Football
Abilash Nalapat 9y

Return of English Premier League provides litmus test for the ISL

The first two matches of the inaugural Indian Super League (ISL) were staged in packed stadiums in Kolkata and Guwahati, cities belonging to regions that are traditional football pockets of India. So the first real test for the ISL came on match day three, when action shifted to India's cricket-obsessed capital city Delhi.

The home ISL franchise Delhi Dynamos took on FC Pune City, co-owned by Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan, at the 60,000-capacity Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Oct. 14. There were no competing sporting spectacles on television that day -- the Indian cricket team weren't in action and there were no matches in the English Premier League.

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Turning out for the home team was former Italian star Alessandro Del Piero, who came on as a substitute. Starting for Pune was ex-French striker David Trezeguet. The duo had famously crossed swords during the high-profile penalty shootout of the 2006 World Cup final in Berlin when Del Piero scored and Trezeguet missed before Italy lifted their fourth title.

The match between Delhi Dynamos and FC Pune City was the perfect sample scenario to test out if the tournament would indeed serve its purpose of popularising football across the vast country by bringing together former football stars, Bollywood glamour and Indian cricket legends. The official attendance recorded for the game by the ISL website was 16,500, slightly more than a quarter of the stadium's capacity.

On the day of the match, leading English language national daily Hindustan Times posed the billion rupee question: What about ISL attendances during weekends across the country -- specifically in metros such as Mumbai and Delhi -- when English Premier League television coverage would clash with ISL matches?

On the evening of Oct. 18, would members of Mumbai's Arsenal fan club miss watching the Gunners' game against Hull City on television and head to the DY Patil Stadium for the clash of their home ISL franchise, Mumbai City FC, against provincial rivals Pune City FC? Would the die-hard Bengali football fans head out to the Salt Lake Stadium on Oct. 19 to watch their franchise Atletico de Kolkata play against Del Piero's Delhi Dynamos at the same time that Liverpool take on QPR?

The tournament organisers, though, would be happy about the high turnouts in traditional football regions such as Kolkata, Guwahati (the host city of Northeast United FC) and Goa (the host city of FC Goa). The inaugural game in Kolkata between Atletico de Kolkata and Peter Reid's Mumbai City FC was attended by 65,000 -- the capacity of the Salt Lake Stadium is 70,000.

On Oct. 13, 30,000 people turned up at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Guwahati to cheer the home franchise Northeast FC to victory against Kerala Blasters FC, co-owned by legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Two days later, a full house of 30,000 thronged the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Goa to watch home team FC Goa -- managed by Brazilian legend Zico and with Arsenal star Robert Pires as marquee player -- against Chennaiyin FC managed by former Italian World Cup winner Marco Materazzi.  

But the passionate Goan home support did not prevent the Chennai-based franchise from posting the first away win of the ISL. Former Brazilian and Manchester City midfielder Elano and forward Balwant Singh scored in a 2-1 victory. Singh, who plies his trade in the I-League with Goa-based club Churchill Brothers, became the first Indian scorer of the ISL.The solid presence of former Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre at the back helped the visitors. 

With the first full weekend of the ISL round the corner, it is time now for the tournament to take on the invisible enemy, the English Premier League, which resumes after the international break.

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