“Various international stars have already signed the MOU such as Fabio Cannavaro, Robert Pires, Jay-Jay Okocha, and Robbie Fowler, etc.,” said Goswami. All these players would be playing a major role in bringing an international flavour to the beautiful game. As of now, there will only be six franchises that would be participating in the tournament, namely Kolkata, Howrah, Barasat, Durgapur, Midnapore and Siliguri.

The teams from these franchisees will have 30 players out of which there will be one icon player, 3 international players thereby adding more international flair. “The players and the coaches for the respective teams will be auctioned, which would be similar to the IPL model,” said Goswami. Football players from the nearby catchment areas would benefit a lot, as they would get good exposure by playing alongside these international stars, who have abundant experience by their side.

But one thing is for sure that the tournament in its initial stages would have a local outlook with a bit of international flavour, as players involved in the I-League would not be participating in the tournament. Though, Goswami has plans for the future, where they would be able to bring in these I-League players too in the tournament so as to make the tournament better and help Indian football.

The effort put in by Celebrity Management Group to chalk out this plan is commendable on their part.  Goswami said, “We were planning about this since a year and it was due to the effort of IAF secretary, Utpal Ganguly, we have been successful in it”. Now, the tournament needs to be properly groomed, as it is in its initial stages. Hence, they need to be ready for all the obstacles that come their way in organizing such a tournament at a grand scale.