David Bascome?s Island Soccer League received a major boost yesterday when it was announced that CellularOne were to be the $100,000 title sponsors of the ambitious new initiative which starts next summer.

According to the indoor soccer star, the ISL will involve eight, six-a-side teams and around 120 local players, who will battle it out from May through to August in what will be Bermuda?s first professional football league ? with the winners expected to earn in the region of $40,000.

CellularOne are to provide both money and services to help the league get off the ground, including free cell phones and internet connection.

All games next year are to be played at the National Sports Centre on a pitch specially modified for six-a-side football, while Bascome has already said that the eight teams will not correspond with sides already competing in the domestic leagues.

Overseas scouts, from Europe and South America as well as the USA?s Major League Soccer and the Major Indoor Soccer League, will be invited to the Island to search for talent while eight salaried coaches will also be selected to take charge of the teams.

Close to 300 players will be eligible to join the league?s initial Superdraft, which will then be broken down to 120 after trials ? including 12 players and three alternates per team.

The draft order will be decided by lottery, with the coaches then picking in rounds ? as they do in the major sports leagues in the US ? until each have 15 players.

Each team will play each other once before going into the play-offs, while there will also be an All-Star game at the end of the season.

It is understood that the ISL will not clash with Bermuda?s anticipated involvement in the eleven-a-side USL league ? the league below the MLS ? which will also begin next summer and was arranged by former Manchester City striker Shaun Goater, and national team coaches Kyle Lightbourne and Paul Scope.

?This is an opportunity for Bermuda?s most talented players to compete in a professional environment and hopefully earn the opportunity to go and play abroad as professionals,? Bascome told when the creation of the ISL was first mooted last year.