It is heartening to note that the Goa Football Association (GFA) has decided to revive the Bandodkar Gold Cup tournament which was the premier football tournament in the country in the 1970s. The GFA under the leadership of Elvis Gomes needs to be complimented for the initiative taken to revive this prestigious tournament.
It was in 1970 that the first edition of the tournament was held at the Tilak Maidan in Vasco. The tournament attracted some of the best known names in Indian football at that time. I grew up watching these matches held at the Tilak Maidan which was packed for every match.
The football skills of players like Subash Bhowmik, Thapa, Inder Singh and the goalkeeping prowess of Brahmanand Shankwalkar were on full display. Vasco Sports Club had the services of the famous ‘ABCD’ quartet – Andrew, Bernard, Catao and Dominic. Sudhir under the bar was a revelation so were players like Rosemond, Ambrose and Rafael to name a few. One of the favourite teams at the tournament was the ‘Leaders Sports Club’ from Jalandar.
Now that the Bandodkar Gold Cup has reportedly been taken out of the bank locker in Mapusa after 20 years, it brings back the memories of the great tournament. But the question is whether the tournament will draw large crowds for the matches as it did in the past.
It is seen that the number of football fans attending the ongoing matches of the 36th edition of the Federation Cup matches specially, at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium at Fatorda, is not very encouraging. After the tremendous success of the India Super League (ISL) and the huge crowds that were seen for the matches held at the Fatorda stadium, one expected a better attendance for the Federation Cup matches that followed a few days after the Indian Super League concluded. That was not to be. This despite the fact that most of the Indian star footballers who played in the ISL matches for their respective teams including, Romeo Fernandes and Sunil Chetri, and some foreign players like the Australian Tolgey Ozbey, among others, are also seen in action in the Federation cup matches.
Some innovative methods will have to be adopted to attract the crowd to the tournament just like in the past. Proper awareness of the place the tournament had in the hearts of the Goan football lovers in the past needs to be created to pull the crowd back to the stadium to watch the matches.
