MUMBAI: IMG Worldwide and Dogus, Group, one of Turkey?s largest private sector conglomerates, are forming an equal joint venture company in Turkey.

The purpose of the JV between Dogus, and IMG will be to create and develop a broad range of sports, fashion and entertainment projects to be implemented in Turkey and the Turkic Republics including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In India, Reliance Industries Ltd. has a 50:50 JV with IMG, a global sports, fashion and entertainment company. The JV has 30-year rights for basketball and 15-year rights for football.

The joint venture in Turkey is part of the continuing transformation of IMG as a global presence in high-growth geographic areas with high profile, successful partners in each of the countries where they have established relationships. The company now has joint ventures in Brazil with EBX Group and in China with CCTV.

Initial plans for the JV in Turkey include the creation of sports academies, camps and clinics; the building, construction, ownership and operation of stadiums, sports and entertainment venues; staging, representing, managing, owning and selling fashion related events; representation for sale of sports media and sponsorship rights; and staging, representation, management, ownership and sale of sports and events including football, tennis, sailing regattas, golf, motor racing, action sports, beach games, mass participation events, cycling, triathlons among others.

The JV has been agreed to and signed by Dogus chairman Ferit Sahenk, one of the country?s most successful businessmen, and IMG chairman and CEO Mike Dolan.

Says Dolan, "Turkey is now playing a significantly greater role in the world of sports and entertainment. We believe that we have a number of outstanding opportunities ahead of us here in Turkey. We have a vision ? to bring together IMG?s global reach and proven expertise in high profile sporting events, stadia management, fashion events and media rights, with the impressive reach of one of Turkey?s most successful conglomerates, Dogus, Group."

Adds Dogus Holding chairman S,ahenk, "As part of this joint venture agreement we signed with IMG, we aim to establish a fully equipped sports school with a professional team, in order to raise world class athletes. Thanks to our venture with IMG, we are setting our sights on forming a brand-new structure, where young athletes coming from all over Turkey will be trained and raised as world-class athletes. The athletes will be able to compete and successfully represent Turkey in the global arena. The athletic training will be accompanied with foreign language and academic education."

MUMBAI: As the hype and hoopla surrounding its launch fizzled out, the Premier League Soccer that was expected to take Indian football by storm has got some reality check as the tournament has been postponed for the second time in a row.

The non-cooperation of the West Bengal government and the under-preparedness of the venues have emerged as the prime reasons for the postponement.

PLS was originally expected to kick-off on 24 March but was postponed to 20 April due to unavailability of stadias. But as the problem persists, it seems the PLS will have to wait till at least August after the Fifa transfer window ends to stage the tournament.

When contacted, Celebrity Management Group CEO Dharamdutt Pandey said: ?PLS will be held only after August when the Fifa transfer window ends. By that time all the six stadiums would also have been refurbished. We will sit and finalise a new date with the IFA (Indian Football Association).?

What about the likely impact of the postponement on international players who would have second thoughts about participating in the league?

Pandey affirmed that CMG has officially written to all the players. "They have been kept in the loop about the developments and as of now none of the players have pulled out. In case, any of the iconic players pull-out the organisers will have a replacement ready," he said.

He also claimed that most of the franchises have supported CMG despite the issues that cloud the league. He went on to say that the franchises are happy since they will have more time to prepare themselves for the inaugural edition of the league.

Without naming, he said that one of the franchises is not happy with the uncertainty. He refused to reveal the identity of the franchise. He also revealed that all the six venues will be upgraded with the dressing room, turf and the floodlights being the top-most priority.

Earlier, the PLS had faced its first major roadblock when All India Football Federation had asked Fifa to suspend the Transfer Matching System account of the franchises over the ambiguity in the registration of franchises.

The issue was later sorted out after the IFA assured the parent body that the PLS clubs were recognised by it following which the clubs were allowed to seek transfer of international players through TMS.

The PLS will involve six teams -- Kolkata Camelians, Barasat Euro Musketeers, Durgapur Vox Champions, Howrah Manchester, Bengal Tuskers and Team Haldia, whose name is yet to be finalised. The six franchises had collectively put more than Rs 1 billion in buying the teams and signing players.

The league boasted of star players like Hernan Crespo, Jay Jay Okocha, Robert Pires and Fabio Cannavaro besides a host of other international players and coaches. The international media rights for the league were sold to MP & Silva.

MUMBAI: In a bid to ensure that the i-League is run in a more professional manner, 12 of its club owners and representatives have decided to launch the Indian Professional Football Clubs Association (IPFCA). There has been concern that while two clubs Mahindra United and JCT closed down, no corrective steps have been taken.

