Two weeks after its executive committee decided not to permit foreign players in State competitions, the All India Football Federation has made a special exemption for the new Kerala Super League which will kick-off in November.
Foreign players will be now allowed to play in the KSL and it has come as a huge relief for Scoreline, the company which has won the rights from the Kerala Football Association to organise the eight-team league.
“Yes, they have been given an exemption because of the prior commercial deal they have signed to start the Kerala Super League. We don’t want them to rescind an agreement made earlier and we don’t want to jeopardise any commercial deal,” Shaji Prabhakaran, the secretary general of the AIFF, told The Hindu on Thursday evening.
Kerala is perhaps the only State in the country to get such an exemption for its top league.
The auction for the franchises will be held in May and the players auction will be in July and Scoreline is working on a number of things to ensure that the franchises start making profits within two or three years. Plans are on to improve the facilities for fans at the four stadiums where matches will be played and to rope in sports and cine stars as partners of the franchises.
“There is business in sport because if there is no sustainability, the sport will not move forward,” said Mathew Joseph, the CEO of the KSL and Scoreline Sports.
The organisers hope that ticket sales, TV rights and sponsorships will bring in much of the money. They hope that watching football will be a whole new experience in Kerala.
“We have to ensure that the franchises do not lose money. For that, we have to try out a number of things. We have to get the excitement on to the ground, we got to make sure that families come in and we have to create some entertainment for that,” said Feroz Meeran, the managing director of Scoreline.
“The quality has to be great. We will be good even if we have have six (teams). We are very clear that we want the right franchises because the league has to be sustainable. We are looking at quality than quantity.”
