Indian Super League - ADK is the first champion!

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Ronaldinho...:woot:

[StriKe]

Yeah and will be :whack:ed' date=' :whack:ed and :whack:ed by Mumbai [/quote'] We have Ronaldinho :yay:

[Sidhoni]

Did I hear Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Cannvaro and Trezeguet?

[mishra]

What about Live coverage of the game? Which channel is going to cover it?

[StriKe]

What about Live coverage of the game? Which channel is going to cover it?

STAR Sports

[rajmarie]

We have Ronaldinho :yay:

its not confirmed. its just rumors.

[rajmarie]

What about Live coverage of the game? Which channel is going to cover it?

I want to know who is broadcasting it internationally. Hoping ISL tie up with youtube and provide streaming for Rest of the World (atleast free for the 1st 10 year of the league)

[StriKe]

its not confirmed. its just rumors.

Ronaldinho and Chennai Titans have signed a two years contract for Rs 36 Crores (Approx). Waiting for official source

[mishra]

I want to know who is broadcasting it internationally. Hoping ISL tie up with youtube and provide streaming for Rest of the World (atleast free for the 1st 10 year of the league)

Same feeling here. Hope some free to Air channels in Europe/UK is given the deal. I am sure they will happily cover it

[zakk]

We have Ronaldinho :yay:

He also will be :whack:ed along with whole team :ohyeah:

[rajmarie]

Ronaldinho and Chennai Titans have signed a two years contract for Rs 36 Crores (Approx). Waiting for official source

:hysterical: And we were thinking that ISL will have less budget then IPL....& that cricketers are paid in IPL big time. If confirmed...this should put cricketers in their place & also make them pull up their socks...& perform.

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Almost every team is backed by a big Industrial group plus a celebrity so money may not be a big issue. Mumbai and Kerala will struggle big time.

[TNAmarkFrmIndia]

Ronaldinho for Chennai? Agents Say Brazilian Star Yet to be Approached CHENNAI: Will he or won’t he? That is the question all football fans in India are seeking answer to. The man in question is none other than two-time World Player of the Year and former Barcelona ace Ronaldinho. On Friday, rumours flooded the internet about the Brazilian midfielder’s possible arrival to play for the Chennai franchise in the Indian Super League. While Express understands that the idea has been discussed by Chennai officials, others went one step further. Philip Harmeling, a Germany-based football agent, even went as far as tweeting that Ronaldinho had agreed terms. “Ronaldinho snubs MLS for Indian Super League! He joined the Titans Chennai for two years with total pay of €4.6 million,” he posted on his Twitter page. His comments were picked up by a number of online media outlets, many mistaking it for confirmation of the deal. While Chennai Titans are understood to be exploring the possibility of signing the World-Cup winner, it seems any interest is one-sided at the moment. Marcelo Sander, a FIFA-licensed football agent, who works for the Assis-Moreira football agency, which represents Ronaldinho and is run by the 34-year-old’s brother Roberto de Assis, told Express that no deal had been reached with anybody from India. “No, it is not true,” he said when asked about the Ronaldinho-to-India rumour. In a way, it is a deal that makes a lot of sense. Ronaldinho’s career is going nowhere after he was released by Atletico Mineiro last month. He was linked with a number of clubs including Santos, Queens Park Rangers and Boca Juniors and was rumoured to be close to signing for Brazilian club Palmeiras, only for them to announce that the move had fallen through for financial reasons. A move to ISL will allow him time to negotiate a deal in Major League Soccer in the US, a path that Alessandro Del Piero is going to take. But the talk sure has captured the imagination of fans and fellow players alike with Chennai draftee and former Manchester United star Bojan Djordjic already expressing his excitement. “My team Chennai Titans in talks with Ronaldinho. That would be a dream signing,” he tweeted. But will someone like Ronaldinho really come and play for a team in India? “If Del Piero just signed, so can Ronaldinho,” Djordjic believes. He can, but will he?

[Sidhoni]

Del Piero :woot:

[Sachin=GOD]

Almost every team is backed by a big Industrial group plus a celebrity so money may not be a big issue. Mumbai and Kerala will struggle big time.

They have Goddy. Also, its co-owned by the PVP Group. So money shouldn't be an issue.

[FischerTal]

:hysterical: And we were thinking that ISL will have less budget then IPL....& that cricketers are paid in IPL big time. If confirmed...this should put cricketers in their place & also make them pull up their socks...& perform.

