Goa has always taken pride in being India’s home for
football – the football
crazy part of the country. Bengal has long since contested that claim. However,
let us take the third edition of the ISL into consideration. The group stage is
over and FC Goa remained at the bottom, with just 14 points from 14 matches,
something completely unexpected from last year’s runners up. However, Atletico
de Kolkata has sauntered into the knockout stage, along with Mumbai City FC,
Kerala Blasters and Delhi Dynamos. So the question on everyone’s lips is just
this: Is the ISL over
for Goa? Has this time’s edition come to an end as far as the seaside state is
concerned? Have the off-field issues caused dissent that has spread as far as
the pitch…or will the ‘football crazy state’ be as tuned in to the proceedings
as it has always been?
Quotes
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I honestly don’t see there being too much animosity towards
watching the league. I think that everything that has happened in the past is
now water under the bridge. I believe that Goa as a state loves football in
general, and the ISL is India’s biggest league, so obviously, fans will be
tuned in to it. If there’s a
massive game happening anywhere across the world, fans of the sport are tuned
in; it’s football 101, really.
Uddhav Welinkar
I don’t see there being much interest in the league from
this point on. Of course, fans will want to know the end result when it comes
to the games or the league, but that frenzy won’t surround it. The main factor
behind following the league was to see the home team succeed, which won’t be
there now. Take for instance the last home game; everyone knew the home team was out,
and the response was evident by far lower attendance at the stadium.
Jude Lobo
From what I have seen so far, yes, the league is over for
most people. FC Goa going out early has made the majority lose interest in the
rest of the tournament. But
there are, of course, quite a few who will still follow it till the end, because
at the end of the day, it is football and a football fan would definitely take
interest in a match, no matter which team is playing.
Elroy Figueiredo
