MUMBAI: Premier League Soccer, West Bengal?s franchise-based soccer league, has mopped up Rs 712.5 million through the sale of five franchises while the sixth one went unsold.

Surprisingly, the Barasat franchise has gone for a higher price than that of Kolkata, the epicentre of football. URO Infrarealty has taken the Barasat franchise for Rs 251.5 million, paying over three times the floor price of Rs 8 million.

Siliguri was the second costliest franchise, going to Ajay Consultants for Rs 180 million. The organisers had set the base price for the franchise at Rs 10 million.

Kolkata-based Camellia Group, which has interests in diverse sectors like aviation, education, and hospitality among others, bagged the Kolkata franchise for Rs 115 million. Kolkata had a base price of Rs 10 million.

The Howrah and Durgapur franchisees were bought by Syncsys Infotech and Tulip Infotech for Rs 90 million and Rs 76 million respectively.

The Haldia franchise is yet to find an owner as the bidders stuck on to their base price. Unsuccessful bidders will be given the right to purchase the unsold Haldia franchise. If they refuse, the franchise will go through a bidding process again.

All the three franchises - Howrah, Haldia and Durgapur - had a base price of Rs 7 million.

The franchises have been awarded for a period of 10 years. However, the current team owners will have a first right of refusal over the teams when the franchise term ends.

The organisers have fixed an expense cap for the season 1 of the league. While the maximum expense cap is $2.5 million, the minimum has been fixed at $2.0 million.

The organisers have also named six players -- Crespo, Sorin, Maniche, Jay Jay Okocha, Concecao, Robert Pires & Cannavaro -- who will be participating as icon players in the PLS Season I that kicks off in mid-February this year.

Each of the six franchise of PLS will be headed by world class coaches like Peter Reid, John Barnes, Samson Siasia, Marco Etcheverry, Tony Adams and Teitur Thodarson.

Said Camelia Group CMD and owner of Kolkata Team NR Dutta, "PLS will be the future of Indian football. I thank CMG and IFA for coming out with an unique concept and I am also looking forward to the foreign players and coaches auction.?

The exclusivity for PLS is that each team will have one icon player who will be an overseas player with great repute, preferably someone who has represented his country in international matches.

A host of quality international players have also been signed up. They are: Joaquin Botero (Bolivia), Limberg Gutierrez (Bolivia), Christian Lara (Ecuador), Maniche (Portugal), Diego Toro (Colombia), David Cordoba (Colombia), Brian Vega (Costa Rica), Diego Madrigal (Costa Rica), Jose Carlos Castillo (Guatemala), Christopher Omoseibi (Nigeria), Robert Egbeta (Nigeria), Daniel Varela (Costa Rica), Erick Sanchez (Costa Rica), Leider Preciado (Colombia), Edwin Tenorio (Ecuador), Walter Moreno (Venezuela), Alonso Solis (Costa Rica), Fabio Firmani (Italy), Nicolas Marin (France), Moncef Zerka (France), Sammy Traore (France), Igor Hrabac (Slovakia), Matjaz Kek (Slovenia) and Diego Cabrera (Bolivia).

The auction for foreign players will take place today in Kolkata, while the auction for Indian players will be conducted on 7 February.

As already reported, the international media rights have been sold to MP & Silva, while negotiations are on with at least three broadcasters for the South Asia rights. The organisers are targeting $5-6 million from season 1 of the PLS.

The Indian Football Association (West Bengal), the governing body of football in West Bengal, has signed a 30-year deal with Celebrity Management Group to launch the PLS on the lines of US? Major League Soccer.

MUMBAI: Kolkata-based Celebrity Management Group is targeting a revenue of $5-6 million from the first season of Premier League Soccer, a franchise-based football league in soccer-crazy West Bengal set up along the lines of America?s MLS.

"We are expecting $5-6 million from sale of commercial rights," CMG executive director Bhaswar Goswami said, adding broadcast rights will form a major chunk of the revenues followed by sponsorships.

He also informed that the company has inked a television distribution deal with international sports media company, MP & Silva. "We have signed a global media rights deal with MP & Silva, London," Goswami disclosed.
 
Without sharing the financial details of the deal, Goswami said the deal with MP & Silva is a mix of minimum guarantee as well as revenue share. "The deal will slowly build up. There is a minimum guarantee as well as revenue share," he said.

Goswami said the league will be broadcast in at least 50 countries in the first year itself. The company has identified US and Europe as key target markets for the league since a lot of international football players are a part of the league.

The fact that US and certain European countries like UK have significant population of Indian-origin also bodes well for CMG?s plans.

"That?s the kind of projection they (MP & Silva) have given us because they are big in media distribution," Goswami asserted. "We have a huge Indian population in US and Europe so these are two key markets."

CMG is also in talks with three broadcasters for the South Asia broadcast rights. The ones that the company is in negotiations with include two sports broadcasters and a non-sports broadcaster, the names of which Goswami refused to reveal.

The company had earlier this month inked a 30-year deal with Indian Football Association, the governing body of football in West Bengal, to launch PLS, which will see big names from the world of football like Italy?s World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro, Arsenal legend Robert Pires, Argentinian striker Hernan Crespo, former Portugal star player Fernando Couto, former Nigerian midfielder ?Jay-Jay? Okocha, and the fourth-highest goal scorer in Premier League history, Robert Fowler in action.

The above mentioned players are also the iconic players for the league.

The company has also roped in six world class coaches for the franchises which includes Peter Reid (England), John Barnes (England), Samson Siasia (Nigeria), Marco Etcheverry (Bolivia), Colin Todd (England), Teitur Thodarson (Iceland), Fernando Couto (Portugal) and Milos Rus (Slovakia).

The six franchises for the PLS will be announced tomorrow in Kolkata. The last day for submitting tender was 22 January. According to Goswami, a lot of companies both from West Bengal as well as outside the state have shown interest in the league.

Goswami did not share any details of how many companies have actually submitted bids to buy the franchises.

Kolkata, Barasat, Howrah, Haldia, Durgapur and Siliguri are the six franchise cities that will be awarded to successful bidders for a period of 10 years.

As per the the tendering process launched by CMG and IFA, bidders who bag Kolkata and Siliguri will have to fork out a franchise fee of Rs 10 million per year. Those who bag the Barasat franchise will have to pay Rs 8 million in franchise fee per year. For Howrah, Haldia and Durgapur, the fee is Rs 7 million per year.

The bidding companies need to have a net worth of $5 million or an annual turnover (combined) of $10 million during each of the last three years as a prerequisite to bid for a PLS franchisee. It was also mandatory for the bidders to submit a tender for at least three locations.

The organisers had fixed a financial cap on minimum and maximum a franchise can spend. The maximum limit is $2.5 million, while the minimum is $2 million.

In August, CMG had for the first time in the history of Indian football organised an international friendly match between Argentina and Venezuela, which also saw footballing great Lionel Messic coming to India and playing in front of packed crowds in Kolkata. The company had netted an estimated $ 4-5 million from the friendly match.

MUMBAI: The South Asian Football Federation (Saff) has announced the renewal of its agreement with World Sport Group (WSG).

The deal will run through 2017. Sports marketing agency WSG has been the commercial partner of Saff since 1996.

The new agreement commences this year and covers four Saff Championships - 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 - the regional governing body?s flagship competition, which is held biennially. Together, SAFF and WSG have delivered six Saff Championships since the event was first launched in 1997.

SAFF president Kazi Salahuddin has been quoted in media reports saying that the partnership with WSG was key in its financial stability. He noted that the standard of competition among its member nations has been increasing.

IMG senior VP, football, Asean, Australia and South Asia Ian Mathie noted that in just over a decade and a half, football in South Asia had grown both on and off the field. The Saff Championship he added is widely watched and is growing in popularity across the region.

MUMBAI: In a bid to boost late night viewership, Star World has created a ?Laughs From The Past? slot at 11:30 pm that will showcase retro sitcoms. The English general entertainment channel is airing ?Home Improvement? Monday to Friday at 11.30 pm.

Star World will launch four new shows.The sixth season of ?Criminal Minds? will start from 3 October and will air Monday-Friday at 10 pm. That will be followed by a new show, ?Mellisa and Joey?, that kicks off on 6 October and will air Monday-Friday at 11 pm.

The series follows the life of Mel, a local politician and what
follows when she hires Joe, a commodity trader to be a nanny or rather "manny" to her niece and nephew!

For the weekend ?Necessary Roughness? launches on 8 October and airs every Saturday at 10 pm. Viewers can watch what happens to Dani, a tough Long Island divorcee?s life who, in order to make ends meet, gets a job as a therapist for a professional football team. Her career begins to take off when athletes, musicians, politicians and other celebrities start to request her tough love therapy.

New Delhi: Doordarshan has commenced the live telecast of the Federation Cup Football matches from today on DD Sports.

The first match to be telecast was the Air India Federation Club vs Prayag United FC from Kolkata from 3.30 pm today.

Two matches will be telecast live tomorrow: Kingfisher East Bengal vs Dempo SC from Kolkata at 3 pm and McDowell Mohan Bagan vs Churchill Brothers SC from Pune at 6.30 pm.

The two matches on 22 September will be Prayag United SC vs Sporting Clube De Goa from Kolkata at 3.30 pm and Pailan Arrows vs Salgaocar SC from Pune.

The two semi-finals will be telecast live from Kolkata at 5 pm on 25 and 26 September respectively, and the final will be telecast from Kolkata on 29 September.