Kalistani Major History

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The Kalistani Football League gets the green light!

July 5064

It’s official! After some concerns that not enough bids would be put forward, billionaire and sports enthusiast Brett Gullivan has confirmed that the twentieth and final franchise has been set up to complete the rosta for the inaugural Kalistani Football Championship. Each District has been allocated four slots in the 20 team Championship, with the four largest cities in each District each hosting a team. With the season looking to begin in September, Brett Gullivan had only signed up 18 teams, but at the last minute both Luxon in Ananto and Yoshimi in Suldanor put together packages that were endorsed by the sports governing body and have been accepted for the 64/65 season.



Chyou Tsui and Tom Ableson put together the successful franchise package for the new Luxon Football Team.

Teams for profit?

The franchises are not what you might expect. Brett Gullivan outlined in his original plan that 35% of each team will be owned by the fans (20%), local government (10%) and players and staff (5%) thus complying with legislation that one-third of corporate boards must consist of employees. The remaining 65% will be open to investors, including private individuals, private businesses and state-owned firms. Brett Gullivan is an enthusiastic believer that local industries, whether private or state owned, should be encouraged to support civic projects, and he believes it is entirely appropriate that KALNAPECO and KALMILINCO have invested in teams. Of these investors, no one can own more than 25% of a single club, hence it will be impossible for a single individual to outright own a team and a diverse range of ownership has been actively encouraged.

Local government involvement

In 5052 the Kalistani government passed the States Sports Club Act which allowed for the government to fund sports clubs. Under the provisions of this legislation, the Kalistani Football Championship has worked with local government to ensure that sports stadiums for the franchises will be built on land owned by local governments, funding for construction will be split between local government and private business and a system of profit sharing will exist to ensure that local government benefits from any profits, with ticket sales eventually recouping government investment. This will also encourage investment in local infrastructure, including roads, housing and other facilities such as leisure centres and restaurants.



Although for the 64/65 seasons existing pitches associated with universities will largely be used, it is anticipated that by 5070 the sports league will have a fully functioning sets of stadiums, with current designs ranging from 35,000 to up to 80,000 seats with the capital team Kaliburg putting in the most ambitious bid.

Fan power

Under the complicated ownership models, each franchise will have a supporters groups open to all fans that will take a collective 20% ownership stake in individual teams. These shares, bought for a nominal membership, will entitle fans to vote on key decisions and will also ensure that fans are involved in profit sharing. The aim is to engage fans and combined with local government part ownership of stadiums will help to cement the relationship between teams and their local communities.



Players are already getting involved with youth teams

Is it also planned that professional athletes will engage with local communities, supporting sports in local schools and charity work with disadvantaged communities. Brett Gullivan is a firm believer that “athletes can be great role models encouraging a healthy mind and body” and has always been keenly supportive of charity work through the Republic.

Championship Governing Body

Brett Gullivan will be the first President of the governing body. Each franchise will have one member on the governing body, each District will also have a member representing amateur football leagues and there will also be a board member representing College Football, for a total membership of 27 members. The governing board will decide future policy for the league, including discussions still to take place on transfers of players between teams and ceilings on wages to ensure that no single club can dominate the league through paying higher wages.

The Draft

Finally, to encourage competitiveness between teams, prior to the start of each season new talent emerging from amateur football leagues will be subject to a draft that will evenly split new players between the different franchises.



Advertisement for the televised draft.