Premier Futsal league - 2016

goalkeepargoalkeepar Turkish occupied Cyprus29216 Points
edited June 2016 in Indian Football
Amid the rising fanfare around franchise-based sports in the country, Portuguese football legend Luis Figo launched Premier Futsal, India's first-ever multi-national futsal league, in Mumbai on Tuesday. Premier Futsal will kick-off on 15 July this year and eight Indian cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangaluru, Kochi, Hyderabad and Goa - each with their own franchise teams, will compete for the top prize.

Futsal is a shorter variant of football (20- minuted halves) and is played indoors between fiva-a-side teams. "It's a new challenge, a new adventure (for me) that I hope, like everything I did in the past on the pitch with different clubs I played for, is a success," said Figo, who will serve as the president of Premier Futsal, at the launch of Premier Futsal. The tournament will feature eight marquee international futsal stars, each representing one of eight teams, and will showcase 56 current international players from 21 countries. More importantly, Premier Futsal, in association with the Futsal Association of India (FAI) will conduct a talent hunt across the eight host cities to scout 40 Indian futsallers for the tournament.

The program, starting on 15 May, will comb through 2,500 participants per city and shortlist five regional players for each team. Each five-a-side team will include a marquee player, three international players, and one Indian player, along with seven substitutes. The grand finals of the 10-day long tournament will be played on 24 July. Figo, a former Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan star and winner of the Fifa World Player of the year and Ballon d'Or, seemed excited about the project and said that many future football stars, including the likes of Ronaldinho and Messi, made their foray into the sport through futsal. And though he was initially sceptical about futsal in India, he believes the country, where many kids start playing football on the streets in a five-a-side game, has potential to produce futsallers.

"India is a huge country. People love sports here, they love soccer, cricket. And because there is a huge population, there is a huge market and a huge opportunity for sports events to reach great success. It's a combination of these factors that helped me decide to join this project," Figo said at the event.

 "I hope we can give something to the Indian population to watch and enjoy and we could do something positive for the sport and for the country. Premier Futsal logo. Manas Mitul/Firstpost "Futsal is synonymous with speed, skills and the spectacular and could be very interesting and amazing to watch on the television." Figo is starting the project in association with Indian entrepreneurs who conceptualized the futsal league under the entity Premier Futsal Management Pvt Ltd. The chairman of Premier Futsal, Xavier Britto, said he was confident that the tournament will capture the imagination of Indian television-viewers and fans due to the fast and action-packed nature and short duration of the sport.

India, since the inception of the Indian Premier League (IPL), has undergone a revolution in the franchise-based sports market, with the ISL, Pro Kabbadi League, Premier Badminton League, and Pro Wrestling League, the most recent entrant, finding decent following in the country. In fact Balu Nayar, who was involved in the design, marketing and monetisation of the IPL, is the executive director at Premier Futsal. While all these sports were already popular in the country, India is yet to have its tryst with Futsal. The Portuguese soccer star said the project is a first step in the direction. "We are not here to compete with cricket," Figo said. "It's impossible to compete with cricket in India. We are just here to introduce India to Futsal."
kartik91
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Comments

  • And FIFA said this league is illegal so it dies a premature death..until some 'Crickters' or 'flimstars' or 'businessman' along with AIFF decides to take plunge!!
  • goalkeepargoalkeepar Turkish occupied Cyprus29216 Points
    Looks like AIFF to take legal action against FAI. what's the problem for FIFA? dose FIFA own trademark of Futsal?
  • archakarchak 2082 Points
    FIFA and AMF are in constant fight over which association holds the right for futsal
  • DXDX 4074 Points
    Excited of this from a fans perspective. Lower investment and you can get away with a smaller crowd similar to Kabbaddi.

    Plus gives a fillip to all those with street savvy skills to get into the game.

    Decent indoor futsal structure as well in chennai.
    deepakc
  • DXDX 4074 Points
    Composition is 3 foriegn player, 1 marquee Player (Obviously cannot have one Marquee player remember out of my head) and Just 1 Indian out of a team of 12. Well thats fucked!!
     
  • goalkeepargoalkeepar Turkish occupied Cyprus29216 Points
    Chennai: The promoter of Chennai City FC, who are among the oldest football clubs in the city, has successfully bid for Premier Futsal’s Chennai squad, thus becoming the first franchise to be picked up ahead of the league’s inaugural season. The franchise has been bought by football aficionado and sports entrepreneur Rohit Ramesh for an undisclosed sum in a long- term agreement with Premier Futsal. As the promoter of the franchise, Ramesh will be responsible for the operation of the team, marketing as well as grassroots development for sustained talent growth. Commenting on the agreement, Ramesh said “I’m delighted to acquire the Chennai franchise of Premier Futsal. It gives me immense pride especially because it’s Chennai, my home city. Futsal is extremely popular across the world and I’m confident that through Premier Futsal, the sport will grow to occupy a prominent place amid Indian sports. We share the organizers long- term vision for this property and look forward to an exciting long-term association ahead.” Led by the ‘Pele of Futsal’, Alessandro Rosa Vieira, fondly known as Falcao, the league will feature over 50 International Futsallers from four continents and 21 countries. Each franchise will be assigned a marquee international football player, seven international and five Indian Futsallers for their squad to participate in the inaugural season through a player draft scheduled later this month. Premier Futsal Managing Director, Dinesh Raj said, “We are very happy to have Rohit Ramesh on-board as the owner of our Chennai franchise. Our intention is to develop each team as a club which evokes a culture and values that are distinctive to the city it represents. Therefore we were seeking partners who can make a long-term commitment towards developing their club’s identity while at the same time nurturing future talent.Ramesh is passionate about sport and football in particular, as evident from his ownership of Chennai City FC, which combined with his technical expertise and business acumen make him the ideal partner for our Chennai franchise.” Premier Futsal, the world’s first multi- national team-based Futsal league, is set to take place in India from July 15 to July 24 with each game split into two halves of 20 minutes each.
    deepakc
  • samiamsamiam 1614 Points
    Why did we
    Not play 2018 futsal wc qualifiers?
    deepakc
  • samiamsamiam 1614 Points
    Infact other than Afghanistan no one of saff played
  • goalkeepargoalkeepar Turkish occupied Cyprus29216 Points
    Because we don't have a futsal Team,also we don't participate in Beach soccer I remember we participated once in beach soccer with all goan players and did good after that we don't have a team.
  • ArsenalFan700ArsenalFan700 Reddit13655 Points
    Could the GFA start a beach soccer league? Would be cool to have a few in places like Goa, Kerala etc. and then maybe a domestic cup for the champions of those leagues or something
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