Indian News

The new order in Indian football announced its arrival with a bang on Sunday! With its exciting freshness, well-packaged avatar and a never-seen-before razzmatazz, the mass entertainment of Bollywood and football, riding on Indian cricket's shoulder, descended on the illuminated Salt Lake Stadium to set the ball rolling for Indian Super League.

A restive crowd of 70,000 swayed to Bollywood beats in presence of top football stars from across the globe, corporate czars, politicians, filmstars and a host of other luminaries from different walks of life. And if the opening ceremony was anything to go by, the new league and perhaps through it Indian football, scaled new, noisy and never-before heights.

For the opening game alone, 23 foreign television channels, newspapers and magazines were granted accreditation, focusing on India and its football like never before. From Tokyo to Brazil, France and Italy, the ISL grabbed worldwide attention.

"The world now knows that Indians play football. Until three years ago, we knew only of Baichung Bhutia now we know just how passionate Indians were, especially in Manipur, about football," said Steve Darby, former Thailand national coach and a globetrotter.