Team Herald
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PANJIM: The President and his chosen men are now in place at the Goa Football Association (GFA) following Sunday’s elections. Caitano Jose Fernandes has been elected President of the Association. He received 83 votes out of a possible 159. The nearest candidate was Valen Savio Sydney Alemao who received 47 votes.
Caitano will be assisted by Jonathan De Sousa who was elected as VP North and Antonio Pango, VP South. Jonathan received 39 votes as compared to his closest rival Dominic Pereira (23). Antonio Pango won 44 votes as compared to Filomeno Costa (33). This was the culmination of a process which saw members from 159 clubs casting their votes.
As they set out to revitalise football in the State, the senior management will be assisted by the following members who were also elected.
The Executive Committee members from Bardez, numbering five, are Omkar Vaigankar, Praveen Dhabolkar, Laxman Hadfadkar, Jonathan De Sousa and Uday Lingudkar.
From Salcete, the Executive Committee members, numbering seven, are Anthony Fernandes, Jaju Fernandes, Schubert Furtado, Ravindra Cabral, Cosme Oliveira, Constancio Rodrigues and Patwin Fizardo. From Mormugao, Andrew Ferro and Francisco Nunes have been elected.
Four members for the Executive Committee from Ilhas were selected unopposed. Agee Almeida, Anthony Vaz, Mauricio Almeida and Sanjiv Nagvekar will take their place in the committee.
Caitano Fernandes said his focus will be on bringing all the clubs together to work for the improvement of the sport in the State. Fernandes said, “Whatever was promised in the vision plan will become a reality in the coming years. The immediate plan is to start the Pro League for which I have already given sponsorship. And whatever promises were made about prize money will be kept.
“The sponsorship is worth Rs35 lakhs. Whatever promises were made, we will start working on it and make it a reality in six months. With regards to the outstandings in the previous committee, I am not familiar with the details and I will have to check.”
Jonathan said this was the end of groupism and it was a victory for all clubs and the focus would be on football. “Football is our mission and we will only talk about football. Our immediate focus is relaying the turf at Duler as well as improving the facilities at the office in the South. This will mean players from the South will now be able to do it there instead of coming to Panjim,” he said.
