IMG Reliance and Star India promoted Indian Super League, under the aegis of All India Football Federation (AIFF), have today reached a crucial junction on its path to rediscover Indian football, as it identifies and awards eight ‘League Partners’ across the country ahead of the proposed September-November 2014 inauguralseason.

Termed as an unrivalled footballing event, the Indian Super League being planned under the Football Sports Development Pvt Ltd., aims to ignite a revolution in the sport and ultimately enable Indian football to thrive and perform at the highest level on the international stage.

Indian Super League’s proposal for ‘League Partners’ received an overwhelming response from the Business, Sports and Bollywood community, to own a team from the nine proposed cities in the contention. Four of the final eight cities – Delhi, Kochi, Guwahati and Bangalore – will find itself in the mainstream football mapof the country, which is traditionally being dominated by Kolkata, Goa, Pune and Mumbai, through the high-profile professional Indian Super League.

The management takes great pride in announcing the winning bid which boast a good mix of corporates and celebrities – in Sun Group for BENGALURU; Sameer Manchanda led Den Network for DELHI; Venugopal Dhoot (Videocon), Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas V. Dempo for GOA; John Abraham & Shillong Lajong FC for GUWAHATI; Sachin Tendulkar & PVP Ventures for KOCHI; Sourav Ganguly, Harshavardhan Neotia, Atletico Madrid, Sanjeev Goenka, Utsav Parekh for KOLKATA; Bollywood’s Ranbir Kapoor and Bimal Parekh for MUMBAI and Salman Khan together with Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan of the Wadhawan Group for PUNE.

Ernst & Young, the designated international advisory firm, had the mandate of drawing up and validating the bid process. Each bidder was subject to strict eligibility norms and was required to submit the bids, as prescribed under the ‘Invitation to Bid’ document. Bids were evaluated by the jury panel in the presence of Ernst & Young representatives.