Mumbai, Aug 21 (IANS): The mystery regarding the proprietors of Indian Super League's (ISL) newly-inducted Chennai franchise, which replaced Bangalore, remained unresolved Thursday as they were represented by Prashant Agarwal of Play on Skills who was deputed by the yet-to-be-announced owner to attend the international players' draft held here for the inaugural edition tentatively scheduled from Oct 12 to Dec 20.
The official line from the ISL management was that Agarwal, whose Play on Skills has a technical collaboration with Inter Milan, has been designated by the owner to attend the draft on his behalf. The ISL also said that the Chennai owner would be announced in a couple of days.
"The eighth team in the ISL would be Team Chennai represented today (Thursday) by Prashant Agarwal of Play on Skills which has a technical collaboration with Inter Milan in India. The owners of the Chennai franchise would be announced later," said Anupam Dutta, chief executive of ISL's holding company Football Sports Development Private Limited, a joint venture between IMG-Reliance and Star India.
Dutta's comments came a day after Sun Group, who owned the franchise rights for Bangalore, officially pulled out of the ISL. Though the actual reasons were not made public but ISL reportedly was not happy with the Sun Group's technical tie-up with JSW-owned Bengaluru FC, who have refused to release players for the league.
The names of Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan and UTC founder Ronnie Screwvala are doing the rounds as the owners of the Chennai franchise.