The Indian Super League, officially known as the Hero Indian Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in India. The league will be one of the top-tier football leagues in India, the
other being the I-League. It features eight franchise teams from all around India.[2] The league runs from October to December, with a finals series determining the champion.[3] The Indian Super League was founded in 2013 in an
effort to make football a top sport in India and to make Indian football a major player worldwide.[1] The league operates along the lines of the Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League, and Major League Soccer of the United States.[4] Unlike the majority of football leagues around the world, the ISL does not
use the promotion and relegation system. Instead, it uses a franchise system in which eight teams were created to participate in the league.[4] History On 9 December 2010, the All India Football Federation signed a 15-year, 700-crore deal with Reliance Industries and the International Management Group of the United States.[5] The deal gave IMG- Reliance exclusive commercial rights to sponsorship,
advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, video,
franchising, and rights to create a new football league. [5] This deal came about after the AIFF ended their 10-year deal with Zee Sports five years early back in October 2010.[6] The first rumours of a Indian Premier League-type football league started during the conflict between the
owners of the I-League clubs and the AIFF over lack of communication. The rumour was that IMG-Reliance
had planned on reforming the I-League along the
lines of the IPL and Major League Soccer in the United States.[7] On 25 April 2011, the first version of an IPL-type
football league was officially launched when the Indian Football Association of West Bengal launched the Bengal Premier League Soccer with the first season scheduled for 2012.[8] All six franchises would be based within West Bengal. The league
would feature top players such as Fabio Cannavaro, Robbie Fowler, Hernán Crespo, and Robert Pirès.[9] However, in February 2012, it was announced that the
league would be postponed to an undecided date
before finally disbanding officially in 2013 due to financial reasons.[10] Despite the Bengal Premier League Soccer's failure,
the AIFF approved the IMG-Reliance's proposal of
another IPL-style league for 2014 but this time to include all of India.[11] Early hits towards the proposed league followed soon after with owners of the I-League clubs fully going against this idea.[12] The owners formed an organization known as the Indian Professional Football Clubs Association and stated that they would go against loaning out their
players to IMG-Reliance for the league and go against
signing any players already signed by IMG-Reliance. [12] However, in August 2013, it was reported that IMG-Reliance had already signed the required amount of Indian players needed.[13] The Indian Super League was officially launched on
21 October 2013 by IMG-Reliance, STAR Sports, and the AIFF.[1] It was also announced that the league would take place from January 2014 to March 2014. [14] However, on 29 October 2013, it was announced that the ISL would be postponed to September 2014. [14] Also in October, it was announced that former Manchester United player and France international Louis Saha had become the first marquee signing for the Indian Super League.[15] At first, it was announced that bidding for the eight
Indian Super League teams would be complete before
the end of 2013 and that there was already high-
interest from big corporates, Indian Premier League teams, Bollywood stars, and other consortiums.[16] However, due to the rescheduling of the league, the
bidding for the teams was moved to 3 March 2014. [17] It was also revealed around this time that not only would bidders need to comply with a financial
requirement but they would also need to promote
grass-roots development plans for football within their area.[18] Finally, in early April 2014, the winning bidders were announced.[19] The selected cities/state in the end were Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune.[19] Former India cricket player Sachin Tendulkar, along with PVP Ventures, won the bidding for the Kochi franchise. Another former Indian
cricket player, Sourav Ganguly, along with a group of Indian businessmen and La Liga side Atlético Madrid, had won the bidding for the Kolkata franchise.[19] Meanwhile, Bollywood stars John Abraham, Ranbir Kapoor, and Salman Khan had won the bidding for the Guwahati, Mumbai, and Pune franchises
respectively. Bangalore and Delhi were won by
companies while Goa was won by a partnership
between Videocon and I-League sides Dempo and Salgaocar.[19] The first team to be launched officially was the
