The Indian Super League (ISL), officially known as the Hero Indian Super League for sponsorship reasons, will be a professional football league in India. The league will be one of the top tier football leagues in India, the other being the I-League. The league will feature eight franchise teams from all around India. The league will run from October to December, with a finals series determining the champion.
The Indian Super League was founded in 2013 in an effort to make football a top sport in India and to make Indian football a major player worldwide. The league will operate along the lines of the Indian Premier League – a cricket Twenty20 league, and Major League Soccer of the United States. Unlike the majority of football leagues around the world, the ISL will not use the promotion and relegation system. Instead, the ISL will use a franchise system in which eight teams will be created to participate in the league
On 9 December 2010 the All India Football Federation signed a 15-year, 700-crore deal with Reliance Industries and the International Management Group of the United States. The deal gave IMG-Reliance exclusive commercial rights to sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, video, franchising, and rights to create a new football league. This deal came about after the AIFF ended their 10-year deal with Zee Sports five years early back in October 2010.
