MUMBAI: Goa Football Development Council (GFDC) today announced that the first football-specific conference in India will be held from 15- 16 March 2013 at the Marriot Hotel in Goa.

Not only was the logo for ?Goa International Football Table (GIFT) unveiled, but also details on the dynamic conference was announced ? from speakers to topics, to the nature of the premier footballing conference.
Apart from releasing the draft ?Football Policy? that will be unveiled by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to delineate a structured approach keeping in mind Goa?s culture and help develop a football-based eco-system, GIFT will focus on six major components:

• Marketing & Sponsorship - When Football meets Moneyball
• Infrastructure - Goa, India?s New Football Infra Story
• Talent Development - Goa, The Catalyst and Gateway to Indian Football Success
• Community Development / Social Upliftment - Sports (Football)The Simple Upliftment Of Society
• The Professionals - Upgrading Our Competition To Export Stars

Furthermore, the conference will launch the ?Gift Awards? which endeavors to honor and recognize achievers and bestow lifetime achievement awards to Goans who have contributed to football. The awards ceremony will see four players receiving the life-time achievement award along with a few coaches and referees. GIFT will also reward the most promising U20 footballer of Goa, Mauvin Borges of Sesa Football Academy and will felicitate the 1978 Goa Schools football team which emerged champions at the 24th National School Games (Autumn Meet) in Srinagar securing the football gold for the first time in the history of Goan football.
Goa will be exposed to an array of speakers from Europe, Africa and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and All India Football Federation (AIFF), apart from India?s leading football thinkers, businessmen, marketing and media executives.

The speakers will include All India Football Federation (AIFF) general secretary Kushal Das, Dempo Sports Club chairman Shrinivas Dempo, Neo Sports sports editor, senior presenter Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan, South African Football Association CEO Dr. Robin Petersen and FIFA Beach Soccer World Wide executive VP Joan Cusco.

Goa Football Development Council chairman Dr. Rufino Monteiro said, ?A revolution of Goa football has started and we at GFDC are ensuring towards creating policy, competition, infrastructure and talent. Goa serves as a catalyst and gateway for football in India. Our endeavour to achieve our dream of putting Indian football on the International and world map is gradually unfolding. We are confident that the inaugural Goa International Football Table will serve as a vital platform to ensure the sport develops and players get the best nurturing and promotion.?

Sports Authority of Goa Executive Director, Goa Football Association VP Goa Football Development Council member secretary Elvis Gomes said, "Preparations to hold the first football specific conference in India are on. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome our esteemed speakers to Goa and believe that GIFT will provide us with the perfect platform to initiate vital knowledge exchange on the development of the sport in Goa and the rest of India. We view the future with hope and the day is not far when Goan football will rise to match up to International standards.?

A football parade will also be held akin to a victory parade with emerging players and football stars from yesteryears in attendance. The star-studded parade will include celebrity players like Sunil Chhetri, Inder Singh, Magan Singh, Syed Naeemuddin, Suneil Shetty and well-known football juggler, Jestes Antony among others. The sporting spectacle will flag off on 16th March in Panjim and will see football stars travel to five popular schools around Panjim where they will interact with school-children and hand over footballs to promote the fun-loving sport.

Promoted by Knowledge Partner TransStadia and supported by Government of Goa, Goa Football Development Council, Goa Football Association, All India Football Federation and Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), the first edition of GIFT has been organized in association with Financial Partner YES Bank, Banking Partner Oriental Bank of Commerce, Outreach Partner Nivia, Magazine Partner 90 minutes and Online Partner Sportskeeda. GIFT is positioning itself to make Goa, the gateway to Indian Football.

MUMBAI: IMG-Reliance, the commercial partner of All India Football Federation (AIFF), has secured a three-year contract with Ten Sports to broadcast I-League and Federation Cup competitions across various platforms, such as Television, IPTV, DTH, HITS, Internet TV and Mobile. The deal has been struck with just a few days left for I-League to begin.

IMGR, a sports marketing joint venture between IMG and Reliance Industries, has been under pressure from I-League clubs to find a broadcaster for the two competitions. IMGR is now looking for regional broadcasters.

As part of the deal, Ten Sports will broadcast the I-League competition through its football channel Ten Action, for three consecutive seasons starting 2012 through to 2015.

