PLS faces further problems & delay

The Premier League Soccer in West Bengal is facing further problems. This time around they are infrastructure problems forcing the organisers Indian Football Association (West Bengal) and Celebrity Management Group to postpone the launch of the inaugural season indefinitely. The PLS season one was supposed to be played from March 24 to May 6, which was already a delay by about a month from the original dates.

Now the PLS organisers are facing a problem with the West Bengal Department of Sports regarding the six stadiums in Kolkata, Barasat, Howrah, Siliguri, Durgapur and Haldia. The West Bengal government has indicated that some of the venues are booked for other events during those dates, while the department also doubts that the venues would be ready in a few weeks to host such a high profile event.

This means that the PLS could be postponed by another three to four weeks to get things sorted and organised, which means a potential start in the third week of April and finish in the first week of June. Surely the PLS would have to finish before Euro2012 which starts on June 8.

If the PLS organisers are not able to get the wanted dates, then they will consider shifting the tournament to another state. Maharashtra and Kerala have shown interest to host the tournament, but it is the last option for the organisers to get the league off the ground.

All these problems follow the uncertainly if the star-studded PLS would be cleared by the All India Football Federation a few days ago.