Augusto Rodrigues
Goa Football Association (GFA) – the body that nurses football in Goa – goes to polls on October 30 to elect a new Executive Committee and the result will determine the vision of the 159 clubs entitled to vote. Football is unpredictable, and therefore beautiful. But the beauty on the pitch cannot be replicated off the pitch because football in Goa is crying for a hand that can rock its cradle.
Football in Goa has lost its connect with fans. There was a time when people could be heard walking or cycling to the stadium at 2 pm to find a seat in the stadium. When people were late for a match, they climbed pine trees outside the stadium to get a bird’s eye view of the game. That was a time when the stadium used to be so full that the ice cream vendor had to throw popsicles inside.
If there used to be a stampede to get a seat it was because the players then made the game beautiful without any focus on grassroots development. At that time, the players were the grass and the fans were the roots and the two added a beautiful lustre to football - it was the basics of the game.
Times change and unfortunately for football in Goa, times have changed from very good to bad. Football in Goa is at an ebb and that is because GFA has been badly managed in the last many years because the 159 clubs have failed to elect a leader with calibre during the last two terms. Getting elected is not difficult, being a leader is.
Clubs affiliated with GFA have elected people with vision in the past but the vision for football forward without resources to translate the vision to reality is akin to preparing a buffet and forgetting to invite guests. This is what is exactly spoiling the football party for the last eight years. And it is not a difficult problem to rectify.
No vision can be complete without the vision to fill the coffers and GFA has been struggling to get money with the last two presidents of GFA failing miserably in getting funds for the association. The situation was so bad that GFA was reduced to a begging bowl. In the first four years, GFA survived on its fixed deposits and in the next four years by crouching towards the government for grants.
As GFA prepares for its 2022 election – the first election was in 1959- the writing on the wall is clear – football is in need of a president who has the ability to finance the association with a vision and not a man only with a vision because such vision leaves it with horse blinds
GFA never went through such a state in the past because football then received the benevolence of industrialists. They were men who dipped their hands in their pockets to let us enjoy the beauty of the game; they illuminated our lives through the beauty of ninety minutes of football. There were systems set up for football to go forward which were unfortunately discarded due to myopic visions.
As GFA prepares for its 2022 election – the first election was in 1959- the writing on the wall is clear – football is in need of a president who has the ability to finance the association with a vision and not a man only with a vision because such vision leaves it with horse blinds.
There are three candidates – Caitano Fernandes, Welvyn Menezes and Savio Alemao – promising to take football in Goa forward. Taking football forward has always been the vision, but how has been the loophole in the vision that left GFA bleeding.
None of the candidates during the last two elections were able to provide a roadmap of how GFA’s balance would be buttressed. That is not the problem now with industrialist Caitano Fernandes being the only candidate from among the three who has promised to provide his personal finance. He will keep financing till a system to attract money to football is evolved, as begging with the government is not the way forward.
The onus is now on the 159 football clubs and the election result will determine whether football in Goa is on a solid foundation or not. Football today does not need a man of the masses but one from amongst the masses who has stood tall through his hard work and there is only one man from amongst the three who fills in the blank.
Sometimes, no choice is the best chance for the way forward and the 159 clubs have that chance.