Show them the money!
BIZSPORT
| How the two leagues stack up against each other makes for an interesting study. The All India Football Federation has signed a deal worth over Rs 7 crore with Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), of which more than half will go for the National Football league alone. |
| In addition, there will be money from TV rights that AIFF has smartly signed up with Doordarshan for the big league matches and other matches will be shared by some private channels. |
| Each of the 60-odd premier matches will fetch AIFF Rs 10 lakh each, besides Rs 6 lakh for each of the B matches and Rs 4 lakh each from the C matches. |
| A rough estimate indicates that AIFF stands to pocket more than Rs 10 crore from TV rights alone. The total would approach Rs 20 crore, when some co-sponsorships are added to the kitty. |
| Not bad at all for a game in which India has never cracked top 100 in the world and currently lies beyond 130. |
| Cut to hockey. After almost five years in the dusty files in the IHF, the Premier Hockey League will finally see light. That may well be due to the persistence and belief of ESPN-Star Sports. |
| The PHL will get its airtime on ESPN-Star Sports, but no one has any idea if any money will come IHF's way for the TV rights. |
| Out of the total prize fund of Rs 71 lakh, Rs 30 lakh goes to the Premier League winner and Rs 10 lakh to the runners-up. The second division winners get Rs 4 lakh and runners-up get Rs 2.5 lakh. |
| In football, the winning team gets Rs 40 lakh, the runners-up Rs 22 lakh and the third placed Rs 16 lakh. |
| What about salaries? The footballers get market rates, and some earn Rs 30-40 lakh per annum plus accommodation. Clubs are private and raise money themselves. |
| A part of the prize money for the team is given as a bonus to the players, who are on contracts ranging from one to three years. |
| The IHF will be paying the Indian players to participate in the league. The Premier league has five teams, all chosen by the IHF. The 'A' players (only 11 in all) will be paid Rs 1 lakh each for the entire league, which will have eight games. |
| Level B players will get Rs 35,000 and Level C Rs 15,000 each. |
| Foreign players, many retired in Pakistan, or from teams way below India in rankings like France and Zimbabwe, are reported to be getting airfare, accommodation plus a minimum of ¤ 2,000 (Rs 1.1 lakh) each. |
| Clearly the plan is to get foreign players at a cost higher than their real value as compared to Indian players, to simply hype the league. |
| Finally, India is ranked in the top six in the world in hockey and the football team is ranked 132nd in the world. No prizes for guessing which sport has been marketed better. |