MUMBAI: The Elite Football League of India (EFLI) has retained Madison Street Capital, a provider of corporate finance and mergers and acquisition (M&A) advisory services, to raise capital and explore equity finance opportunities for it.

Ten Sports will telecast later all the 31 matches that the first season for the EFLI will have. The tournament has been preponed from November to 20 July in Sri Lanka.

Eight teams will take part, five of which are from India, two from Sri Lanka and one from Pakistan. They will compete in American-style football.

Madison Street Capital senior MD of the Capital Markets Group Barry Petersen said,?We are excited to be partnering with a highly experienced management team in media/entertainment who raised the initial equity and secured the global partnerships that will produce a successful first season launch. Given the demographics and the proven success of the IPL, Ten Sports and the WWE in India, the opportunity is substantial.?

EFLI director of operations Tausif Sheikh said that the company is not selling team franchises to corporates in the first year. "We want to take it to a stage where we establish value. People should feel that it is a good time to get involved. Once it airs on Ten Sports, people will come to know what it is all about. For the first year, we focussing on doing sponsorship deals for the teams. We are doing the event in Sri Lanka partly due to the monsoons. The players are ready to play and holding the event in November would not have made sense.

The tournament will be held next year in India. "We could hold it either just before the start of the IPL or just after," said Sheikh.

EFLI has support from high-profile sports and entertainment figures such as Kurt Warner, Mark Wahlberg, Mike Ditka, Michal Irvin, Brandon Chillar, and Ron Jaworski.

Coaches and players for the current eight-team league were selected from a field of 10,000 applicants, and were trained by US-based football coaches affiliated with EFLI.

EFLI will use the same model as the IPL, which recently received $2 billion for a 10-year broadcast contract, utilising a single stadium as the venue. The broadcast team is led by Sandy Grossman, the only television executive to direct 10 NFL Super Bowls.

The EFLI was established by the Elite Football Federation of India, the first sanctioned and recognised American football federation in India. The Federation acts as a pass-through entity for EFLI, distributing 15 per cent of its revenue to the Sports Ministry of India to help maintain its ongoing programs and facilities.