(Image source from: Sachin Tendulkar bags Kochi)

After much-anticipation and a long wait, football finally joined the bandwagon of professional sporting leagues in India with the announcement of eight new franchises for All India Football Federation's Indian Super League (ISL).

Among the high-profile winning bidders are two former Indian cricket captains, several Bollywood stars and some bigwig industrialists and conglomerates.

To be played between September-November, the ISL event is likely to take Indian football by a storm, and maybe create a space for the game in a cricket dominated country.

The eight franchisees for the league were announced in Mumbai on Sunday by promoters IMG-Reliance. The bid results were announced after a thorough evaluation by a seven-member panel.

Among the cities sold were Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Guwahati, Pune, Kochi and Goa. Here is a detailed list of the winning bidders for ISL franchises.

Bangalore:
The Bangalore ISL team was bought by Chennai-based Indian conglomerate, Sun Group who are also the owners of IPL cricket team Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Delhi:
The Delhi ISL team has been obtained by DEN's chairman and managing director Sameer Manchanda.

Goa:
Goa was bought by a conglomerate involving Videocon Group, Dattarao Salgaocar and Dempo.

Guwahati:
Guwahati team had been jointly bought by I-League side Shillong Lajong and Bollywood actor-producer John Abraham.

Kochi:
Th Kochi franchise was bought by India's cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar an PVP Ventures.

Kolkata:
Sourav Ganguly has bought the Kolkata franchise. Other stakeholders in the team are Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, Utsav Parekh and Spanish premier league side Atletico Madrid.

Mumbai:
Bollywood hearthrob Ranbir Kapoor has joined forces with investment banker Bimal Parekh to bag the Mumbai franchise.

Pune:
Salman Khan and the Wadhawan Group have obtained the Pune franchise.

AW: Suchorita Choudhury