Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
There was a bunch of excitement in India about the start of Premier League Soccer. Fabio Cannavaro, Hernan Crespo and Robert Pires were all lined up to play and the country with the second-most people in the world would have top flight soccer. Fantastic, right? Yes, but one tiny problem has emerged. They don't have stadiums to play in. Ah, that little detail.
The stadiums that the league organizers intended to play in are all owned by the state government and while the league had no problem putting together a group of players or sponsors, they apparently were ready to go forward with the league despite not having an agreement with that state government about where to play these matches.
"Discussion is on with the state government, but even if it is sorted out by the end of this week, we would need time to prepare the fields," said Dharamdutt Pandey, chief executive of the event management company which conceived PLS.
The players and managers were allocated to each of the six teams by an auction. Crespo went for the most money at $840,000, with Cannavaro, Pires, Jay-Jay Okocha and Robbie Fowler also fetching hefty sums so all was looking good for the league, except for that whole stadium thing.
"These are minor issues and PLS is very much on," Pandey said.
So apparently nowhere to play is a minor issue. This league is going to do great!
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