How About an Indian-Style Football Premier League?
I felt a mixture of bemusement and enjoyment as I sat and watched the fascinating and lively auction for cricket’s upcoming Indian Premier League. But once I’d got over the amusement of seeing players being bought for different teams in an auction house and awarded their price as wages with no choice as to who they play for - it suddenly dawned on me that the Indians might have struck gold on this one.
This 44-day Twenty20 competition sounds brilliant.
Each of the eight city franchises are allowed eight non-Indian players in their 16-man squad, but only four of them can play in each match. In addition four Indian under-22 players MUST play in each game too. Home representation is strong but each city has landed some of the greatest players on earth and I for one, can’t wait to see how this fresh format works. I think it could be stunning. And you know what? This could be the future of football….
Imagine a Premier League where every team had to use four English under-22 year olds. Then imagine your Premier League team having to field three other English players. That makes seven. Then imagine having four of the world’s greatest footballers making up the rest of your side.
There would be more than enough places up for grabs for the Birmingham’s and Reading’s of this world to be able to snare players like Figo, Seedorf, Ibrahimovic, Pirlo, Trezeguet, Toni and Raul to name just a few.
It would even things up somewhat too. Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool would only be allowed to snap up 24 foreigners between them. They’d still be favourites given their financial clout but they’d have to be a bit more selective over the imports they decide to bring in.
A good youth policy would also be rewarded too. And the England national team would benefit enormously I am sure.
It’s not a bad vision is it…?
Forget this 39th game nonsense. Let’s give this IPL format a go in football instead. We could invent a competition – in an non-World Cup or European Championship summer, and then we could trial it. If it works, maybe that’s the future model of the game.
It’s not as crazy as you think. What do you reckon?
Written by Adrian Clarke of Sport Media Solutions, previously published at 4sportsake.com.
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Discussion - 8 Responses
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Its a good idea with respect to the selection of the players. But lets not glorify the IPL. Its a commercialised, extremely hyped up nonentity(as of now) which was made to counter the ICL(privately owned whereas the IPL is owned by the BCCI-board of cricket contron in india). At least the ICL ensured that the smaller players would get a chance to play under the spotlight. This is just a money-making farce which would not benefit the game in any way………….
In a country where the national obsession is nothing else but cricket we’re facing a glut of different competitions that are stifling the development of every other sport.
I didn’t watch the auction, but i read about it & it sickens me to such gynormous amounts of money wasted on bringing foriegn players in to play in a country that’s already brimming with talent (but still has a relatively shite national cricket team full of prima donnas). Like Iqnadirshah said, its a money making farce & i hope it dies a quick death.
If they could spend 1/10th of this amount of money in setting up a better national football league format in India & invest in infrastructure & players it would do wonders for the game in India.
As for suggesting this format for the European leagues, what the hell is SO wrong with the current system & level of entertainment that you would want a glut of football in that market? How about suggesting it for the USA instead? Seems like they would need it. Having it in Australia wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Excellent idea. Should suppress Man Utd and would a true indicator of a good manager.
Thank god this IPL is not on espn star to spoil my EPL matches…We in India are already having such a rough time with that ten sports team getting the CL rights….IPL will be rubbish…An absolute waste of time….EPL simply rules…Bring on the 39th match(if it ever happens) to india please….
To hk and spiral
Its useless depending on espnstar for our matches(allthough the presentation by john dykes, andrew leci, macca and shebby are top class). The priority is always cricket. You can check out channelsurfing.net and hifooty.com to watch live streams free(I watched arsenal vs fulham on channelsurfing.net). Enjoy…………..
I’ve always thought that the coverage in India of the European leagues is quite good (or has improved tremendously in the last few years). ESPN, Star Sports & a couple of other ones do show a lot of them. And yeah the presentation is quite priceless. Thanks for the references though (although i go & watch most of my stuff in Australia on livefooty.com).
Livefooty.com- thats a new one. Thanx……..
i think that it would be a good idea
but not as the english premeier league it is fine as it is
but i think that it could work as something else but the premeier league is to big