Ronnie Screwvala buys stake in Mumbai-based football club and training academy PIFA Football Club
Summary
NEW DELHI: Ronnie Screwvala, founder of media and entertainment group UTV, has bought Mumbai-based football club and training academy PIFA FC, marking his entry into the business of sports. Screwvala, who sold his stake in UTV Software to Disney for Rs 2,000 crore in 2011, will also bid for a football team in the Rupert Murdoch and Mukesh Ambani-promoted Indian Super League (ISL).Screwvalas company, Unilazer Ventures, recently set up a sports division and hired Supratik Sen, sports marketing head at Red Bull, as its CEO. "The company has also signed on the Indian national team goalkeeper Subrata Paul and will manage his marketing rights in future.The IMG-Reliance league has generated interest among a clutch of big names in Bollywood -Shahrukh Khan, John Abrahim and Ranbir Kapoor - who are deeply interested in football. Like the 20-20 cricket league IPL, the eight city teams - to be chosen from potential owners bidding for Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune - will share central revenues equally. Each team will have one marquee international player.IMG-Reliance has already signed up former Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United stars such as Dwight Yorke, Fredrik Ljungberg, Robert Pires, Louis Saha and Hernen Creapo.