Kolkata: He normally auctions thoroughbred race horses, but on Monday, Cyrus Madan, a familiar voice at the turf club, was exhorting some of Kolkata’s emerging entrepreneurs at an auction of once top-notch international footballers such as Fabio Cannavaro, Hernan Crespo and Robert Pires for a new sporting event modelled on the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament.

Football is set to see an experiment: a 10-week league to be played under floodlights, featuring six sides and 24 foreign players, including some top professionals who have retired or are on the verge of hanging up their boots. Madan, a pro with the gavel, got under the skin of Kolkata’s entrepreneurs, egging them to wager some Rs 60 crore on the first edition of the Premier League Soccer (PLS).

Top draw: A file photo of Hernan Crespo celebrating after scoring a goal during a Serie A match. Photo:Marco Vasini/AP

The experiment, though, is going to remain confined to West Bengal, at least in the first year—the six sides in this year’s edition are to represent towns in the state and couldn’t be expanded to other regions for want of clearance from the All India Football Federation (AIFF), according to Ganguli.

Even players taking part in the AIFF’s I-League, India’s premier football league, couldn’t be fielded for the PLS. “AIFF wouldn’t allow them to play,” Ganguli said. But that means a lot of young footballers will get an opportunity to play with and train under top professionals from Europe, Africa and South America.

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AIFF, India’s governing body for football, though, has recognized the PLS, so it may not end up like the failed Indian Cricket League, which didn’t have any official recognition. PLS will be jointly held in March-May by IFA and Celebrity Management Group (CMG), a Kolkata-based sports management agency.

“It’s hard to believe this is materializing,” said Bhaswar Goswami, executive director, CMG, who conceived the PLS some one-and-a-half years ago. He claimed this new sporting property is modelled on the US Major League Soccer (MLS). “The IPL, too, is a copy of the hugely successful MLS with elements of the English Premier League thrown in,” Goswami said.

Five of the six teams in the PLS’ first edition have already found takers, and auctions for some 20 players and five international coaches took place on Monday. Each side must spend at least $2 million and up to $2.5 million to build their teams, drawing four foreign players from a pool of 24 contracted by CMG. The rest are to be fielded from among Indian youngsters.

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On Sunday, little-known Uro Infra Realty India Ltd, a Kolkata-based real estate firm, sprung a surprise on the organizers when it bid Rs 25.15 crore to secure the Barasat franchise for 10 years—Barasat is a neighbourhood in the northern suburbs of Kolkata. The Siliguri franchise was sold for Rs 18 crore, while Kolkata was bought for Rs 11.5 crore.

Two other franchises—Howrah and Durgapur—sold for Rs 9 crore and Rs 7.6 crore, respectively. Though there were no takers for the Haldia franchise immediately, Goswami is confident he will soon find someone to buy it. CMG earned Rs 71.25 crore from Sunday’s auction of franchises—the whole amount, though, won’t be paid immediately because the teams were auctioned for 10 years.

Howrah will boast PLS’s most expensive coach after shelling out $240,000 for former Portugal central defender Fernando Couto. Former Nigerian player and coach Samson Siasia (Durgapur) and Icelander Teitur Thordorson (Barasat) were both sold for $210,000. Former Manchester City and Sunderland manager Peter Reid (Kolkata) and Marco Etcheverry (Siliguri), arguably the greatest Bolivian player, went for $200,000 each.

This isn’t really big money for soccer in Kolkata—clubs such as Mohun Bagan and East Bengal receive around Rs 10 crore each every year in funding from the UB Group. Mohun Bagan, for instance, has spent close to Rs 13 crore to field players this year. “But this event is different in its approach,” said IFA’s Ganguli—it is one that will benefit Indian youngsters.

For players such as Cannavaro, Crespo and Pires, it’s going to be a “new experience”, according Jamie Jarvis, whose London-based JAJ Communications Ltd is acting as an intermediary to secure the participation of the international stars.

“The foreign players have been very carefully chosen,” he said. “They are people who are more open-minded and are willing to take in a new experience than other professionals.”

CMG has already sold the international telecast rights of the PLS’ first edition to London and Singapore-based MP and Silva, one of the leading sports media companies, which in November acquired the rights to telecast Italy’s Serie A football league till the 2014-15 season, according to CMG’s Goswami.

This ensures the event will be telecast in some 60 countries, said Anilava Chatterjee, director of Greymind Communication Pvt. Ltd, a Kolkata-based sports media company.

Goswami is currently on the lookout for a broadcaster in South-East Asia, and at least three networks have already expressed interest in the PLS. He didn’t, however, name the networks.

Those that have bought teams expect to make money in three years. Each team expects to sell at least 20,000 tickets per home match at Rs 100-1,000 apiece, according to N.R. Datta, chairman and managing director of Camellia Group, which acquired the Kolkata franchise. That apart, CMG is to share 50% of its revenues from sponsorship and sale of telecast rights.

Each team is expecting to receive at least Rs 1.5 crore from devolution of revenue from CMG from the first year itself, according to Chatterjee.

If the PLS is successful, all the teams will break even within three years, said IFA’s Ganguli, who is also vice-chairman of Allied Blenders and Distillers Pvt. Ltd, a liquor company. “Those joining the event later will have to pay a premium,” he added.

Reuters contributed to this story.

arnab.d@livemint.com