Praful Patel Biography

The deadline for signing the marquee foreigners for the Indian Super League (ISL) has been extended by three days. After a workshop in Mumbai at the end of April, the franchises proposed to the ISL organisers IMG – Reliance that they would want to approach their marquee players themselves. Although IMG-R had complied with the suggestion, they would want to present the final verdict whether a foreigner qualifies to be a marquee player or not. Initially, all the franchises were asked to sign their marquee players by June 30, 2014, but due to several other engagements the date has been extended.

An ISL spokesperson mentioned that it is an appreciating fact that most of the league partners are giving their best and honest efforts in trying to bring in their top most marquee players for their respective teams. They are almost at their final stages of completing contract formalities. The extension has been scheduled till July 3rd. ISL will be having a player draft system, like USA’s MLS. This is kind of a backup plan, in case any franchise fails to finalise their marquee foreigner they will be able to pull in one from IMG-R’s database of marquee players. These players will form a part of a central marquee players group.

It has been further learnt that some of the franchises are looking to include their marquee foreign players as player-manager. The Goa franchise has been reported to be identifying former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler as their player manager but, however, the former England international did not fulfil the terms and conditions of a marquee players.

With the strategic partnership of Indian Super League (ISL) and English Premier League (EPL) a milestone has been created in Indian Football. AIFF President Praful Patel is delighted with this collaboration and is planning to extend the same to I-League too. The primary objective of the same is meant for the future development of Indian Football as it is a truly encouraging beginning. NCP Leader Praful Patel further elaborated saying that AIFF is delighted to be a part of this partnership as this would be an outstanding opportunity for the ISL on a commercial aspect too. This would ISL to build a compact ground work to be top in the business when it comes to running a highly successful league.