Premier Futsal to go for complete makeover, all teams and players to be up for bidding

MUMBAI: Premier Futsal Management, the organisers of Premier Futsal – the latest sporting league to enter India, has decided to give a complete makeover to the format prior to its second season with all new franchisees and all players up for bidding. It will also make a few changes to the rules to make the game even faster.

The management is excited with the recently concluded first season and is looking at making it "bigger" in Season 2.

"For the same, it has decided to go back to the plan of having eight teams, unlike six which played in the first season. Also, all the franchisees and players will be up for bidding for the second season," said Abhinandan Balasubramanian, CEO of Premier Futsal Management.

"There is no marquee futsal tournament yet and we want to make Premier Futsal the biggest futsal league in the world," said Balasubramanian. "The idea is to make it bigger and better. We have already established the legitimacy of the sport and our commitment."

Among the changes that the company is planning is to get one of the Big Four consulting firms on board to bring in transparency, corporate governance and compliances.

"We will partner with one of the Big Four consulting firms and will come out with processes and auction dates soon," said Nithyashree Subban, director – finance & strategy, Premier Futsal.

Meanwhile, the company is looking at forming a new advisory board. It has also decided not to renew contract of Balu Nayar, who was one of the directors of the company. "Nayar was there on contract for one year. We are not renewing his contract," Balasubramanian said.

The company said that the inaugural edition was seen by over 50 million television viewers across India, UK, the Middle East and other countries, while it reached to over 700 million people across almost 100 countries via social networks. Incidentally, Premier Futsal was the first Indian sports league to stream all matches on Facebook LIVE.

The first season saw players like Ronaldinho, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Hernan Crespo, Michel Salgado, Alessandro Rosa Viera and Falcao as playing with Indian players. The company is trying to get more international players for the second season.