PANJIM: Whilst many clubs and members accused the outgoing President and General Secretary of creating ‘a mess’ in the Goa Football Association, they still managed to do something good as they gathered and saved Rs 36 lakh for the new executive committee which would be decided today.
“Despite all the negative publicity, we still managed to save for the new committee during my time as the General Secretary. It was my efforts to save the amount of Rs 36 lakhs which have been saved in the form of fixed deposits,” revealed GFA General Secretary Welvin Menezes.
It can be recollected when Elvis Gomes took over the chair as the President of Goa Football Association, they had Rs 45,34,662 which has been now almost doubled at Rs 81,85,805 at the end of their tenure.
“Many members claimed that GFA didn’t have much funds. But despite all those claims we successfully managed to conduct all the leagues. President Elvis personally approached many sponsors and successfully managed to conduct leagues. And the funds we saved is the proof for the same. We weren’t selfish as we could have exhausted the funds but we thought about the future,” added Welvin.
Besides funds, GFA also managed to bring a lot of positive changes which went unnoticed.
“We tried to ensure that the U14 & U16 be held over a period of a minimum of 4 months but for non cooperation from the clubs and sabotage from our own members we couldn’t succeed to the required extent,” he explained.
Welvin added, “another major change brought in this tenure was the limitation on participation of village clubs to a maximum of 30 tournaments thereby ensuring that other village clubs get invitations,”
“Also not forgetting the referees’ appointment has been centralised thus ensuring that most of the referees are being appointed unlike first when only a preferred lot only,” said Welvin, who was also instrumental in getting the Santosh Trophy to Goa after more than 20 years.
“With the support of the President Elvis Gomes, the Duler Stadium dormitories were refurbished. Elvis had been a great president and definitely his administrative skills made it even more better for Goan football. His style was unique which many failed to understand but definitely, Goan football will realise it now,” concluded Welvin, who is also contesting for the executive members post.
