Up-gradation of Club structure-A Key to the development of football

A day after the election of the new Executive Committee of Goa Football Association on 27^th July 2014, came the news about the withdrawal of Wilred Leisure SC from the Goa Professional league. It is indeed very shocking and disheartening to know that the team that stood seventh in the Goa Professional League had second thoughts about continuing in it. It’s a huge setback for Goan Football.  So what compelled the management of Wilred Leisure to opt out? This needs to be analyzed and probed by Goa Football Association for the sake of Goan Football.

What ails Goan Football Clubs? It must definitely be the cost factor of maintaining a club. All clubs have this huge burden of raising money to run the club and most of the amount raised by the club goes in for payment of salaries to the players. If a club like Churchill Bros could not get any sponsors despite winning the I League and the Federation Cup, what could be the fate of smaller clubs competing with the likes of Salgaocar FC, Dempo SC and Sporting Clube De Goa in the Goa Professional League?

It is not understood why the top Goan League is called a professional League? Is this not the case of a cart being placed before the horse? When even a club like Churchill Bros SC with a yearly budget of crores of rupees could not get a ‘Club License’ to play the I league for season 2014-15, why is GFA calling the local league a ‘Professional league’?  The fact of the matter is that the majority of the ten clubs playing the Goa Professional League do not even have a proper organizational setup and a football ground to practice, the basic necessities for a football club. How can a professional League run for just two to three months in a year? It’s very unfortunate that, leaving aside the I League clubs, most of the clubs have a deal with the players for only two to three months ie till the duration of the league. How can there be any development of football in this situation? In this context, it must be said that having two all India Leagues ie I League and ISL in a year would be detrimental for the development of the game in India as it put pressure on the local leagues and a death knell for all other major tournaments in India.

GFA President Elvis Gomes and the new executive committee have a herculean task on hand. Just look at GFA’s website and you will be shocked to see outdated news and fixtures. No effort is made to update its website and even the latest news of having elected a new President and the Executive Committee has not been uploaded on its website.  Goa Football Association is an association of clubs and sadly there is no information on the website about all the clubs affiliated to it. Club structure holds the key to development of the game and all clubs must have a constitution to guide them and a common goal. The goal should be economically viable otherwise more clubs will go the way chosen by Wilred Leisure SC. In this age of internet, GFA must correspond with the affiliated clubs through the internet for which club representatives could be trained to become computer savvy. 

It’s important to know why ‘Wilred Leisure SC’ has opted out of the Goa Professional League and what action is being taken when a club suddenly decides to quit. The criteria for affiliation with GFA must be reviewed and the least that GFA can do, to start with, is make it compulsory for all existing clubs to register under the Society’s Act, for proper accountability and functioning of the clubs.