Banglanews: Former Indian cricket captain Sachin Tendulkar bagged the franchisee rights for Kochi in the eight-team based inaugural Indian Super League (ISL) football.

His rival will be Sourav Ganguly who got the right for Kolkata, beating Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan.

Other Bollywood stars Ranbir Kapoor, Salman Khan and John Abraham however bought Mumbai, Pune and Guwahati respectively.

The promoters of ISL IMG-Reliance, while announcing the owners of the eight city franchises, said that the Indian Premier League (IPL) style tournament has taken its first major leap in its bid to revolutionise Indian football.

The two-month tournament that will see some yesteryear international stars playing with Indian footballers will be held in September-November this year.

The remaining three cities to make the cut are Delhi, Bangalore and Goa.

While Delhi will be solely owned by Sameer Manchanda-headed Den Cable Network, Bangalore was bagged by Sun Group, which also owns IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The winning bidders paid a franchise fee ranging between Rs.12 crore to Rs.15 crore annually for 10 years.

Videocon chief Venugopal Dhoot has formed a consortium with businessman Dattaraj Salgaocar and Dempo owner Shrinivas Dempo to bag the rights for Goa.

Ganguly too has formed a consortium with West Bengal`s leading industrialists Harsh Neotia of Ambuja Neotia Group, Sanjeev Goenka of RPG Group, stock broker Utsav Parekh and top Spanish club Atletico Madrid to clinch the franchise rights for Kolkata.

Tendulkar and PVP Ventures, which owns Indian Badminton League (IBL) inaugural champions Hyderabad Hotshots, have together clinched Kochi.

Actor-producer John Abraham has tied up with I-League outfit Shillong Lajong for Guwahati. Ranbir and Mumbai`s leading investment banker Bimal Parekh, who manages celebrities like Aamir Khan and Katrina Kaif, have got the Mumbai franchise while Salman Khan bagged Pune along with Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of the Wadhawan Group.

BDST: 1259 HRS, APR 15, 2014