Football has been played and followed
in India for almost 200 years. "For the first time ever football players
will be auctioned and I
think that we are at the crossroads for Indian football. I am sure that the
PLS (Premier League Soccer) will provide a new path for Indian
football," Bhaswar Goswami, one of the organisers, told the BBC.
The players being sold include Fabio
Cannavaro, captain of Italy's World Cup-winning team in 2006, former French
international Robert Pires and Nigerian Jay-Jay Okocha. The Premier League
Soccer (PLS) tournament will feature six teams. The organisers expect the league to do well in India's
football capital. Organisers of the PLS, which begins next month, hope to emulate the success of the Indian
Premier League (IPL), the cricket tournament that attracts huge crowds and
which inaugurated the
auction system. They also believe that it will inspire more Indians to play
football. India is ranked 158 of the 203 football-playing countries.
But critics of the league say the money would have been better
spent in developing talent and question whether football can ever challenge the multi-billion dollar
business of cricket in India.
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VOCABULARY
1. Auctioned
(verb) - to sell something at an auction
(a public meeting where land, buildings, paintings etc are sold to the
person who offers the most money for them)
Example: This
week 14 of his paintings were auctioned.
2.
League (noun) - a group of sports
teams or players who play games against each other to see who the best is.
Example: He makes his football league debut tomorrow.
3. Emulate
(verb) - to do something or behave in the same way as someone else, especially
because you admire them [= imitate]
Example: He hoped to emulate the success of Einstein.
4. Inaugurated
(verb) - it comes at the beginning of an event that is important
Example: The International Trade Agreement
inaugurated a period of high economic growth.
5. Critics
(noun) - someone whose job is to make judgments about the good and bad qualities
of art, music, films etc [= reviewer].
Example: Critics of the system have said that it will
not solve the problem of teenage crime.
6. Challenge
(verb) - to invite someone to compete or fight against you, or to try to win
something [↪ challenger, dare]
Example: After lunch Carey challenged me to a game of
tennis.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What can you say
about players being auctioned?
2. Who do you think
will benefit from this auction?
3. Tell us about
football in your country.
