Football Sports Development Limited is an Indian company established to operate the Indian Super League, the top tier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

league in India. The company is run as a subsidiary to Reliance. The company is the commercial partner of

All India Football Federation The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the national governing body of football in India. It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to Asian Football Confederation. It is affiliated to Ministry o ...

Indian Super League

On 9 December 2010, it was announced that the

had signed a 15-year, 700-crore deal with

Reliance Industries Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is ...

and the

International Management Group IMG, originally known as the International Management Group, is a global sports, events and talent management company headquartered in New York City. It has been owned by Endeavor since 2013. Trans World International (TWI) is an event and pro ...

. in that deal they agreed to form a new professional league for the development of

Indian football Football in India has historically been among the top 3 most popular sport in terms of players participation and TV viewership, together with long time number one cricket and re-emerging kabaddi. India's current top domestic football league i ...

The Indian Super League was founded in October 2013 by IMG– Reliance, along with

and STAR Sports. The goal of the league was to make football a top sport in India. The league was modelled along the lines of the popular Twenty20 cricket league, the Indian Premier League, and

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

of the United States. The league started in October 2014 with eight teams and ended in December 2014 with Atlético de Kolkata coming out as inaugural champions. The league saw stars such as Roberto Carlos, Alessandro Nesta, Tim Cahill, Asamoah Gyan, Robert Pires, Dimitar Berbatov, Nicolas Anelka, Wes Brown,

Carlos Marchena Carlos Marchena López (; born 31 July 1979) is a Spanish retired footballer, and a manager. Mainly a central defender with an aggressive approach, he also played as a defensive midfielder. Most of his professional career (nine years) was spen ...

, David Trezeguet, Alessandro Del Piero,

David James Dewi, Dai, Dafydd or David James may refer to: Performers *David James (actor, born 1839) (1839–1893), English stage comic and a founder of London's Vaudeville Theatre *David James (actor, born 1967) (born 1967), Australian presenter of ABC's ''P ...

, Elano,

Robbie Keane Robert David Keane (born 8 July 1980) is an Irish professional Association football, football coach and former Football player, player who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. Keane served as Captain (association football ...

, Diego Forlán, Marco Materazzi, Freddie Ljungberg, Joan Capdevila, Aaron Hughes, Florent Malouda, Kostas Katsouranis, Luis García and Hélder Postiga come to India.

Development League & Next Gen Cup

In June 2021 it was proposed by the organisers of ISL after a meeting with the CEOs of all the ISL clubs, that a new developmental league, called Reliance Foundation Development League, would be introduced in 2022. This new league would consist of the youth and reserve teams of all the ISL clubs, with aim to develop young players as there has been limited number of competitions and leagues outside the ISL since the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

. The teams would predominantly feature U-21 players with few overage players allowed as well. The inaugural season of the proposed two-month league was to be held in Goa inside a bio-secure bubble between January and March, following the same medical and safety procedures for 2021–22 ISL season, but got postponed to April 15. Out of all the ISL clubs, ATK Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, NorthEast United and Odisha didn't participate due to lack of youth teams, thus only seven clubs took part in the league along with Reliance Foundation Youth Champs football team. The league concluded on 12 May with Bengaluru topping the table and becoming the inaugural champions. Along with Bengaluru, Kerala Blasters qualified for Premier League's NextGen Cup 2022 in the UK as the top two teams in the league.

References

Indian Super League Reliance Sports 2014 establishments in Maharashtra Indian companies established in 2014 {{India-footy-bio-stub

Indian Super League

Development League & Next Gen Cup

See also

References