PANJIM: The Goa Football Association has been in the spotlight for their recent activities. Firstly for shoddy investigation in the alleged match-fixing and now when they froze the relegation for this season. The two might look like two different issues, but none would deny the fact that the two are very much linked when it comes to Goan football.
The decision of GFA to handle the two issues hasn’t gone down well in Goan football fraternity. While GFA would defend that the decision to have no relegation was to keep maximum teams in the Goa Professional League, the elite clubs including FC Goa feel that it serves no purpose for the growth in football in the State, in fact they claimed such decision leads to the downfall of Goan football.
Speaking to Herald, a top official of FC Goa stated, “Once relegation was decided before the competition it is unfair for the GFA to change it at the last minute, especially when the team in question belongs to Executive Committee members. It smacks of favouritism and it is completely unfair to other teams who have worked hard, spent money and sweated on the field to avoid relegation.
“GFA is becoming a banana republic where the president is changing the constitution and bending rules as per his whims and fancies,” added the official of FC Goa.
When contacted Salgaocar Football Club, their top official stated, “Relegation should be there or else no one would take things seriously. This year itself out of the 17 matches played of the relegated team, 10 games have been red-flagged. Going back to a point, it doesn’t make any sense at all accommodating such a team and going forward there should be relegation”
Salgaocar FC are another team which spends over a crore for their Goa Professional League team and another two crores for their grassroots development.
The Salgaocar FC official stated. “Its better there are few clubs who would be playing ethically. It’s better if we get even 6-7 clubs where we could play 3-4 legged but there would be quality football,”
Sporting Clube de Goa officially stated, “For a competitive environment, there should be set standards. In this case GFA should keep relegation and actually ensure and encourage the clubs to have proper professional structure. If there is no relegation, the clubs have nothing to lose and there are high chances for teams to practice unethical means.”
Recently crowned Goa Professional League champions Dempo SC were also unhappy with the investigation into the alleged match-fixing. “When it comes to the investigation of alleged match-fixing, we have expressed our displeasure. We are not happy with the delayed action of the State association. GFA should have acted swiftly instead of wasting time. Regarding the relegation of the team, we haven’t been formally informed yet and hence we can’t confirm the same,” stated a Dempo Sports Club official.
It was given to understand that for the Goa Professional League club meeting, Manora officially declared in front of all the officials that the outstation players (Bengal) playing for his club were paid just Rs 1,000 per match. That makes it just Rs 16,000 for six months then why wouldn’t there be betting and match-manipulations?
GFA Executive Committee member Adlear D’Cruz stated, “Going forward all the contracts sent to GFA by the Professional League clubs should be scrutinised and at the end of the month the club should send a statement whether the money is paid to the players through the bank or no.”
