United SC Sign Former East Bengal Goalkeeper Abhijit Mondal

United SC, Kolkata, Football, India, IMG - Reliance, Indian Super League, ISL, Players Loan United SC registered 11 players at IFA including Abhijit Mondal, Sashti Duley!

United Sports Club on Tuesday registered a total number of eleven players at the IFA Office ahead of 2015-16 Calcutta Football League (Premier Division).

The former United SC keeper Abhijit Mondal, who was member of club’s maiden Durand Cup winning squad in 2010, making his return at the club after spending two successful seasons at East Bengal.

United SC, Kolkata, Football, India, IMG - Reliance, Indian Super League, ISL, Abhijit Mondal“It feels great to become a member of purple family again. I still remember when we won the Durand Cup in 2010, we also had a young team like this year therefor I am very much hopeful to repeat that performance once again,” Mondal said.

Meanwhile the club has also signed seasoned campaigner Sashti Duley along with a host of young but talented footballers like Usman Ashik, Sreanshu Das, Ajay Nag, Md. Rashid, Shaibuddin KK, Subhajit Biswas, Suhair VP, Sahbaz Salil and Md. Rafi.

Lucio is the Marquee Player for FC Goa

Lucio, Brazil, ISL, Hero,  Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, FC Goa, Leverkusen, Football, Goa, Soccer, Champions League, Winner, Indian Super League, Season 2, IILucimar Ferreira da Silva (born 8 May 1978), commonly known as Lúcio has signed by the Goan franchise for the second edition of ISL.

We had reported about this development earlier.

The Goan Franchise has gone ahead and confirmed the signing.

In his career spanning over 17 years, he has played for top European clubs like Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Bayer Leverkusen. He last played for Palmeiras in Brazil. Lucio won the 2002 World Cup with the Seleção, Champions League with Inter Milan in the 2009-10 season and a league treble with Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. This is a top class marquee player. Good luck to FC Goa for the second season.

ISL Season II – Salary Cap to come in!

ISL, Indian Super League, Player Draft, Soccer, League, India, Football, France, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Brazil, Portugal, Colombia , South Korea , Argentina, Canada, Serbia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, England, Greece , Cameroon,Reports suggest Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL), the controlling body of Indian Super League held its first governing council meeting today. Apart from reviewing the first season, the governing council also laid out the player guidelines for the next season. The following are the main decisions from the meeting.

Salary Cap :

ISL season II will have a salary cap for players. 20 crores will be the cap.

Marquee Player :

Each club “must have a minimum one marquee player”. Clubs can retain marquee players from the 1st season or go ahead sign from the open market, with approval from ISL.

Foreign Players :

Clubs can retain a minimum of one and maximum of five international players. Clubs are allowed to sign international players from the market directly by themselves.

Domestic Players :

A minimum of one and maximum of six can be retained by the clubs. Players who are not retained by clubs can be signed by other clubs in an open market that will extend till April. If the released player still dont land a contract, they will be made part of a domestic draft.

Squad Size :

A club requires 22 players including 2 developmental ones. A team would consist one marquee, eight international and 13 domestic players (two U-23 players). Maximum squad size allowed is 25.

ISL will create a pool of 12 to 15 Indian international players who missed out on the 1st season. Each club can add one of these players to their roster through and auction.

Apart from this, there will be a domestic player draft as well.

An ISL spokesperson is quoted as saying, “The new set of rules are defined to encourage clubs in player retention, assist them in managing the player costs and provide a level playing field for each club to prepare for the second season with reasonable and broadly equitable chance of winning the ISL 2015. ”

This is a gist extracted from the reports that are emerging now. Finer details will emerge in the days to come. Keep watching.

 

Crystal Palace Tie up with Mumbai City FC

Crystal Palace, Indian Super League, Premier League, Barclays, Live, Mumbai, Mumbai City FC, Hero ISL, ISL, Mark Bright, England, EPL, Football, IndiaEnglish Premier League club Crystal Palace has tied up with Mumbai ISL franchise Mumbai City FC. Mumbai City FC along with Star Sports and Crystal Palace will stage a trial on thursday December 11th for 16-19 years olds in Mumbai.

12 players selected from this trial will be invited to perform their skills at the Barclays Premier League’s international fan park in Mumbai where live Premier League matches are to be screened.

A Crystal Palace delegation, led by club ambassador Mark Bright, will be assessing the selected footballers and the winner of the Play for Palace will travel to London to train with Crystal Palace’s young prospects.

Mark Bright who has scored more than 100 goals for Palace was quoted saying,

“This will be the chance of a lifetime. The winner of the competition will get a fantastic experience playing at the Academy and then go back to India to become an ambassador for Palace.

