MUMBAI: Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), a JV between IMG-Reliance & Star India -- organiser of the Indian Super League, on 12 June, announced two winning bids for the Indian Super League, expanding it to 10 teams. The new entrants to the ISL 2017-18 seasons are: Tata Steel and Bengaluru FC.

Bids were invited from 10 cities, namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cuttack, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Ranchi, Siliguri and Thiruvananthapuram with the organisers decided to include two teams to the new season. Impasse over the induction of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal into the football tournament continued as another round of talks with the AIFF did not yield any result. The two teams were adamant to not pay fees to be a part of ISL.

Now, from ISL 2017-18 season their will be 10 teams playing for the Cup and it will be of a longer format as compared to the previous seasons.

Two of India’s largest conglomerates, Tata Steel Ltd. – a US$ 18.12-billion company and subsidiary of Tata Group (US$ 103.51 billion 2015-16), and Jindal South West (JSW) Group – US$ 9 billion corporate, are now into the ISL fold.

Tata Steel VP corporate services Sunil Bhaskaran, and TFA chairman said: “This is a momentous occasion for Tata Steel, which has always been a pioneer in the development of sports in the country, especially football. Our entry into the coveted Indian Super League reinforces our commitment to provide a fillip to the development of football in the country. We are extremely excited to have won the bid for our hometown Jamshedpur and will provide the best of facilities for football to prosper in the eastern part of our country."

JSW Group which owns the successful football club Bengaluru FC, through its subsidiary JSW Sports, won the right to participate in ISL from Bengaluru city. JSW Group has to its credit established professionally-run football club in I-League within a short period of three ears; winning the competition twice including in its debut year.

JSW Bengaluru CEO Parth Jindal attributed JSW Group’s decision to bid for an ISL team to the “interest of long-term future of Indian football."

Jindal said, “We’re glad that our bid to be part of the ISL has been accepted. A lot of time and thought has gone into our decision of wanting to be part of the Indian Super League. The biggest factor has been the interest of the long-term future of Indian football. A longer league is the right road ahead.”