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After the success of the inaugural edition of Premier Futsal, which was played with six city based franchises across two venues in Chennai and Mapusa (Goa), the organisers announced today that the second edition would be held in the first quarter of 2017 across four cities with eight teams split into two groups of four teams each.
Premier Futsal, as the first franchise based Futsal league in India, had football legends like Brazilian stars Ronaldinho and Cafu besides Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, former Chelsa player Hernan Crespo, Real Madrid right back Michel Salgado and Futsal legend Falcao playing in the tournament. Some of them are set to return for the second edition.
Also the organisers informed that they are in talks with former English footballer David Beckham and Brazilian Kaka.
“We will be adding two more teams into the mix (for the second season), which means that the number of legends will increase by two. So we will be bringing legends, (who are) bigger… I wouldn’t say bigger because there are very few who can call themselves bigger than the guys we have got, (but) of the same milk, guys will be added to talent pool in legends category,” Premier Futsal co-founder and CEO Abhinandan Balasubramanian told the media.
“Because of the increase in number of teams, additional international futsalers will be coming in the mix and the existing players (of) all the teams will go into a player draft, the process of which will be announced in the next two weeks,” he said, adding there will be six international players (in a team).
“The existing players.. 90 per cent of them are on three or five year contracts, be the legends or the futsal players, they are all under three to five year contract, so I can safely say all of them will be returning for the next season,” he added.
“The four cities we will be going in would most likely be the four cities we did not go in the first season, so Bangalore, Mumbai, Kochi and Kolkata. Chennai and Goa have been the venues for the first season,” he added.
“The response has been positive. Beckham and Kaka are keen to play futsal in India. It is not because of the money that they are coming. We have given our players good stay and security. It’s about our vision that they are interested in. We can’t just bring them with money,” Managing Director and Co-Founder Dinesh Raj added.
