Indian Premier League Soccer Season Delayed Due to Venue Problems

The highly anticipated inaugural Indian Premier League Soccer (PLS) campaign has been postponed because of problems with the venues.

The League is to feature the likes of World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro, apoplectic former France international Robert Pires and Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler, order the six-team competition was set to begin on March 24, but will now be pushed back.

“Discussion is on with the state government but even if it is sorted out by the end of this week, we would need time to prepare the fields,” Dharamdutt Pandey, CEO of the event management company which created PLS, told Reuters.

“These are minor issues and PLS is very much on. We are now targeting a mid-April start for the league. It would require at least one month to upgrade the stadiums to an international standard. So we are now looking at mid-April.”

Modelled on the successful Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament, the football competition follows a similar nine-team motor racing league which was forced to defer the 12-race competition to next year because of logistical issues.

by Ismail Uddin