Hopefully this league grows. Crickets dominance has led to likes of Srini thinking they will control indian sports market forever. As always competition is the key

[TNAmarkFrmIndia]

PARMESH NAIK: KIDS MUST PLAY THE GAME AND HAVE FUN Parmesh Naik, development manager, FC Pune City, reveals how kids will be taught to play the ‘Fiorentina way’. Your football journey: I’ve been a Maharashtra state player, and I played in the Santosh Trophy ten years back as well, after which I was a semi-professional player in the Mumbai league. I eventually quit and got back to studies and work, but in the back of my mind I always wanted to get back to football and sport, and I did when I worked on the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. And now I’m back in football, working with FC Pune City. Your team’s focus on grassroots football: The Wadhawan Group has been associated with sports for quite some time now. They were involved in the Sri Lanka Premier League, and even with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Our CEO is also involved with India On Track and the Arsenal Soccer Schools. The ISL is a stepping stone, and the Pune franchise would want to do a lot on the grassroots front going forward. The benefits of a foreign technical tie-up: We’ve tied up with Fiorentina, and a large part of that partnership is focused towards the first team, but going forward they are looking to put in a lot of effort in grassroots development, and teach kids the “Fiorentina way”. Since the technical partnership extends to the first team, they are also responsible for how the team performs on the pitch. The complete technical staff is from Italy. When it comes to how football should be run, very few companies or organizations in India really have that knowledge, so we needed to get in a partner who is well-versed with what has to be done from an administrative and technical point of view. Your grassroots vision: For me, grassroots football is all about the basic introduction of the sport to children. If you take cricket as an example, we were introduced to it when we were very young, and played it in the streets or in our homes. I would want something similar for football, in the sense that the sport has to be introduced to children at a young age, where they can just play the game and have fun. That’s where grassroots football starts. Then we have to make the child develop a true interest in the game. After that, things take shape automatically. Your city’s unique advantages & disadvantages: Pune has been on the football map for quite some time, with Pune FC in the I-League. We’ve always had a good footballing culture, and there’s always been a lot of good support for the game. There are a lot of convent schools as well, and football is a big thing there. Being from Pune, I can say that football has always been around, but it’s the quality of football that has been lacking. It’s something that we expect the ISL to deliver. Pune has one big disadvantage though, which are the lack of quality grounds. We somehow lack the right infrastructure when it comes to stadiums and grounds, and the team really struggled to find a decent training facility. We finally did, but this is a big challenge for the city in general. Your team’s immediate grassroots plans: We will be conducting around 50-60 one-day football clinics in schools around Pune. We will also be doing a lot of community development by the way of getting parents together and explaining to them what grassroots football is all about, and how we’re looking at growing football in the city. After all, it’s not just about getting children involved, but about getting parents involved as well.

[TNAmarkFrmIndia]

LEONARDO LIMATOLA: WE NEED TO INCORPORATE FOOTBALL CULTURE Leonardo Limatola, head of planning and development, ACF Fiorentina, was down in Mumbai for the launch of the FC Pune City. The Italian club have a technical tie-up with the Pune club for the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) and Limatola shared his views on Indian football and his vision for the future in this interview: Are you familiar with Indian football and its players? It has been not so easy to get familiar with the Indian players. First of all, there weren’t any inbuilt profiles of the players participating in the I-League. We watched the matches of the last two seasons and looked at the players to build the profiles. How do you rate Indian football? The quality of Indian football can be compared to Italian fourth division at the moment. Sometimes, you find people making silly errors. That means that things are lacking in this country. We need to incorporate football culture, bring in specialized coaches and specialized trainers, and need to use more expert players. Some players in the ISL bring in a lot of experience, it will help other players to play better. We have to find the right combination of experienced players and young players. All the young players would like to learn something. We tried to sign a lot of young players. [Lalrindika] Ralte was one of our options, but he wasn’t available till the first week of October. Now as the tournament dates are pushed further, he will be available for the whole tournament. Our first choice was Lenny (Rodrigues), but Ralte was in our top wish list. What do you think about the young players at your disposal? Pritam Kotal is young and has the ability to learn new things. He is a good player in the making. We have lots of good players. Some players have played in multiple positions so we have to focus on specialization of player roles. The lack of a sports culture has been a hindrance in India. What is to be done? Involvement of people is important. Football can be played by two people and even one person can concentrate on his own training. In Mumbai, I saw people playing cricket on the beaches. In Italy or in any other place we would see people playing football. We should get people involved in football. They watch football on TV, but they cannot imitate the action. You get emotional when you see a bicycle kick by Mario Gomes or when (Daniele) De Rossi dribbles past players and takes an amazing shot. When you do not have space to try these things out, people will not feel their involvement. How can Pune City bring about development in Indian football? For the development of the club we need to start with good organization. We have to improve the quality and knowhow in Indian football. Football is an amazing sport. We must get people to co-operate, to do team work. We know the social importance of football, getting people involved, it will help them feel closer to their country. How can we popularize football in India? All the world plays football so in India also people have to play football. First of all, we have to make it a national game. The show must be great. We need to give emotions to people. Football is emotional: the emotion of passion, the emotion of fighting. If we put his on the field people will follow us.

