ARMSTRONG VAZ
MARGAO: The Youth Champions League (YCL) held at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda which was dubbed as ‘India’s biggest youth tournament’ last year and which was held with much fanfare left many with a bitter pill to swallow.
Some of the schools and club teams, which took part in the tournament are yet to receive their prize money, almost a year after the tournament ended at the Nehru Stadium in October 2012.
The tournament was contested by 256 teams from different parts of India including Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Bangalore and saw participation from some of the leading clubs of Goa along with some prominent schools from the state. The seven-a-side youth tournament was in three age-groups (U-12, U-14 and U-17) with boys and girls participating.
Fr Agnel Ashram Higher Secondary School, Verna, is one team which participated and won the top honours, but are yet to receive the winner’s purse of Rs 50,000.
“We are yet to receive the prize money. We paid Rs 12,000 as entry fee and we were told that the winners would walk away with Rs 50,000. It was also mentioned in the entry form, but sadly we are yet to receive it,” informed Ivan D’Sa, Physical Education teacher at the school.
Another Goan club Salgaocar Sports Club, who won the Under-14 tournament, had their dues cleared after five months. “After some follow up from our side, we were paid for the same,” informed a Salgaocar Sports Club official.
Some of the outstation schools who were charged Rs 15,000 per player also felt the heat of the organizers and were not cleared in time, one such school was Jain International Residential School, Bangalore. “Yes it was eventually paid around 2 to 3 months after the tournament ended,” informed Hugh Kim Lewis, the English football coach at the school.
The Bangalore school finished third in the Under-17 category.
“We had to pay around Rs 15,000 for each player as an appearance fee to participate and we had 12 players in total. I have no problem about paying that but they should be keeping their word. It was clearly written in the tournament document that the third-placed team will get Rs 21,000.”
The final of the tournament was graced by Portuguese football star Luis Figo and the cultural show, which was part of the tournament turned out to be a flop event.
The dismal turnout of around 5,000 for an exhibition match involving Figo was much talked about, as the organisers were heavily criticised for failing to publicise the event. Figo’s appearance marked the finale
of the YCL, but the poor organisation totally overshadowed the event.
In the meantime, most of the officials who were with the company and have moved away from the company. Vinit Rughani, the then head of business development of Red 9 Events is one of them.
“First things first. I no longer hold any position in Red 9 Events Private Limited. But as per my knowledge during my time at the company itself almost all the winners were paid their dues, so I do not know whom are you talking about. I would still suggest to connect to existing team at YCL through Facebook or email. They shall surely be of help,” said Vinit.
But the YCL site has since closed it emerged if one clicks on the links provided by Vinit.
Another person who has quit the company is Sagar Dessai. Dessai was part of the company, which organized the show. Henal Pandya, PR head of the Red 9 Events, which organised the Youth Champions League in Goa did not respond to the emails and phone calls. The mismanagement of affairs also did not go well with India’s top musician and Goa’s own Remo Fernandes, who performed at the show.
The organizers, Red 9 Events, a Mumbai based event management refused to pay Remo the promised sum for performing at the show and the Goan star have since filed a court case against them for bounced cheque.
“That is absolutely true (court case). I have not been paid for the special song I was commissioned to compose for the event. I’ve taken them to Court, you know how these bounced cheque matters drag on,” he said.
