New Delhi [India], Sept 25 (ANI-NewsVoir): Futsal is the fastest growing indoor sport in the world, with over 2.5Mn playing every weekend, and is widely credited for the superiority of the greatest football players ever including Pele, Maradona, Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo, Ronaldinho, and more recently, Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo Messi and Neymar, who have all acknowledged their futsal up bring.
Futsal, due to its end-to-end and quick-transition game play and flair and technique-based skill set requirement, has traditionally been the fundamental of great footballers, but the correlation ends there. They are two different sports with Futsal having a unique set of rules (40 minutes, no offside, rolling substitution) and a different pool of players from football.
Xavier Britto, The Chairman of KERRYINDEV Logistics Pvt. Ltd., with a turnover of USD 250M operates across 50 countries , with offices around the globe and is headquartered in Hong Kong - The Prime sponsor of Premier Futsal India.
"Being a derived sport, futsal players possess a well-packaged and balanced skill set that encompasses key physical, mental and technical attributes. This skill set is the quintessential athlete attribute, making futsal an ideal talent development tool for sports in general," he said.
"I am excited to back Premier Futsal because I believe futsal will play a defining role in the making of the next generation of sports stars in a country that is aiming to be a world leader in sports," said Vice Chairperson Vimala Britto who is the Founder of St. Britto's Group of Institutions & Seek Foundation.
Premier Futsal has been founded and conceptualized by 3 young Indian entrepreneurs Abhinandan Balasubramanian (CEO), Dinesh Raj (MD) and Nithyashree Subban (CFO), who conceived this platform with a passion to popularize futsal and support the government's exemplary efforts to build a sporting ecosystem.
Futsal is a 5-a-side indoor version of football, combined with the rules of basketball, water polo and handball. It's played on wood or artificial flooring based court of size 40m*20m.
The company comprises as President, Luis Figo, former 2-time World Player of the Year and Real Madrid legend and as Vice- President, Alessandro Rosa Viera (a.k.a Falcao), better known as the "Pele of Futsal" and 4-time World Futsal Player of the Year.
The league will be held in India and the UAE (via a collaboration with Dubai Sports Council, under the patronage of Crown Prince Sheik Hamdan). The league will be broadcast in over 85 countries globally, becoming the largest sports league export of India.
The 2017 Premier Futsal will be the second edition to Premier Futsal which debuted in July, 2016. The second edition of 2017 Premier Futsal - Sept 15 to Oct 2 is played in Mumbai, Bangalore and Dubai. In Bangalore it's played in Koramangala - Indoor Stadium from Sept 21 to 25. The Semifinal and Final will be played in Dubai from Sept 28 to Oct 1.
This year there are 6 teams- Mumbai, Delhi, HYD , Kerala, Bangalore, Chennai The Legends players involved in the league are:
Mumbai Warriors: Mumbai
Kerala Cobras: Kochi
Chennai Singhams: Chennai
Telugu Tigers: Hyderabad
Delhi Dragons: New Delhi
Bengaluru Royals: Bengaluru
These players have a huge fan following across the world, each having played for the biggest football clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea and AC Milan.
Film celebrities are also involved this year with Premier Futsal:
Tiger Shroff as the co-owner and brand ambassador of Mumbai Warriors
Puneeth Rajkumar is the co-owner and brand ambassador of Bangalore Royals
Rana Daggubai is the team brand ambassador for Telugu Tigers
Arya as the as the co-owner and brand ambassador of Chennai Singhams
Sunny Leone is the co-owner and brand ambassador of Kerala Cobras
Viewership Target: 120Million live viewers and more than 1billion social media impressions
Video Link of Season 1: https://youtu.be/692DKjVVOUM. (ANI-NewsVoir)
This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI