08 Jul 2020  |   03:37am IST

Goan football: No moves to make till the virus lowers its pitch

The beautiful game is no longer flowing in the state due to the virus which has turned the world upside down. Café spoke to various administrators and players to understand what was going on.

Ajit John

The game that drives Goa’s passions is no longer being played. The ball is lying unloved in a corner. The virus has ensured that. The football leagues across age groups have been stopped as per instructions issued by the relevant authorities. The question however is what next. Life has to move on and with it all the activities that give it meaning have to resume.

Football, the beautiful game has to restart but then when and how. That is a question that has remained a vexing question.

Jovito Lopes, General Secretary GFA said they were waiting for the directives from the All India Football Federation as well as directives from the state government. He said “Based on what they say the President along with the executive committee will decide what needs to be done.

The President will have to decide the road map for 2021. As of now, the picture is very hazy”. Asked what would happen to the one hundred and eight three small clubs that populated the various leagues and participated in inter-village tournaments, he said nothing had been thought about it and as things stand that would only happen when the committee met. That he said would only happen online via on platforms like Zoom. He again reiterated that nothing was clear at the moment and there was nothing to say.     

Sukhwinder Singh one-time India player and now Director and Co-founder- Singh Sports Ventures however was more forthcoming about the challenges ahead. He said the immediate priority would be to complete the 2019-20 league which still had four rounds to go. He said going forward one had to understand most of the players in the clubs were largely Goan and it was only the big clubs that had outstation players. Gatherings, he said would not be allowed and it would be important to learn from the conduct of leagues in Europe and other parts of the world and even the I league and the ISL.

He felt the leagues could resume in October but then one would have to decide if the four unfinished rounds needed to be completed first. This would then mean a very long season. It would also be very tricky because contracts usually came to an end in the month of May and it would mean clubs would have to call on former players in many instances and that could be tricky. It was not possible for a team to have two squads which would be very complicated.
He went onto say that at present there were three or four teams who could win the title and if the GFA decided it was null and void they would protest. On the other hand, there were also clubs battling relegation who would protest if the season went ahead. Then there was the question of the fitness of players which could be a serious problem.

Football, he said needed money by way of sponsorships which would be difficult in these troubled times. Many companies, he felt would be focused on just surviving and spending money on sponsorship would not be on their to-do list. Football, Sukhwinder said was an industry and it would make sense if the authorities asked the government for financial assistance because a lot of lives were dependent on the league. Someone would have to go ahead and make that representation. The fate of football clubs in the villages he said would be rough and conducting tournaments or training would be a problem.

As Chairman of the Goa Football Development Council, Brahmanand Sankhwalkar he is yet again in the hot spot. He said “I think we will have to wait for one or two months before we can initiate anything. Nonone has stopped us from doing anything but we have to be cautious”. Asked how village clubs would survive these tough times he said they would survive because they were village clubs and people would stand together. It would be very tough but in the end, they would survive. The coaching activities and everything else associated with the game he felt could start perhaps in a month or two after gauging the situation.  Getting the monies to restart the activities would be tough and he would be watching the situation very closely because corporate sponsorship was important. He signed off by saying it would be a source of tension for him for the next couple of months.

That is in effect the state of Goan football, stuck between and not knowing how to go ahead.