No live I-League coverage this weekend on TenAction

Unlike announced earlier TenAction, the official television broadcaster of the I-League, will not be showing the opening two matches over the upcoming weekend of the 2013/14 I-League due to technical issues.

The rumour had been making rounds for the last few days, and now it has been confirmed that there would be no Live I-League coverage on TenAction over the opening weekend, which has come as a major embarrassment to the AIFF, their marketing partners IMG-Reliance and broadcast partners Ten Sports.

No one wanted to speak on this matter officially, but what has emerged is that the planning for the I-League broadcast started way too late and this has resulted in Ten Sports seeking clearances for transmission, etc. way too late from the Indian bureaucracy.

As per the original plans on Saturday, the Goan derby between I-League champions Churchill Brothers SC and former champions Salgaocar FC and on Sunday, newly founded Bengaluru FC and Asia’s oldest club Mohun Bagan AC were supposed to be shown on TenAction live.

It is not yet known if there would be a delayed or deferred telecast of these two matches.

Overall, the Ten Sports group will be showing a total of 75 matches live or deferred exclusively on television in India.