Robbie Fowler is one of the stars that will cash in on the awkward tourney.

Feeling nostalgic for the early 2000s? Well, the Indian FA feels your pain and has prescribed a stars-of-the-past tournament as medication for your ailment. Between February and April, Fowler will join Fabio Cannavaro, Robert Pires, Hernan Crespo, Juan Pablo Sorin, Jay-Jay Okocha, Maniche and Fernando Morientes as ‘icon’ players in the tournament.

The Indian FA has signed a 30-year deal with Celebrity Management Group to host the tournament. Thankfully, the squads are limited to four foreigners and allow for a requisite six under-21 Indian players. Robert Pires has this to say about his motivations.

If my (club) president likes me, it could be €790,000 ($1 million). It is a lot of money. I’m not going to complain about that am I? But I’m not going there as a tourist. It’s a new adventure.

Indians have a salacious apatite for soccer but do not have a domestic league capable of providing the necessary sustenance. The cricket obsessed country ranks 162nd in the FIFA rankings, yet roughly 60 million Indians watched the 09/10 English Premier League. CMG and the Indian FA are hoping some of them will remember players from that year and before.