Kolkata franchise as Atlético de Kolkata on 7 May 2014.[20] Then, on 7 July 2014, the team announced the first head coach signing in Indian Super League history when they signed Antonio López Habas.[21] The next day, Kolkata also announced the first official
marquee signing in the Indian Super League when
they signed UEFA Champions League winner Luis García.[22] A few days later, on 16 July, the second marquee signing was announced with Guwahati's Northeast United signed 2010 World Cup winner Joan Capdevila.[23] On 22 July 2014, the Indian Super League held its first ever draft for Indian players.[24] Notable names from the India national team to be available in the draft were Subrata Pal, Syed Nabi, and Mehtab Hossain.[24] At the end of the draft it was reported that a total of 24 crore were spent during the Indian players draft.[25] The third official marquee to sign for a team was then
announced on 30 July 2014 when former Juventus striker and World Cup winner David Trezeguet signed for FC Pune City.[26] On 14 August 2014, it was announced that the Bangalore franchise would disband before the start of the season.[27] However, the team was quickly replaced when it was announced that Chennai would be awarded a team in place of Bangalore on 21 August.[28] Eight days later it was announced that Alessandro Del Piero had signed with the Delhi Dynamos FC as their marquee player.[29] The league officially started on 12 October 2014 at
the Salt Lake Stadium with a match between Atlético de Kolkata and Mumbai City.[30] Atlético de Kolkata won the match 3–0 with Ethiopia international Fikru Teferra scoring the first ever goal in the Indian Super League in the 27th minute.[30] Competition format The Indian Super League regular season runs
between October and November with the finals series being played in November and December.[31] During the regular season, each plays each other twice on a
home and away basis. The top four teams at the end of the season qualify for the finals series.[31] The semi-finals are played in a two-legged format with the winners moving onto the one-legged final.[31] The Indian Super League also consists of controlled
rosters. Each team must sign at least one marquee
player while they must also sign seven other foreigners.[32] Of these seven foreigners, only two can be signed directly by the club with the other five coming from the foreign player draft.[32] Each team must also have 14 Indian domestic players, four of whom must be local to the city.[33] Teams Locations of the ISL Teams Media coverage and
sponsorship STAR Sports, who are a part of the group who founded the Indian Super League, broadcast the ISL officially through India.[34] The network use their expertise to take the league to millions of households and also monetise the content on and off the field.[34] The goal is to get people in India excited by football and make them more aware of it.[34] On 18 July 2014 it was announced that Hero MotoCorp had signed a three-year agreement with the Indian Super League organizers to become the title sponsor of the league.[35] This thus made the Indian Super League known officially as the Hero Indian Super League.[35] On 19 September 2014 it was announced that the
Indian Super League (ISL) would be the first sporting
event in the country to be backed by a never-before
seen, ubiquitous broadcast platform plan, with the
potential to reach around 85 per cent of India’s
television audience. In a pursuit to enthrall football purists as well as generate mass fan-following for
Indian football, the ISL is telecast LIVE on a range of
Star India’s sports, movie and regional channels - a
first in the history of broadcast in India. Spanning
over eight channels in the sports and general
entertainment category across five languages, the ISL will be televised on Star Sports 2 (English), Star
Sports 3 (Hindi), Star Sports HD 2 (English), Star Gold
(Hindi), Star Utsav (Hindi), Asianet Movies
(Malayalam), Jalsha Movies (Bengali) and Suvarna
Plus (Kannada). Furthermore, live streaming is available on www.starsports.com.[36] International coverage On 15 September 2014 Fox Sports announced that they would telecast the matches of Indian Super
League in Australia, cashing in on the popularity of
former Sydney FC marquee and Italy international, Alessandro Del Piero.[37] Eurosport 2 telecast the ISL matches in Europe, except the UK.[38][39] Star TV UK will air it in United Kingdom.[40] Match ball On 30 September 2014 it was announced that Puma would be the official match-ball supplier of the Indian Super League.[41] All matches will be played using the Puma evoPower 1 ball.[41] Trophy The Indian Super League trophy was unveiled on
October 2014 in Mumbai by IMG-Reliance chairperson Nita Ambani.[42] The trophy was also unveiled by all eight marquee players for the 2014 season.[42] The trophy was designed by Frazer and Haws and
stands at twenty-six inches tall with the logo on the
trophy featuring the colours of the Indian Super League