MUMBAI: The inaugural edition of Premier League Soccer that was expected to kick-start from 24 March has been deferred at least by a month by Indian Football Association (West Bengal), the organisers of the tournament.

While the postponement is being attributed to difficulty in getting stadiums from the state government, the real reason is believed to be the not-so-good condition of stadias, which need to be refurbished and the fact that organisers will get more time to plan the league and create more buzz about the tournament.

However, a source in the Celebrity Management Group, the commercial rights holder of PLS, was confident that the IFA will successfully resolve all outstanding issues with state sports department, which is asking the state association to cough up money for using stadias, a demand that has been resisted by IFA.

The source also revealed that the global tender for broadcast rights will be initiated next week after working out modalities with its media rights holder, MP&Silva.

?Any new initiative which is new and unique is bound to have problems so that shouldn?t be made much of an issue, but we are confident that the league will be successful,? the source said on condition of anonymity.

The PLS will involve six teams -- Kolkata Camelians, Barasat Euro Musketeers, Durgapur Vox Champions, Howrah Manchester, Bengal Tuskers and Team Haldia, whose name is yet to be finalised.

Earlier, the PLS had faced its first major roadblock when the Indian football federation had asked the FIFA to suspend the Transfer Matching System account of the franchises over the ambiguity in the registration of franchises.

The issue was later sorted out after the IFA assured the parent body that the PLS clubs were recognised by it following which the clubs were allowed to seek transfer of international players through TMS.

The PLS was scheduled to take place from 24 March till 6 May while the new dates are expected to be announced by the organisers in the next few days.