The clubs have not been happy over how the AIFF and IMG Reliance have been running things. Pune FC owner Nandan Piramal said that such an association is required to safeguard the interests of the clubs. "The association will work with AIFF and IMG to chalk out a future plan for Indian football".

The objectives include:

-Promote and safeguard the common interests of the clubs, popularise the i-League across India.

- Help make the i-League sustainable and profitable, Encourage the formation of new professional clubs

- Share best practices among member clubs

- Get the i-League teams to play in the Asian Champions league.

The clubs want a revenue model and planning for the long term. "There is no revenue model currently and we all spend around Rs 150 million individually (Rs 1.50 billion combined). Assuming we get Rs 5 million each through travel subsidy, food allowance and stay, all we get is Rs 70 million combined. How long can we sustain our clubs, that?s the concern," said Piramal.

The club owners had met AIFF and IMG-Reliance on 21 February. "We have been promised that a proper revenue model and a road map would be given to us on 30 April," said Piramal.

MUMBAI: Premier League Soccer, West Bengal?s franchise-based soccer league, has mopped up Rs 712.5 million through the sale of five franchises while the sixth one went unsold.

Surprisingly, the Barasat franchise has gone for a higher price than that of Kolkata, the epicentre of football. URO Infrarealty has taken the Barasat franchise for Rs 251.5 million, paying over three times the floor price of Rs 8 million.

Siliguri was the second costliest franchise, going to Ajay Consultants for Rs 180 million. The organisers had set the base price for the franchise at Rs 10 million.

Kolkata-based Camellia Group, which has interests in diverse sectors like aviation, education, and hospitality among others, bagged the Kolkata franchise for Rs 115 million. Kolkata had a base price of Rs 10 million.

The Howrah and Durgapur franchisees were bought by Syncsys Infotech and Tulip Infotech for Rs 90 million and Rs 76 million respectively.

The Haldia franchise is yet to find an owner as the bidders stuck on to their base price. Unsuccessful bidders will be given the right to purchase the unsold Haldia franchise. If they refuse, the franchise will go through a bidding process again.

All the three franchises - Howrah, Haldia and Durgapur - had a base price of Rs 7 million.

The franchises have been awarded for a period of 10 years. However, the current team owners will have a first right of refusal over the teams when the franchise term ends.

The organisers have fixed an expense cap for the season 1 of the league. While the maximum expense cap is $2.5 million, the minimum has been fixed at $2.0 million.

The organisers have also named six players -- Crespo, Sorin, Maniche, Jay Jay Okocha, Concecao, Robert Pires & Cannavaro -- who will be participating as icon players in the PLS Season I that kicks off in mid-February this year.

Each of the six franchise of PLS will be headed by world class coaches like Peter Reid, John Barnes, Samson Siasia, Marco Etcheverry, Tony Adams and Teitur Thodarson.

Said Camelia Group CMD and owner of Kolkata Team NR Dutta, "PLS will be the future of Indian football. I thank CMG and IFA for coming out with an unique concept and I am also looking forward to the foreign players and coaches auction.?

The exclusivity for PLS is that each team will have one icon player who will be an overseas player with great repute, preferably someone who has represented his country in international matches.

A host of quality international players have also been signed up. They are: Joaquin Botero (Bolivia), Limberg Gutierrez (Bolivia), Christian Lara (Ecuador), Maniche (Portugal), Diego Toro (Colombia), David Cordoba (Colombia), Brian Vega (Costa Rica), Diego Madrigal (Costa Rica), Jose Carlos Castillo (Guatemala), Christopher Omoseibi (Nigeria), Robert Egbeta (Nigeria), Daniel Varela (Costa Rica), Erick Sanchez (Costa Rica), Leider Preciado (Colombia), Edwin Tenorio (Ecuador), Walter Moreno (Venezuela), Alonso Solis (Costa Rica), Fabio Firmani (Italy), Nicolas Marin (France), Moncef Zerka (France), Sammy Traore (France), Igor Hrabac (Slovakia), Matjaz Kek (Slovenia) and Diego Cabrera (Bolivia).

The auction for foreign players will take place today in Kolkata, while the auction for Indian players will be conducted on 7 February.

As already reported, the international media rights have been sold to MP & Silva, while negotiations are on with at least three broadcasters for the South Asia rights. The organisers are targeting $5-6 million from season 1 of the PLS.

The Indian Football Association (West Bengal), the governing body of football in West Bengal, has signed a 30-year deal with Celebrity Management Group to launch the PLS on the lines of US? Major League Soccer.