“This is a unique initiative. Everyone has a favourite local team and favourite overseas team – we want football fans in India to follow us.

“We know cricket is the number one sport in India, but football is global and it would be great to see an Indian-born player in the Premier League one day. They would become an idol and an inspiration”.

Crystal Palace chief executive Phil Alexander was quoted in the media saying, “We are very excited to be going to India to show ourselves to a new army of fans. The Premier League is booming in India and it’s a great chance for us to extend the club’s reach”.

A Mumbai City FC spokesman is also quoted in the reports. He said : “India,and Mumbai in particular, has a lot of football talent waiting to be harnessed and promoted. This initiative will provide a great platform for the youth of the city to showcase their skills and win the opportunity of a lifetime”.

More on the same here.

Wim era ends as Palestine defeats India

India, Palestine, Football, Soccer, FIFA, Friendly, October, West Bengal, Kanchenjunga, Siliguri, InternationalPalestine, the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup Champions beat India 3-2 in a friendly match that was played at the  Kanchenjunga stadium in Siliguri, on Monday evening. India were leading the match 2-1 at the half time.

India conceded as early as the 8th minute in the match. However Sunil Chhetri and Francis Fernandes scored apiece in the first half as India finished on top. The second half saw Palestine strongly coming back into the match and scoring two goals. Eventually India had to settle with a defeat in the friendly.

As yet another international friendly went by without telecast, fans were very vocal on social media about their displeasure.

Notable was also the complete silence from the ISL media team and the social media channels of ISL teams. Completely oblivious about the match, social media channels of ISL teams went about sharing totally irrelevant content. While this is not a big surprise for us, ISL which claims to take Indian football to another level omitting the national team’s friendly certainly does not bode well for the sport in India. All India Football Federation’s social media channels that used to be very active recently was also missing in action today.

This friendly against Palestine also marked the end of the Dutch coach Wim Koeverman’s stint as the national team’s manager. In the post match presentation ceremony Wim Koevermans confirmed that he is going to step down.

“This was my last match as the coach of the national team and I will not be taking up the post of AIFF’s Technical Director for private reasons,” said the Dutch coach.

How much will you shell out to watch Indian Super League?

Atlético de Kolkata, Indian Super League, Kolkata, Football, Ticket, Ticket Genie, Price, Indian Football, League, Sourav Ganguly, 200, Utsav parekh, Luis Garcia, EntertainmentFootball fans across the nation were curious about the pricing of upcoming Indian Super League’s tickets. Atlético de Kolkata is the first team in Indian Super League to come out with ticket prices for their seven home matches. We can expect rest of the franchises to also follow suit and price tickets for their respective home games along these lines.

 

It is confirmed that Atlético de Kolkata supporters will be shelling out anything between Rs. 200 to Rs. 2500 to watch their home matches. Tickets are already available online at atleticodekolkata.ticketgenie.in.

 

The Kolkata franchise has also provided an option of purchasing a season ticket, where a fan needs to pay only for six matches and get to watch the seventh home match for free.

 

Sourav Ganguly and Utsav Parekh, co-owners of the Atlético de Kolkata has urged fans to turn up to the stadium early, as plenty of entertainment both before kickoff and at halftime is planned.

 

“We want the people to come with their families and have a good time at the stadium. Plenty of entertainment is being lined up,” said Sourav Ganguly in a press note from the league.

Details of ticket prices are below:

Prices that are being offered

Rs. 200/-; Rs. 300/-; Rs. 400/-; Rs. 500/-; Rs. 750/-; Rs. 2000/- (for the opening match) and Rs. 1250/- (for the remaining 6 matches); Rs. 2500/- (Hospitality tickets)

Discounts for institutional and corporate bookings From 100 to 500 tickets booked – flat 5% discount; Above 500 tickets booked – flat 10% discount

Ticket Helpline Numbers: 8697045013, 8697045107, 080-49125900

Courier Helpline: 8697045236, E-Ticket: 8697045427, Bulk Booking: 8697045387

8 Channels, 5 languages – Hero Indian Super League’s ambitious broadcast plan

ISL, Indian Super League, Player Draft, Soccer, League, India, Football, France, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Brazil, Portugal, Colombia , South Korea , Argentina, Canada, Serbia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, England, Greece , Cameroon,The Hero Indian Super League (ISL) will be the first sporting event in the country to be backed by a never-before seen, ubiquitous broadcast platform plan, with the potential to reach around 85 per cent of India’s television audience. This ambitious plan is expected to herald an unparalleled reach for any content, in the history of Indian television.

