30 Nov 2021  |   04:37am IST

Santosh exit forces relook at football in Goa

Goa’s exit from the prestigious Santosh Trophy in the qualifying stage has shocked fans and is an urgent wake-up call to the administrators of the game in the State as to the standard of football that is being played.

That the loss leading to the exit was to Gujarat, a team ranked very low down the ladder in football, rubs salt in the wounded pride of Goa’s football team and fans. Goa wasn’t expected to lose this game. An explanation from the team management has to be asked for, but more than that, do Goa Football Association, Goa Football Development Council, Sports Authority of Goa and the Sports Department have a long-term plan for the State Sport?

Bestowing State Sport status to football and then almost ignoring the game after that is tantamount to a placatory gesture that is purely political in nature. And the State Sport status was just that – political appeasement to keep the football aficionados satisfied. It has turned out to be a meaningless gesture as the standard of the game has not improved since then and this also calls into question what the Goa Football Development Council, that is financed by the taxes collected, has achieved since it was constituted. Has it developed football in the State? Can it show some key victories at any level since it came into being?

For a quick answer to this, one has to look at some dates of the past few years. Goa has been Santosh winner five times, and runner-up eight times. It is considered a football powerhouse in the country. The Goa Football Development Council was set up in July 2012 but since then, Goa has not seen its football achieve any merit. The last time Goa won the Santosh Trophy was in 2008-09, a good 12 years ago. It hosted the 2016-17 edition of the trophy and was runner-up that year. For a team that ranks quite high in India’s football scene and which had five players called for the national team even this year, the exit in the qualifying round is quite unacceptable. 

Herald, that follows the game minutely, has consistently been reporting on the falling standards of football in the State. Just last month, in one such in-depth report, one of Goa’s most respected administrators of the game, Alberto Colaco, had said that despite there now being facilities available, players lack skill and techniques, while earlier there was a lack of facilities but the players were technical and skilful. What we are experiencing today is therefore a reversal of what occurred in the past and this essentially means that the football inborn talent is no longer visible on the field. Is there an answer to why this is so? But this is one reason, there are others and migration abroad of some good talent is the other. Can Goa retain its talent in the State?

Football fans and even the GFA president said they were sad at the team’s exit, but this can be just one emotion to the loss. What GFA should focus on is where the game goes next. It is time for the administrators of the game to go back to the drawing board and for the coach and players to the soccer fields and take Goan football up the ladder again. The talent is surely out there, it cannot have disappeared quite suddenly. Goa has already waited 12 years for a Santosh victory. How much longer will it have to wait? All other titles are brought to Goa by clubs, this is the only trophy where the State plays as a team. It is important to win this one.