India's Premier League Soccer postponed due to lack of venues

PanARMENIAN.Net - The inaugural edition of India's Premier League Soccer (PLS), featuring the World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro and former France international Robert Pires, has been postponed because of a lack of venues, The Guardian reports.

The six-team competition, modeled on the successful Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament, was due to kick off in the eastern state of West Bengal, but the organizers said they could not secure the stadiums owned by the state government.

"Discussion is on with the state government but even if it is sorted out by the end of this week, we would need time to prepare the fields," said Dharamdutt Pandey, chief executive of the event management company which conceived PLS.

The secretary of All India Football Federation's West Bengal unit was in touch with the state sports minister and the issue would be resolved soon, Pandey claimed.

"These are minor issues and PLS is very much on. We are now targeting a mid-April start for the league. It would require at least one month to upgrade the stadiums to an international standard," Pandey said.