In a pursuit to enthrall football purists as well as generate mass fan-following for Indian football, the ISL will be telecast LIVE on a range of Star India’s sports, movie and regional channels – a first in the history of broadcast in India.

Spanning over eight channels in the sports and general entertainment category across five languages, the Hero Indian Super League will be televised on Star Sports 2 (English), Star Sports 3 (Hindi), Star Sports HD 2 (English), Star Gold (Hindi), Star Utsav (Hindi), Asianet Movies (Malayalam), Jalsha Movies (Bengali) and Suvarna Plus (Kannada). Further more, live streaming will be available on www.starsports.com.

“We believe in the potential of football as a sport that cuts across culture, race, religion and economic might. The Hero Indian Super League heralds the Birth of India as a Footballing Nation and as the leading sports broadcasting network in India, we plan to take the viewer experience to the next level. In order to take the game of football closer to its fans, we are providing a never-seen before plan, leveraging the strength of sports, entertainment, regional and multi-screen. The magnitude of what we are setting out to do has never been attempted.” said Mr. Sanjay Gupta, COO, STAR India

Hero Indian Super League is scheduled to kick off from 12th October 2014, featuring eight clubs. There will be 56 league matches followed by two home-and-away semifinals, with the final on 20th December 2014.

The Hero Indian Super League’s official TV campaign – a panoramic 100-second film – launched earlier on 7th September. The first TVC sparked the start of the League’s lead up to a 36-day, 360 degree marketing campaign, bringing alive the hopes of over a billion people to live their dream of building a footballing nation.

Bad day in the media for Indian Super League?

ISL, Indian Super League, Player Draft, Soccer, League, India, Football, France, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Brazil, Portugal, Colombia , South Korea , Argentina, Canada, Serbia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, England, Greece , Cameroon,Indian Super League had a bad field day in the press yesterday.

A news piece that appeared on Livemint did not cut a good picture.

The article talks about IMG-R and Star’s difficulty in finding suitable associate sponsors for the league. Indian Super league had earlier announced Hero MotoCorp Ltd as the title sponsor. It was also mentioned that team sponsorships were equally hard to come by. Average advert rates for the front of the players’ jersey is Rs.5 crore, the back costs Rs.3 crore and each sleeve is priced at Rs.1-1.5 crore according to the article.

The second one should concern the  franchise owners. An article in www.afaqs.com talks about how the franchise owners might suffer because unlike IPL in which a Dollar-Rupee ratio cap is existing, ISL has no such measures. The article claims that exchange rate fluctuations could result in 10% variation in the pay outs for foreign players and thereby escalating costs for the franchises. Such financial strain for franchises in the very early stages of the league might not bode well for its future. Read the article here.

Well, before this is wound up it has to be mentioned that Indian Super League sort of papered over all these cracks by the end of the day when the signing of former French International Nicolas Anelka was announced by the Mumbai franchise.

Delhi Dynamos starts grassroots initiative

Delhi, Delhi Dynamos, ISL, Indian Super League, IMG, Reliance, IMG-Reliance, Football, India, Indianfootball, Den Networks, sameer manchandaIn line with its philosophy of creating a difference in the sphere of sports, especially Soccer. Delhi Dynamos Football Club today announced the launch of a novel initiative to take football to the grassroots by tying up with schools of National Capital Region of Delhi. This initiative is of utmost importance to Delhi Dynamos, as it will help identify, nurture and train talent. It will also provide the necessary   platform to the talented young children across Delhi/NCR & the North region. Under this programme, Delhi Dynamos will organize training camps and inter-school tournaments and create opportunities for the young generation. The campaign will kick start with the first ever Junior Dynamos Inter-School Championship, a 7-a-side football tournament, to be played in 4 zones of Delhi/NCR across 3 different age categories (U12, U14 & U17).

Delhi Dynamos FC, Founded and developed by DEN Soccer Pvt. Ltd. (a wholly owned subsidiary of DEN Networks Ltd.), will compete in the Indian Super League (ISL) for top honors against other clubs from India.

LtoR StepbyStep VS DPSThe first leg of the junior championship will be played from 19th-22nd August at Jaypee Sports Complex, Greater Noida and Ajanta Public School, Gurgaon. It will feature the top schools from East Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Gurgaon. A week later, action will shift to DDA Sports Complex, Vasant Kunj & Ganga International School as the young prodigies from schools of Central, South, North & West Delhi will showcase their football skills. The Zonal Champions of the Junior Dynamos Inter-School Championship would then get the opportunity to play at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium training ground as they face each other in a knockout format to seize the ultimate crown – The Junior Dynamos School Champion.

