PANJIM: The Executive Committee of Goa Football Association approved a new league for women for the season 2017-18 comprising eight teams fielded by the clubs playing in the Goa Professional League, in a meeting held at GFA office, Panjim, on Saturday.
The President Elvis Gomes informed that Women’s League was on the cards for a long time and the women’s subcommittee was very keen to support the league. The available players are likely to be pooled in a draft from where teams will be expected to draw them.
The Women’s League is scheduled in October.
Gomes further informed that there will be an eight-team National level women tournament starting from August 5 to 13, at Duler Stadium, Mapusa in partnership with “Discover Football,” an organization that promotes women’s rights.
Meanwhile, the newly appointed National women’s coach Maymol Rocky was felicitated by the committee. The GFA also ratified its decision to approve a tournament as the Season Opener in aid of elderly sportspersons organised by Dempo Sports Club in association with the recently formed Association for Wellbeing of Elderly Sportspersons (AWES).
Continuing with the programme for development of new entrant referees’ in the State, GFA announced that 48 new referees will be drafted for duty from the season 2017-18 within the next two weeks as they are undergoing training under the guidance of Anthony John D’Costa and Goculdas Nagvenkar.
“Lot of graduate students have shown interest in refereeing. As soon as the current course is over, another batch of 50 new entrant referees will be trained so as to increase the pool of available referees and infuse new blood,” Gomes informed.
Meanwhile, it was decided that the centralized registration system shall be made applicable for every player registered with the GFA. Earlier, the system was applicable only to the I-League players. With this move, every player from young age, till retirement will be tracked through the system and it will help in seamless transfers from club to club and also State to State.
The GFA also resolved not to agree to the inclusion of foreign players in the youth leagues in the country. It may be recalled that recently there were reports that foreign players would be allowed to play in the youth leagues. The members were of the unanimous view that inclusion of foreign players at the youth level is not going to help Indian football to grow.
The football body also approved the Audited Final Accounts for the year 2016-17 to be placed before the general body at the annual general body meeting.
The GFA further informed that the approval to receive foreign funding under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) was still valid and that the filing of returns has been taken up.
“Since there were no foreign remittances, the accounts section failed to file nil returns, which were compulsory. The same has been rectified,” Elvis mentioned.
The GFA has approved construction of changing rooms and a VIP lounge on the Eastern side at Duler Stadium.
“The existing changing rooms are not up to the mark and getting into the room itself entails climbing spiral stairs. Many reputed teams from India, which are keen to practice on Duler Stadium, have complained about the same. This need of changing rooms was long pending, hence the decision is taken,” Gomes informed.
The last date for entries for the first Futsal League has been extended to July 31.
The Association also entrusted the Official Competitions Committee with the responsibility of introducing the pyramid structure for all its leagues as was advised by several experts who have been keenly watching the development of the game in Goa.
