American sports broadcaster ESPN will telecast live only the semi-finals and final of the IFA Shield football tournament, in Kolkata, from September 16 to 28.
The channel had earlier said it would show live six matches of the championship, but is believed to have gone back on that promise because of financial reasons.
This year's IFA Shield has lost much of its sheen as there isn't any foreign team participating. That's because the IFA has been restrained by FIFA from inviting foreign teams as punishment for the fiasco involving Brazilian club Palmeiras and East Bengal last year.
The Shield semi-finals are slated for September 25 and 26, while the final will be played a day later.
Though the number of matches to be telecast live has been cut down, the channel will show excerpts from the league matches before the semi-finals.
The All-India Football Federation has been trying to reach a deal with the American broadcaster but so far the tie-up effort hasn't yielded much.
Even before a formal tie-up, the AIFF seems to have irked ESPN with its marketing strategy for the National League. Also, ESPN sources said they are more interested in telecasting the Barclaycard Premiership than the Indian tournament.
Differences with ESPN also centered on two aspects -- the contract amount and the tournament schedule, which the AIFF frequently altered.
As the AIFF is certain that its contract with Doordarshan will not be renewed, it started looking for a new broadcasting ally.
The AIFF-Doordarshan contract was worth Rs.70 million annually, but, surprisingly, the Indian channel did not telecast several major matches because of, what some quarters believe, diminishing interest in the game.
