The ascendency of India as an economic world power

I wonder how many people know about I-League which is the new Indian professional football (soccer) league. Cricket is the most popular game in India and football is in a very distant second (or third?). I-League is going to start from 24 November 2007 (this Saturday). The good news is that Zee Sports will broadcast many (45) of the matches live. The viewers of the Middle East (through Ten Sports) and USA (through ZEE Sports USA) will be able to enjoy some of the matches.

Now, let us go back to the question- how professional will I-League be? Well, I am not that much optimistic at this moment. I could not find any exclusive official website of I-League. I also could not find any fixture or schedule of I-League either. The best I could get was Probable Fixture upto 6 th Round of I League 2007- 08.

About the prize money, I could find this from the website of All India Football Federation:

First edition of the I LEAGUE  is being sponsored by ONGC  . I LEAGUE is one the richest domestic sports tournament. The break up of the prize money is as follows:

 ·        The winner of the tournament will take home Rs. 50 lakh

·        Runners up will win Rs.28 lakh.

·        Winner of third place will take home Rs. 20 lakh.

·        Winner of round robin match will win Rs. 35000.

·        Prize money of Rs.1 lakh for Fair Play award.

·        Man of the match Rs. 5000.

·        Highest Goal scorer of the tournament gets prize money of Rs.50000 

Let me catch your attention to the fact that the man of the match will get only Rs. 5000 (something more than $100). This is not a lot of money in India. Well, this is just the beginning.