While these players will attack and defend on the field, the Junior Dynamos Scouts will constantly analyze their performance to select the best 100 players (U14 & U17) to be trained under the Junior Dynamos Coaches for the next 2-months on full scholarship. These young players will then play in the Junior Dynamos Elite League at JLN Stadium training ground during ISL match days.

Based on the performance, Scouts would then select the top 30 players (U14) who would form the Delhi Dynamos Youth Team. The chosen stars will undergo a 6-month long training program under the Junior Dynamos Coaches on full scholarship. These players will represent Delhi Dynamos in Youth Leagues across India. Scouting exercise will also continue for the U17 FIFA World Cup 2017 – India Dream Team.

Junior Dynamos City Championship

With a mission to identify talented players and train them using international methods, the Club will also organise the Junior Dynamos Inter-School City Championship at Chandigarh, Dehradun, Jaipur & Kanpur in North India. These inter-school championships will be played in the months of September, October and November 2014.

Junior Dynamos Train the Trainers Program

The success of a footballer’s career depends on the quality of coaching imparted by his gurus. Delhi, Delhi Dynamos, ISL, Indian Super League, IMG, Reliance, IMG-Reliance, Football, India, Indianfootball, Den Networks, sameer manchanda, grassrootsWith an aim to create the next generation of specialized football coaches and equip them with all necessary tools to produce top quality players, the Club has put in motion the Junior Dynamos Train The Trainers initiative. Under this exclusive program, the Junior Dynamos Coaches will conduct a series of 2-day workshops for over 100 P.E. Teachers in Delhi & NCR throughout the year.

Commenting on the Junior Dynamos program, Mr Piyush Goyal, Head new Initiatives-DEN Networks & Director-DEN Soccer, said: “Aligning with schools is the best way to identify and promote talent and football is no exception. We are kick starting this elaborate campaign across NCR and four other cities in the very first edition of ISL .We have seen the passion for Football growing by leaps and bounds. There is raw talent & energy in the youngsters and we are here to channelize this energy. I am confident that with guidance from top notch coaches, and our commitment, these players will surely make a mark at various levels including international tournaments.”

World’s Tallest Footballer Kristof Van Hout to Play for Delhi Dynamos

Delhi Dynamos FC today announced the signing of Belgian Kristof Van Hout for the inaugural season of the Hero Indian Super League. An accomplished goalkeeper, Van Hout played for Belgian powerhouse Kristof Van Hout, Delhi Dynamos, Football, Indian Super League, ISL, IMG, Reliance, Racing Genk, Belgium last season.

With the signing of Van Hout, the New Delhi based club has made a fine addition to one of the most vital positions in football. At 6ft10 (2.08m), he also has the distinction of being the tallest professional football player in the world, making him an imposing figure at the goalpost. At the age of 27, he is at the peak of his footballing prowess and will have plenty to offer to the club.

Van Hout burst on to the scene in 2008, becoming the hero of Kortrijk after saving three penalties in the shootout against league champions Standard Liege to help his team progress to the Quarterfinals. This earned him a transfer to none other than Standard Liege itself, with whom he won the Belgian Cup in 2010-11. Van Hout was on the bench for Liege’s matches in the Champions League, including two games against Premier League giants Arsenal.

In 2012, Van Hout made the move to another Belgian superclub, Racing Genk, one year after the club sold prodigious talent Thibaut Courtois to Chelsea. That season, Van Hout led Genk to a 3rd place finish in the Pro League, earning them a place in the Europa League. He also won his second Belgian Cup.

Van Hout will arrive in Delhi fully fit and raring to go. He featured in the Europa League for Genk as recently as February 27 of this year, playing the full 90 minutes against Russian club, Anzhi Makhachkala.

Commenting on his inclusion in the Delhi squad, Van Hout said, “I am eagerly looking forward to playing in India, which has a sizeable fan following for the game of football. I am confident that it will be an enjoyable and fruitful experience to play in Indian conditions.”

On Van Hout joining the team, Delhi Dynamos FC Coach Harm van Veldhoven said, “Van Hout is a seasoned player, who has contributed immensely to his teams in the past due to his fine goalkeeping skills. We are sure that he will display the same alacrity and judgement when defending Delhi Dynamos’ goalpost. His height is a big advantage, especially in close games that go down to penalty shootouts.”

Kristof Van Hout has added to the already impressive line up of international talent assembled at the Delhi Dynamos under the guidance of fellow countryman Harm van Veldhoven. The club has signed prolific strikers Mads Junker and Morten Skoubo, as well as experienced Belgian defender Wim Raymaekers following their strategic tie up with Feyenoord Rotterdam.

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