IMG-R to seek advice from Wembley pitch consultant for refurbishment of IPL tournament stadiums

A pitch consultant of the Wembley Stadium will be coming to India to inspect the stadiums that have been booked for IMG-Reliance’s proposed IPL-style tournament and give his advice for the refurbishment process, Sportskeeda can confirm.

Last month, Sportskeeda had revealed that IMG-Reliance have been inspecting stadiums around the country to find out the requirements for both the short-term and long-term refurbishment. All the funding for the same will be done by IMG-R.

A source in the know of things informed Sportskeeda on Thursday that the Wembley pitch consultant will be taken to the booked stadiums and following the inspections, he will chalk out the necessary action.

“Initially he will be taken to New Delhi (JLN Stadium), Mumbai (DY Patil Stadium) and Bangalore (Kantiveera Stadium) and after the inspections, he will give his expertise. I think the refurbishment of stadiums is one of the many benefits that this new tournament will provide to Indian football and hence we want the very best experts in the world to work on it” the source stated.

IMG-Reliance gave the final presentation of their tournament at the AIFF executive committee meeting in New Delhi on Thursday and it was very well received by the Indian FA including president Praful Patel.

The task of breaking the deadlock between I-League clubs and AIFF’s marketing and commercial partners IMG-R has been given to a six-member committee which comprises four AIFF vice-presidents including Dempo owner Shrinivas Dempo and Shillong Lajong general secretary Larsing Ming. A meeting about the same is expected to take place before August 15th.

The source is optimistic of that issue being resolved and added that the preparations for the new tournament, which is expected to start in January 2014, are well in place with a month-long training camp involving the 37 signed Indian players to start at Mumbai’s Cooperage Stadium from Friday.

Former East Bengal coach Trevor Morgan will act as a consultant and oversee the training sessions of the camp while former India goalkeeper Debashish Mukherjee is expected to be the goalkeeping coach.

The purpose of the camp is to keep the IMG-R contracted players fit as they are without an I-League club for now. Five players – Subrata Pal, Sandesh Jhingan, Gouramangi Singh, Nirmal Chettri and Syed Rahim Nabi – are among the list of Indian national team probables for the upcoming international friendly against Tajikistan on August 14.

So the players, who make the final match squad for the Tajikistan friendly and get selected for the SAFF Cup preparatory camp in Bangalore from August 16, will be released from the IMG-R camp.