Before the Indian Super League there was, the Indian Super League.
Hold that thought.
In December 2010, IMG Reliance (IMGR) inked a 15 year/INR 700 crore ($155 million at the time) deal with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) for the “promotion and development of football” in India. In return for “all commercial rights” of AIFF tournaments, IMGR was tasked to “radically restructure, overhaul, improve, popularize and promote the game of football throughout India, from the grassroots to the professional level”. This included, among other deliverables, moulding the image and raising the profile of the national and domestic teams, along with managing the branding, marketing, and telecast of the domestic tournaments.
IMGR - a JV between IMG and the Reliance Group - also laid out a brief plan to “develop, operate and administer a new professional football league in the country” at the time of signing the contract.
Three years later, they and AIFF, along with Star India announced the Indian Super League (ISL), “an unrivalled football championship” aiming to make football “one of the country's flagship sports”. The league was to “revolutionize the sport” by giving Indian football “greater global exposure”, and making India “a name to reckon with in the global arena.”
True to cause, the ISL became an instant hit. Eight teams - Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune took the field in the first season, all teams playing evening games under floodlights, to stadiums packed with fans adorned in team colors. This was a new feeling for football in India where, except for the I-League Kolkata derby (Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal) and the occasional game in Goa, the sport rarely saw more than a few hundred gathered in the stands. The ISL was also helped, not the least with the presence of yesteryear football legends - known as marquee players - such as Alessandro Del Piero (Delhi), Luis Garcia (Kolkata), Elano & Marco Materazzi (Chennai) and Fredrik Ljungberg (Mumbai). ISL boasted of its own share of Bollywood and cricketing glamour with the likes of Ranbir Kapoor (Mumbai), Abhishek Bachchan (Chennai), and Sachin Tendulkar (Kerala) holding ownership stakes in teams.
At the time, the revolutionary tournament - despite its learnings from other international leagues - was believed to be the brainchild of IMGR, something they had been working on since the mega deal was signed.
But as the ISL took center stage in the years to come, one man looked on in disbelief from four thousand miles away. He could hardly fathom the fact that the ISL was being presented by IMGR as their own idea. All his efforts in coming up with an idea and creating a blueprint to give Indian football a push in the right direction had simply been lifted and presented as someone else’s.
*
The story dates back to as early as 2008, at least two years before the IMG and Reliance Group partnership was formed, and the I-League was the top league in India.
Yogesh Joshee, who had migrated to England as a toddler and had grown up playing football in the neighbourhood, chose academics - an education in IT consultancy - over the sport. He could hardly be kept away from football, though. During a chance visit to the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) awards, he was exposed to the world of athletes and player representatives, and his career took a drastic turn.
In the following few years, he worked his way up the ladder to earn his FIFA licensing badge and became a certified agent. He then set up Match World Ltd. - a football agency based out of England. Among the many working relationships that he developed during those early days, one was one with Kenny Moyes, brother of current West Ham United manager, David Moyes.
During the course of his work, Joshee - still deeply connected to his roots in India - realised the lack of both, Indian representation and players in world football. He decided to jump in.
In 2008, he paid a visit to then India coach Bob Houghton, who was with the national team on an exposure tour in Portugal. On inquiring with the top boss, Houghton apprised him of the potential of a then 23-year-old Sunil Chhetri. By then, Chhetri - who would go on to don the captain’s armband for India - had turned out for top Indian clubs such as Mohun Bagan, JCT and East Bengal. Houghton singled him out as the most promising player on the squad.
This piqued Joshee’s interest. He signed on to manage Chhetri’s career, along with a bunch of other players from the national squad such as Subrata Pal, Jeje Lalpekhlua and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. Signing with Joshee proved to be the shot in the arm Chhetri’s career needed; he landed trials at England’s Coventry City and Queens Park Rangers, while turning out for Kansas City Wizards in the U.S. and the reserve side of Sporting CP in Portugal.
The normally self-effacing Joshee takes credit for being instrumental in giving Chhetri’s career a push in the right direction. It was one of the first instances of an Indian footballer being represented by an agent. Not only was Chhetri, the future star of Indian football, going places, he was quickly taking up the mantle of scoring goals for India from the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia.
The association and work with Chhetri helped Joshee forge many new relationships in the world of Indian football; he nearly became the first agent to bring an International star to India when he almost got Pune FC to sign former Manchester United player, and 2008 UEFA Champion, Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira to their I-League squad.
In September 2010, when the AIFF was looking for a candidate for the post of general secretary, it was Joshee, on a business trip in India at the time, who introduced a candidate he had in mind to Praful Patel, President of AIFF. Later that year, the two met once again at the Football Players Association of India awards ceremony, where he told Patel that he had a presentation on an idea that, he believed, would galvanize the AIFF and change the face and fate of Indian football.