With the I-League competition kicking off on 6 October, Ten Action will telecast 75 live and delayed matches throughout the season. Football fans across the country can catch the inaugural day action between Pailan Arrow Vs Mumbai FC to be played at Kolkata at 2.30 pm and Dempo SC Vs Churchill Brothers to be played at Goa at 5.30 pm.

Ten Action also has the mandate for telecasting the Federation Cup competition for the next two seasons starting 2013.

AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das said, ?The fiercely contested Federation Cup, concluded recently, has set the ball rolling for the 2012-13 football calendar year. The I-League competition brings in even more enthusiasm and excitement, as the clubs are eager to renew their rivalry and fight it out from Round One.?

Ten Sports CEO Atul Pande said, ?We are delighted to partner with IMG-Reliance to telecast I-League and Federation Cup, two of India?s premier football tournaments. Ten Sports has always supported Indian football and we continue committed to our vision of enhancing and adding value to the sport.?

An IMG-Reliance spokesperson said, ?We are happy to bring Ten Sports on board as a broadcast partner in football. Having a long-term partnership with the broadcaster is an important step in ensuring quality and continuous coverage of the two competitions. This is one of many initiatives IMG-Reliance has undertaken and we remain committed to the development of Indian football.?

MUMBAI: Neo Sports has said it will be the exclusive broadcast partner for the Nehru Cup football tournament. It is learnt that the broadcaster has paid between Rs 5-10 million for acquiring the rights as it grapples with the challenge to feed its channels with live content.

The broadcaster, which had recently rebranded its cricket dedicated channel as an all sports channel Neo Prime, had televised the Uefa Euro 2012 football tournament and is betting big on football which has been on upswing in the recent past.

The biennial international invitational tournament, which has been organised by the AIFF since 1982, will kick off on 22 August and run till 2 September.

The event was telecast on Ten Sports last time around in 2010.

Defending Champions and two-time winners India will be gunning for a hat-trick of titles and will be up against Maldives, Syria, Nepal and African powerhouses Cameroon in a 10 match round robin league followed by the final between the top 2 teams.

All 11 matches will be broadcast live in prime time, with one match daily kicking off at 7 pm.

Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasana Krishnan said, ?Neo Sports has added yet another key event to our extensive football line up with Nehru Cup. TV ratings for football in India are growing exponentially, evident with the success of Uefa Euro 2012 on Neo Prime. With Nehru Cup being India?s only international football tournament, it is sure to garner high viewership. We look forward to serving Indian football fans with top class coverage of this celebrated event?

IMG Reliance COO Ashu Jindal said, ?With 2012 being the Platinum Jubilee of the AIFF (All India Football Federation) and India returning as defending champions, we are extremely pleased to partner with Neo Sports for the broadcast of this historic edition of the Nehru Cup. This is a key tournament in our vision to radically restructure and popularize football in India. With double the prize money and an extensive production plan, the event will be bigger and grander."

MUMBAI: The All India Football Federation Monday softened its stance towards the West Bengal Football Association backed Premier League Soccer (PLS) just a day after threatening to take away the permission to host the inter-city tournament.

AIFF president Praful Patel clarified that the federation was all for the league but had to take steps to ensure the organisers adhere to principles of "good governance".

The franchise-based league was heading towards uncertainty as the AIFF asked FIFA to temporarily suspend the six PLS clubs from using Transfer Matching System (TMS), which allows a club to recruit foreign players thereby leaving a question mark on the participation of international players in the league.

"There was never an issue related to Bengal Premier League Soccer. We have no problem with the tournament, it is a good initiative and we want other states also to encourage the league," AIFF president Praful Patel said after an emergency committee meeting on Monday.

"The foreign players are under the FIFA and if there is a FIFA regulation they have to follow it. It is not an AIFF stipulation. AIFF just wants to ensure good governance otherwise we would be troubled internationally. We just helped the tournament to follow a right path," he added.

Earlier, the AIFF had suspended the passwords that were provided to the six PLS clubs following the organiser?s inability to provide documents relating to affiliation of the clubs. The suspension of passwords has been revoked after the IFA clarified its stance.

