IMG-Reliance spent around Rs. 55 crore on pitch, dressing rooms and floodlights

October 19, 2014 10:16 pm | Updated May 23, 2016 04:42 pm IST - Mumbai:

If Indian football’s trailblazing Hero-Indian Super League (H-ISL) got off the ground with a spectacular inauguration at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata almost a week ago, credit should largely be given to the league promoter, IMG-Reliance and its dedicated officials.

Five matches have been played so far leading to the Mumbai City FC and Pune FC City match at the Dr. D.Y. Patil Sports Academy ground (at Navi Mumbai) and praise from Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger that the ISL would be a big success has warmed the cockles of many a heart at the IMG-Reliance.

It’s altogether a different story that the likes of former Gunners stars Nicolas Anelka, Robert Pires, Mikel Silvestre Freddie Ljungberg and Andre Santos are part of the ISL, but there is much happiness among the IMG-Reliance officials because of the hours of work put in by them since May 2014.

The league’s finals will be played when the yuletide spirit pervades in the third week of December, which means the league has some way to reach its climax.

“As of now we have made a good start. We have worked on a war-footing for five to six months to make sure that everything was in place. Lot of work was carried out to make sure that the football pitch met international standards in order to prevent injuries.

“We looked into the nitty-gritty, the dressing room and floodlight facilities at all venues. The promoter would have spent around Rs. 55 crore on these three aspects — pitch, dressing room and floodlights,’’ said an official dealing with these matters hands-on.

The league promoter hired Greg Gillin, Facilities Director, Wembley Stadium, as pitch consultant. He visited ten centres, including Hyderabad and Bangalore some 16 months ago, but in the last five months alone, Gillin made around 120 visits to the eight venues; averaging 12 visits to each venue.

“We had to completely dig up the ground at Delhi, Pune and Guwahati. Kolkata has an artificial turf, others are all grass. So Gillin had to look at elimination of weeds and quality of sand and grass to be used. Injury was a prime concern. Mumbai City FC’s Nabi (Syed Rahim) was carrying a niggle and his ankle flared up in the first match against Atletico de Kolkata,” said the official.

While it’s the responsibility of the franchises to make sure that all facilities were in place, IMG-Reliance, had to hire manpower manifold to speed up work at Guwahati.

“Kochi and D.Y. Patil were cricket stadiums and hence work related to sand base and grass was carried out. Players appreciated the work done at the J.N. Stadium, Delhi. Chennai came in late, but we have managed to do some good work there. In Goa, the league promoter had to clear an outstanding bill of Rs. 2 crore to a power supplier. Then wherever there were floodlights with 800 lux, we converted that into 1400 lux. So everybody worked on a war-footing.”

The success of the inaugural H-ISL will be measured on all counts after the final on December 20; for IMG-Reliance it would be essentially on venue-related facilities like pitch conditions (injury count), dressing room conditions and floodlights and of course the response from the football fans. “The turn out at Guwahati was amazing; people came from Meghalaya and nearby states. It was difficult to get a hotel room,” said the league official.

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