By David Gold
January 31 – India’s Premier League Soccer (PLS) has held an auction in Calcutta, in which almost $21 million (£13 million/€16 million) was spent by franchises on the likes of 2006 World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro and former France midfielder Robert Pirès.
Hernán Crespo (pictured), the ex Chelsea, Inter Milan and Parma forward, was the most expensive player, sold for $840,000 (£536,000/€640,000) to Barasat.
Cannavaro was sold to Siliguri for $830,000 (£529,000/€633,000) whilst Pirès netted $800,000 (£510,000/€610,000) from Howrah, and Jay-Jay Okocha signed for Durgapur for $550,000 (£350,000/€419,000).
Former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler cost Kolkata $530,000 (£340,000/€405,000), while coaches were also up for auction.
Fernando Couto was the most expensive coach at $240,000 (£153,000/€183,000) for Howrah, with Samson Siasia going to Durgapur and Teitur Thordarson to Barasat for $210,000 (£134,000/€160,000) each.
Peter Reid was also auctioned off to Kolkata for $200,000 (£128,000/€153,000), while Bolivian Marco Etcheverry went to Siliguri for the same figure.
The new concept is modelled on the auction held by cricket’s highly popular Indian Premier League (IPL).
Bhaswar Goswami, executive director of the Content Management Group which is organising the league, told insideworldfootball: “I believe this day will be considered as an important milestone in Indian football.
“During the last two days, around $21 million (£13 million/€16 million) has been infused by the franchisees in the Indian football industry and it can only grow from here.
“Everyone here has started counting the days for PLS to kick off and get to watch the likes of Crespo, Cannavaro, Pirès and Fowler live in action in front of their eyes.
“I also believe that after a few editions of PLS, we will see a number of young Indian Players to shine and become new Icons for Indian football.
“In short I think it’s the start of a new era of Indian football”
The tournament should feature six teams, each of which has a $2.5 million (£1.6 million/€1.9 million) salary cap, and will get underway next month in Bengal, where football is particularly popular.
Indian football is growing slowly but has been boosted by major European teams such as Liverpool, Manchester United and Bayern Munich looking at starting youth academies in the country.
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