sale of five franchises to be located in the cities of Kolkata, Barasat, Asansol, Siliguri and Howrah, then the player auction on Monday saw another Rs 35 crore changing hands. Among the players auctioned today include Italy's 2006 World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro.
Star sellers
Amongst the icon players Hernan Crespo of Argentina got the highest bid price of Rs 4.20 crore ($840,000). He was picked up by Barasat. Italy's Fabio Cannavaro was a close second, picked up by the Siliguri franchise for Rs 4.15 crore ($830,000). French midfielder Robert Pires found a home at Howrah for Rs 4 crore ($ 800,000).
The remaining two franchises, Kolkata and Durgapur, zeroed in on former English and Liverpool star Robbie Fowler (Rs 2.65 crore or $ 530,000) and Jay-Jay Okocha (Rs 2.75 crore or $ 550,000) respectively.
Of the five foreign coaches, Fernando Couto of Portugal fetched the highest bid of Rs 1.2 crore (Howrah).
Franchise Auction
Earlier on Sunday, five of the six franchises were sold to various companies. Barasat with Rs 25.15 crore (bought by URO Infra Reality) was amongst the highest priced franchises, followed by Silliguri at Rs 18 crore (Aajay Consultants).
Kolkata (owned by Camelia Group) at Rs 11.15 crore was the third highest priced franchise. Durgapur and Howrah — to be owned by Tulip Infonet (at Rs 7.6 crore) and Syncsys Infotech (at Rs 9 crore) — complete the list of franchises sold out (all for a 10-year period).
According to the Mr Bhaswar Goswami, Executive Director, Celebrity Management Group, the Haldia franchise is likely to be purchased by the Kolkata-headquartered Greymind Communications. A decision on Haldia is likely to be taken in the next few days, he said.