[TNAmarkFrmIndia]

RAVANAN-RODRIGUES COMBO TARGET ISL SUCCESS Dharmaraj Ravanan (L) and Lenny Rodrigues © ISL Over the past four years the Dharmaraj Ravanan-Lenny Rodrigues combination has flourished like no other on the Indian football circuit and helped Churchill Brothers win every major trophy that the domestic game has to offer. The list of silverware that the dynamic duo has brought home to Varca, the touristy village in South Goa where the family-run club is based, include the Durand Cup and IFA Shield (both in 2011), the prestigious I-League in 2012-13 and the fairly important Federation Cup staged in Kerala in early 2014. Their partnership began when Ravanan moved to Churchill Brothers after the Mumbai-based Mahindra United folded up in 2010. Now, the easy going Tamilian defender from Trichy and the laid-back Goan defensive midfielder are set to continue their partnership at FC Pune City in the upcoming Hero Indian Super League (ISL) and hope to replicate the success of the past. Rodrigues was the first player among the 84 available to be picked by a club at the recent domestic player draft and Pune followed that up by pocketing Ravanan in the second round to cash in on their compatibility and winning record. “It’s great to be playing in the same team as Lenny. We’ve played together for four-five years now and I know his style since I play directly behind him, and he knows mine too,” the suave stopper back who can also play along the wings, said. On his part, Rodrigues, who has modelled his game on fellow Goan great Climax Lawrence (now with Atletico de Kolkata), has some good words to say about his inspirational skipper at Churchill Brothers: “He’s a good reader of the game, good man-to-man marker and a clean tackler besides.” Although the lanky 6 foot 1 inch Rodrigues is the more famous player and the mainstay of the national team with 19 caps, as well as elder to Ravanan by a couple of months (both are 27), he looks up to the latter. “We are good friends off the pitch and I take his advice on important matters,” the Cesc Fabregas fan revealed. When it comes to food there is a divergence of tastes as Ravanan loves South Indian food while Rodrigues digs the Goan staple – fish curry & rice! A Tamil movie buff and Arsenal supporter, Ravanan rates Mahesh Gawli as the best player he has played against, and Lebanese defender Bilal Sheikh El Najjarin, who was at Churchill Brothers for the first half of the 2012-13 season, as one of the best players he’s ever played with. Both however concede that they will have to up the ante against the superior breed of foreign players that they will play with and against in the ISL. But they are up for the challenge. “The foreigners who are going to be playing in the ISL will be much better. The defenders especially will be much stronger physically and defensively. So we have to raise our standard to compete with them,” Ravanan said.

[TNAmarkFrmIndia]

‘PUNE CITY WILL PLAY FIORENTINA BRAND OF ATTACKING FOOTBALL’ © ISL Italian football is traditionally associated with rock-solid defence, having popularised catenaccio,the extreme defensive strategy that made Italian teams once near-impossible to beat. However, Associazione Calcio Firenze Fiorentina are the antithesis of this stereotype, playing an attractive brand of possession-based attacking football. The club representatives now want to implement this philosophy with FC Pune City, who have announced a tie-up with the Italian giants. “Fiorentina is playing with one of the most beautiful football styles in Europe. We would like to put our philosophy into practice through Franco Colomba, Pune City head coach. We are looking to play positive football by holding the ball and by attacking the opposition when we are able to,” revealed Leonardo Limatola, head, planning and development, ACF Fiorentina. He however clarified that “playing offensive football doesn’t mean playing with more or less defensive players. It is an attitude, and it depends on the quality and the ability of the players. If you have good defenders, you need to play with good defenders and they will love to go all the way (to the opposition box),” he explained. Sharing his thoughts on Indian football and his expectations on the occasion of the launch of Pune City and the announcement of the Italian club’s association with the new venture, Limatola said, “The quality of Indian football can be compared to the Italian fourth division at the moment. We need to incorporate a football culture, bring in specialized coaches and specialized trainers, use more expert players.” Fiorentina have first-hand experience of the Italian fourth division, because that is where, after the previous incarnation of the club went bankrupt, a resurrected Viola (the name derives from their purple home colours) kicked off in 2002, before quickly clawing their way back into Serie A (where they have finished in the top four twice in succession now) and becoming regular competitors in European football. Their experience of starting anew and rebuilding the club from scratch will go a long way in helping Pune City in their efforts to build a sustainable brand identity and a successful club. The Italian also shed some light on what needs to be done in order to improve local standards. “For the development of the club we need to start with good organization. We also have to improve the quality and knowhow in Indian football,” he stated. Fiorentina CEO Sandro Mencucci has further opened the doors for Pune City to learn the trade in Italy. “We have talked about the possibility of the pre-season in Florence. We would like to share all our facilities, training camp and the expertise of our coaches with the players of Pune City,” he said.