I-League, the second division of Indian domestic football, will have Sony Sports as its official broadcaster in the upcoming rounds of the 2024-25 season.
“The league is already being live-streamed on SSEN and soon, it will be broadcast by Sony. We have had positive talks with them. Naturally, the paperwork will take some time but will be completed,” Rahul Todi, Managing Director of Shrachi Sports, which owns the commercial rights of the league, told Sportstar.
Though the broadcaster could not be confirmed in time before the opening match – between Sreenidi Deccan and Gokulam Kerala – an emergency meeting on November 22 between all stakeholders saw a positive conclusion arrive.
“We got personal assurance from the AIFF (All India Football Federation) president (Kalyan Chaubey), general secretary (P Anilkumar), acting general secretary (Satyanarayan M), Rahul Todi and Tamal Ghosh (Chairperson, Shrachi Sports) that the league will be broadcast on Sony within a week,” Ranjit Bajaj, the owner of I-League side Delhi FC told Sportstar.
“We were also shown a mail sent from Shrachi to Sony Sports for the same within 20 minutes of the meeting,” he added.
The second round of the league starts on November 29, with Real Kashmir taking on Gokulam Kerala at the TRC Polo Synthetic Turf Ground in Jammu and Kashmir.
Broadcasting has been a major point of standoff between the AIFF and the I-League clubs in the last few weeks, with the sides even threatening to boycott the tournament if an official broadcaster was not announced.
However, the league did start, with Gokulam Kerala and Inter Kashi (vs Sporting Club Bengaluru) winning their respective games on the opening day.
Shrachi Sports is currently streaming the tournament on its newly launched mobile application SSEN. But with a broadcaster finally on board, the league is expected to reach a wider audience.
Comments
SHARE