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Premier Futsal kicks off on Friday; Ronaldinho, Giggs, Scholes ready to showcase their skills

By PTI

Chennai, July 15: Football superstars Ronaldinho, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes will showcase their skills in front of Indian fans when the Premier Futsal begins amid hype and anticipation here on Friday (July 15).

Premier Futsal 2016 schedule</a>; </strong><strong><a href=Full list of teams, players" title="Premier Futsal 2016 schedule; Full list of teams, players" />Premier Futsal 2016 schedule; Full list of teams, players

The inaugural season of Premier Futsal, touted to be the world's first multi-national league, will kick off tomorrow with some of most well known footballers rubbing shoulders will some of the leading futsallers in the world.

Premier Futsal kicks off on Friday


The first match-day of the inaugural season will see Falcao's Chennai 5's go against Giggs' Mumbai 5's. The second game of the opening day would be Ronaldinho's Goa 5's vs Hernan Crespo's Kolkata 5's.

The other marquee players are another Manchester United stalwart Paul Scholes and former Galactico Michel Salgado. Falcao or Alessandro Rosa Viera is known as 'Pele of Futsal'.

(Premier Futsal tickets now available online)(Premier Futsal tickets now available online)

Friday's opening ceremony will see a live performance from music maestro AR Rahman, who produced and sang official anthem of the league.

International futsal freestylers led by Sean Garnier will also showcase their skills and give the audience a glimpse of what to expect from the first edition of Premier Futsal.

Futsal is a form of football played indoors on a smaller fields with five players in a side for 40-minute duration. Premier Futsal is a franchise-based tournament promoted by an entity formed by Indian entrepreneurs. It has Portuguese football legend Luis Figo as president and Indian cricket star Virat Kohli as ambassador.

(Virat Kohli turns rapper, dances to AR Rahman's tunes)

The inaugural season kicks off here tomorrow and move to Goa on July 18. The final will take place in Goa on July 24. The first edition will see six franchises divided in two groups to battle it out over eight match days and 13 matches.

Each franchise was assigned a marquee international football player, seven international and five Indian futsallers. The six teams are split into two groups of three each, with Chennai, Mumbai and Kochi forming Group A and Group B featuring Goa, Kolkata and Bangalore.

The tournament is split up over two legs to be played in Chennai and Goa. There will be three days of futsal in Chennai, from July 15-17, featuring six matches with two being played each day at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium.

After a day's rest, the tournament resumes in Goa, at the Peddem Sports Complex in Mapusa. The remaining six group stage encounters will be played there from July 19-21, before another day's rest ahead of the knockout round.

The semifinals and finals will be held in Goa on July 23 and on July 24. Sony Pictures Networks, which acquired the broadcast rights for the league, will start live telecast from 6.50pm onwards on Sony SIX, SONY ESPN and Sony AATH.

PTI

Story first published: Tuesday, August 8, 2017, 11:47 [IST]
Other articles published on Aug 8, 2017