A couple of days later, the duo met at Patel’s office. During that brief meeting, Joshee made a presentation of a tournament that he and a close associate from Portugal had conceptualised. It was a bold idea, one that would help Indian football unravel its full potential.
Labelled the Indian Super League, the concept was not only to improve the standard and infrastructure of football in India, but also help generate revenue and future partnerships for the those associated with it.
“My colleague and I came up with the concept back in 2009 and presented it to Praful Patel. IMG can claim they started it, but they know very well that it was our presentation that they used,” Joshee says.
Joshee’s “Superstar Football Tournament” proposed a partnership between AIFF and Major League Soccer (MLS), the premier league in America. The idea behind roping in MLS was manifold - the timing of the seasons in the two leagues (ISL was proposed to be conducted from November to March; the MLS season ran from March to October), the draw for corporate sponsors, the improving trade between the two countries, and even the seamless blend of the glamour of Hollywood / Bollywood with the sport. Joshee even reached out to the president of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) at the time, Sunil Gulati - a person of Indian origin. Joshee apprised him of his meeting with Patel and proposed a potential partnership with the MLS. Joshee had received a less than satisfactory response at the time, but moving forward with the partnership seemed ‘very possible’.
The proposed league was to consist of eight teams: seven Indian teams would be hosted in six major Indian cities - Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai, with one in a major American city - either New York or Los Angeles. Teams would play a round robin format, where each round would be a three-day event starting Thursday, and kickoffs scheduled for 4PM and 7PM. And contrary to the convention followed in most international leagues, the top two teams after the league stage would eventually play a final.
Each club would have a squad of 24, including I-League players. Forty international players including superstars the likes of David Beckham, Thierry Henry - both of whom played in the MLS - Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, and Ronaldinho were mentioned in the presentation. Indian coaches would be accompanied by marquee international coaches the likes of Johan Cruyff, Jurgen Klinsmann, Ruud Gullit, Diego Maradona and Zico - who incidentally coached FC Goa for three ISL seasons.
The rights for the franchises would cost potential owners a flat rate of $ 50 million each. The $400 million fee generated would be utilised to build a National Football Centre and eight football stadiums to improve football infrastructure in the country. Revenue would be generated through media rights, sponsorship, merchandising and ticketing. AIFF would keep 20% of the amount generated, while the rest would be split equally among the eight franchises. State associations and I-League clubs would be allocated funds necessary to give football at the grassroots a much-needed impetus.
Comments
Before the Indian Super League there was, the Indian Super League.
Hold that thought.
In December 2010, IMG Reliance (IMGR) inked a 15 year/INR 700 crore ($155 million at the time) deal with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) for the “promotion and development of football” in India. In return for “all commercial rights” of AIFF tournaments, IMGR was tasked to “radically restructure, overhaul, improve, popularize and promote the game of football throughout India, from the grassroots to the professional level”. This included, among other deliverables, moulding the image and raising the profile of the national and domestic teams, along with managing the branding, marketing, and telecast of the domestic tournaments.
IMGR - a JV between IMG and the Reliance Group - also laid out a brief plan to “develop, operate and administer a new professional football league in the country” at the time of signing the contract.
Three years later, they and AIFF, along with Star India announced the Indian Super League (ISL), “an unrivalled football championship” aiming to make football “one of the country's flagship sports”. The league was to “revolutionize the sport” by giving Indian football “greater global exposure”, and making India “a name to reckon with in the global arena.”
True to cause, the ISL became an instant hit. Eight teams - Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune took the field in the first season, all teams playing evening games under floodlights, to stadiums packed with fans adorned in team colors. This was a new feeling for football in India where, except for the I-League Kolkata derby (Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal) and the occasional game in Goa, the sport rarely saw more than a few hundred gathered in the stands. The ISL was also helped, not the least with the presence of yesteryear football legends - known as marquee players - such as Alessandro Del Piero (Delhi), Luis Garcia (Kolkata), Elano & Marco Materazzi (Chennai) and Fredrik Ljungberg (Mumbai). ISL boasted of its own share of Bollywood and cricketing glamour with the likes of Ranbir Kapoor (Mumbai), Abhishek Bachchan (Chennai), and Sachin Tendulkar (Kerala) holding ownership stakes in teams.
At the time, the revolutionary tournament - despite its learnings from other international leagues - was believed to be the brainchild of IMGR, something they had been working on since the mega deal was signed.
But as the ISL took center stage in the years to come, one man looked on in disbelief from four thousand miles away. He could hardly fathom the fact that the ISL was being presented by IMGR as their own idea. All his efforts in coming up with an idea and creating a blueprint to give Indian football a push in the right direction had simply been lifted and presented as someone else’s.
*
The story dates back to as early as 2008, at least two years before the IMG and Reliance Group partnership was formed, and the I-League was the top league in India.
