Hero ISL rolls out its fixture list
The third edition of the Hero Indian Super League is bound to be a riveting competition and will begin on Saturday, October 1, 2016. On Friday, Football Sports Development Ltd. announced the ISL 2016 fixtures, featuring 61 games spread across 79 days played in a home-away league format, followed by two-legged semi-finals and a final.
The ‘Super Sunday’ final is scheduled on December 18, 2016. Venue for the final will be announced at a later date. All the matches will kick off at 1900 hrs (IST).
Guwahati is set to play host to the tournament’s curtain raiser and the opening ceremony. In the first game, John Abraham’s NorthEast United FC would hope to begin on the right note when they take on the Sachin Tendulkar owned Kerala Blasters FC.
Coincidentally, 2016 would turn out to be the third consecutive opening game between John Vs Sachin.
NorthEast United won 1-0 on 4th October 2014 at home and it was the Blasters who ran out 3-1 winners a year later.
Delhi Dynamos bolster their coaching unit
Delhi Dynamos FC announced 2006 World Cup-winning Italian midfielder Simone Barone as their assistant coach.
The club also announced the signing of Sebastian Delgado and Roberto Ghielmetti as the goalkeeping coach and fitness coach respectively, for the third edition of the tournament.
Italian Mario Cerra will be the new team manager as well as the medical assistant.
FC Pune City takes over Pune FC’s academy
With a vision to develop talent and professionalize the sport, the Rajesh Wadhawan Group and Hrithik Roshan co-owned Indian Super League team FC Pune City announced today the take over of Pune FC’s academy and unveiled its comprehensive development plans.
This move will now bring all of Pune FC’s football development operations under FC Pune City’s umbrella, which includes the players and coaching staff. The talented kids from FC Pune City U-14 development centre will get integrated with the academy, including two players recently selected by Bayern Munich from FC Pune City centre.
Speaking about the new endeavour, Mr. Gaurav Modwel, CEO of FC Pune City said:
“We are committed to developing football in a scientific and structured manner learning from international best in class practices and methodologies.
Our efforts to professionalise the sport and provide much needed impetus to talent identification and development will be second to none.
This acquisition provides us a base to expedite the process which would have been undertaken anyway.”