Under FIFA rules, no club in the world can recruit a professional foreign footballer without going through the TMS. Once certified by the national association as a genuine organisation, FIFA provides each club a separate password to enter into the TMS.

AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said the national federation had to act due to queries raised by the international body thereby allaying fears that it was jeopardising the league, which has attracted million of dollars in investment from corporates.

"FIFA had raised the issue over the registration of the clubs and federation just wrote to the IFA regarding the same. And after the necessary clarifications the suspension was revoked. We never created any hurdle in the organising of the tournament, in fact we had approved the league long-back in 2011," AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said.

AIFF vice-president Subrata Dutta explained that the IFA will abide by rules.

"We received an e-mail from Utpal Ganguly and he has assured us that the IFA will abide by all the terms of AIFF. He also said following the FIFA rules all the clubs have been registered under the respective district sports associations," Dutta said.

"Ganguly has already spoken to the franchisees and they have assured 50 per cent of the payment in advance and they will furnish a bank guarantee, which will be forwarded to IFA and the association will in turn forward it to the AIFF," Dutta added.

MUMBAI: The ambitious Premier League Soccer may come a cropper as the AIFF, football?s governing body in India, has asked Fifa to temporarily suspend the six PLS clubs from using the Transfer Matching System (TMS) following the organisers inability to provide documents relating to affiliation of the clubs.

The suspension from TMS means that the PLS would not be able to seek the transfer of PLS? iconic players like Fabio Cannavaro, Hernan Crespo and Jay Jay Okocha as Fifa rule stipulates clubs to recruit international professional players only through the TMS, an online system used by all its members.

The AIFF had withdrew passwords earlier provided to the six PLS clubs following the affiliation controversy.

In order to gain AIFF?s recognition, the PLS clubs have to be affiliated to the IFA, which is the governing body of football in West bengal.

For IFA, under whose affiliation the league has been launched along with its commercial partner Celebrity Management Group, time is running out as the organisers have to provide the necessary documents to the AIFF before 15 February, which is also the international transfer deadline.

If the organisers fail to provide relevant documents by today, the AIFF would withdraw permission to the tournament. The AIFF has called for a meeting of its Emergency Committee, where a final decision on the PLS would be taken.

"We have told the IFA to provide the documents in time but time is running out. For the tournament to be held, FIFA will have to give clearance of the foreign players by February 15. We have not received from IFA the necessary documents of the six clubs till now. "If AIFF does not get the documents by Monday (Feb 13) when the Emergency Committee meets, the permission given to IFA to hold the tournament will be withdrawn," PTI quotes a top AIFF official as saying.

Brushing aside concerns, IFA Secretary Utpal Ganguly said that the necessary documents would be provided by Monday morning before the AIFF Emergency Committee meeting starts.

MUMBAI: Brand Value Communications has been signed as the regional broadcast partner for the I-League football 2011-2012 season.

This is the second consecutive regional broadcast deal with BVCL for IMG Reliance, who owns the commercial rights for AIFF events including the recently concluded Federation Cup and upcoming I-League.

Brand Value Communications will be broadcasting I-League 75 matches through their channels News Time Bangla and News Time Assam in West Bengal and Assam respectively.

The I-League starts on 22 October and runs until the end of April 2012. 14 teams participate in the League which comprises 182 matches across 26 rounds.

Started in 2007, the I-League replaced the National Football League, which ran for 11 seasons

A spokesperson from IMG Reliance said, "After our association with BVCL for the Federation Cup, IMG Reliance is pleased to have signed Brand Value Communications Ltd as regional broadcaster across West Bengal and the North East for the I-League?s 2011-2012 season."

A BVCL spokesperson said, "I-league being at the top of the Indian Football league system would be an essential part in the bouquet of BVCLs football telecast all through the year. News time Bangla and News Time Assam endeavours to cater to the football lover in both these states, and has had enormous viewer response during the federation cup. Telecast of I-league live on BVCLs channels would be an endorsement of our support for the game and our effort to reach out to the huge fan base in these two states. I league is a premier competition of the country and has enormous potential on TV; News Time intends to benefit from the viewership pie for the same."

AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das is delighted that BVCL added, "It is an extremely encouraging trend that regional broadcasters are taking such initiatives so that football becomes visible in the regions and hoped that more such channels come forward in other regions."