Yogesh Joshee, who had migrated to England as a toddler and had grown up playing football in the neighbourhood, chose academics - an education in IT consultancy - over the sport. He could hardly be kept away from football, though. During a chance visit to the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) awards, he was exposed to the world of athletes and player representatives, and his career took a drastic turn.
In the following few years, he worked his way up the ladder to earn his FIFA licensing badge and became a certified agent. He then set up Match World Ltd. - a football agency based out of England. Among the many working relationships that he developed during those early days, one was one with Kenny Moyes, brother of current West Ham United manager, David Moyes.
During the course of his work, Joshee - still deeply connected to his roots in India - realised the lack of both, Indian representation and players in world football. He decided to jump in.
In 2008, he paid a visit to then India coach Bob Houghton, who was with the national team on an exposure tour in Portugal. On inquiring with the top boss, Houghton apprised him of the potential of a then 23-year-old Sunil Chhetri. By then, Chhetri - who would go on to don the captain’s armband for India - had turned out for top Indian clubs such as Mohun Bagan, JCT and East Bengal. Houghton singled him out as the most promising player on the squad.
This piqued Joshee’s interest. He signed on to manage Chhetri’s career, along with a bunch of other players from the national squad such as Subrata Pal, Jeje Lalpekhlua and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. Signing with Joshee proved to be the shot in the arm Chhetri’s career needed; he landed trials at England’s Coventry City and Queens Park Rangers, while turning out for Kansas City Wizards in the U.S. and the reserve side of Sporting CP in Portugal.
The normally self-effacing Joshee takes credit for being instrumental in giving Chhetri’s career a push in the right direction. It was one of the first instances of an Indian footballer being represented by an agent. Not only was Chhetri, the future star of Indian football, going places, he was quickly taking up the mantle of scoring goals for India from the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia.
The association and work with Chhetri helped Joshee forge many new relationships in the world of Indian football; he nearly became the first agent to bring an International star to India when he almost got Pune FC to sign former Manchester United player, and 2008 UEFA Champion, Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira to their I-League squad.
In September 2010, when the AIFF was looking for a candidate for the post of general secretary, it was Joshee, on a business trip in India at the time, who introduced a candidate he had in mind to Praful Patel, President of AIFF. Later that year, the two met once again at the Football Players Association of India awards ceremony, where he told Patel that he had a presentation on an idea that, he believed, would galvanize the AIFF and change the face and fate of Indian football.
A couple of days later, the duo met at Patel’s office. During that brief meeting, Joshee made a presentation of a tournament that he and a close associate from Portugal had conceptualised. It was a bold idea, one that would help Indian football unravel its full potential.
Labelled the Indian Super League, the concept was not only to improve the standard and infrastructure of football in India, but also help generate revenue and future partnerships for the those associated with it.
“My colleague and I came up with the concept back in 2009 and presented it to Praful Patel. IMG can claim they started it, but they know very well that it was our presentation that they used,” Joshee says.
Slide 4 & 5 of Joshee's presentation
Joshee’s “Superstar Football Tournament” proposed a partnership between AIFF and Major League Soccer (MLS), the premier league in America. The idea behind roping in MLS was manifold - the timing of the seasons in the two leagues (ISL was proposed to be conducted from November to March; the MLS season ran from March to October), the draw for corporate sponsors, the improving trade between the two countries, and even the seamless blend of the glamour of Hollywood / Bollywood with the sport. Joshee even reached out to the president of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) at the time, Sunil Gulati - a person of Indian origin. Joshee apprised him of his meeting with Patel and proposed a potential partnership with the MLS. Joshee had received a less than satisfactory response at the time, but moving forward with the partnership seemed ‘very possible’.
Joshee to Gulati
The proposed league was to consist of eight teams: seven Indian teams would be hosted in six major Indian cities - Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai, with one in a major American city - either New York or Los Angeles. Teams would play a round robin format, where each round would be a three-day event starting Thursday, and kickoffs scheduled for 4PM and 7PM. And contrary to the convention followed in most international leagues, the top two teams after the league stage would eventually play a final.
Each club would have a squad of 24, including I-League players. Forty international players including superstars the likes of David Beckham, Thierry Henry - both of whom played in the MLS - Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, and Ronaldinho were mentioned in the presentation. Indian coaches would be accompanied by marquee international coaches the likes of Johan Cruyff, Jurgen Klinsmann, Ruud Gullit, Diego Maradona and Zico - who incidentally coached FC Goa for three ISL seasons.
Slide 6 & 9 of Joshee's presentation
The rights for the franchises would cost potential owners a flat rate of $ 50 million each. The $400 million fee generated would be utilised to build a National Football Centre and eight football stadiums to improve football infrastructure in the country. Revenue would be generated through media rights, sponsorship, merchandising and ticketing. AIFF would keep 20% of the amount generated, while the rest would be split equally among the eight franchises. State associations and I-League clubs would be allocated funds necessary to give football at the grassroots a much-needed impetus.