Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Bollywood stars win franchise bids in the Indian Super League
Sachin Tendulkar has won the bid to own the Kochi franchise in the Indian Super League football tournament.
The IMG-Reliance and All India Football Federation backed Indian Super League(ISL) has received a major boost after Bollywood and Cricket superstars as Ranbir Kapoor, Salman Khan and John Abraham and former cricketers Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar have bagged the ownership rights for the eight franchises that will take part in the tournament.
The biggest name to join the ISL owners’ list is Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar, along with PVP ventures, won the bid for the Kochi franchise and will now own the South Indian team. His one-time opening partner Sourav Ganguly, along with businessman Harsh Neotia, Atletico Madrid and Siddharth Goenka, has won the bid for the Kolkata franchise.
Bollywood superstars Ranbir Kapoor, Salman Khan and John Abraham too had put in bids to own franchises and all of them won their respective bids. Ranbir Kapoor, along with Bimal Parekh, will own the Mumbai franchise while Salman Khan, along with the Wadhwan Group, will own the Pune franchise.
John Abraham has teamed up with Shillong Lajong FC to buy the Guwahati franchise.
The Bengaluru franchise will be owned by Sun Group. Sameer Manchanda has won the bid to own the Delhi franchise and the Goa franchise will be owned by Videocon, Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas V. Dempo.
The Indian Super League will feature 8 franchises and is expected to be played during September and October 2014.
The full list of ?ISL? franchise owners is as follows :
Sun Group (Bengaluru)
Sameer Manchanda led Den Network (Delhi)
Venugopal Dhoot, Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas V. Dempo (Goa),
John Abraham & Shillong Lajong (Guwahati),
Sachin Tendulkar & PVP Ventures (Kochi),
Sourav Ganguly, Harshavardhan Neotia, Atletico Madrid, Sanjeev Goenka, Utsav Parekh (Kolkata),
Ranbir Kapoor and Bimal Parekh (Mumbai)
Salman Khan together with Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan of the Wadhawan Group (Pune)