Goan Football- Fix it up now!

 

Goan Football is in the news for all the wrong reasons. It wouldn’t be an understatement if you say that Goan Football has reached its nadir. How and when did it happen?

The withdrawal of Dempo SC, Salgaocar FC and Sporting Club de Goa from the I League in 2016 was the first setback for Goan Football. There were genuine reasons for these clubs to quit the I League, given the fact that AIFF had no roadmap for the development of the game in India. Opting to play only the Goa Professional league, football thus became a low key affair with downsized budgets by these three clubs, which meant that the players had no option but to play for a much reduced pay. With no new signing of quality foreign players, the GPL lost its sheen and competitiveness and playing became more of a formality. The sub-standard football dished out in GPL was finally exposed when Gujarat knocked out Goa at the qualifying stage of the national football championship for the Santosh Trophy in 2021. But prior to that there were warning signals when six matches of the Goa Professional League were red flagged by the Asian Football Confederation for a possible ‘match fixing’ in 2019-20 but unfortunate the GFA failed to nip it in its bud.

Match fixing is not completely new to Goan football. Remember, Curtorim Gymkhana scoring 61 -1 against Sangolda Lightening and on the same day Wilred leisure SC scoring 55-1 against Dona Paula SC, in the pay-off match of the second Division League in 2004 ? That time GFA acted promptly and suspended all the four teams and then imposed a fine as well. But those were isolated cases and GFA acted swiftly.  Today, we are talking about match fixing which had first been reported in the season 2019-20 of the GPL and then continued even in season 2021-2022. Recently, Goa Football Association’s integrity partners, Genius Sports, red flagged Six Goa Pro league matches in ten days during the month of March 2022 for suspicious betting patterns. GFA has now finally got up from its slumber and decided to refer it to the Police Crime Branch for investigation which is the need of the hour.

Let there be a proper investigation and the guilty should be punished for sure. But at the same time it’s important to go beyond and see why this has come to such a pass. To start with, calling the top league as the ‘Goa Professional League’ itself is like putting the cart before the horse. For the players to be professionals, the clubs must have a professional setup. Has GFA set up a club Licensing criteria for clubs taking part in GPL? And if it is so, are they being implemented by the clubs?

As per article 6 of the Indian Club Licensing Regulations 2021, the clubs must comply with five important features of Licensing: In brief they are:-

Sporting Criteria: The Clubs' registered players must have a written contract with the club.

Infrastructure Criteria: The club must either own or have a guaranteed access to an office space to conduct its administration.

Personnel & Administration Criteria: The club must have appointed a full time CEO or General Manager or General Secretary who is the head of the administration of the club.

Legal Criteria: An Applicant Club shall only be a football club, i.e. a legal entity fully responsible to exclusively run a football team.

Financial Criteria: Annual financial statements, based on the local legislation for incorporated companies, shall be prepared and audited by Statutory Auditors.

All the five criteria mentioned in the Indian Club Licensing Regulations 2021 are very crucial for the holistic development of football but in the context of the match fixing allegations the Sporting, Legal and Financial criteria gain more significance.

As per Article 2 of AIFF Regulations on the Status and Transfers of Players (STP), a professional is a player who has a written contract with a club and is paid more for his footballing activity than the expenses he effectively incurs. All other players are considered to be amateurs. Article 4(3) states that all contracts of professional players are to be submitted to the State Association and AIFF. Under the condition of ‘Legal Entity’ a Club must have Legal registration / incorporation certificates with the Articles Of Association and Memorandum of Association or in short the ‘Constitution’.  And further, the objective of the ‘Financial’ criteria is to ensure improvement of the financial capability of the clubs, increasing their transparency and credibility, and placing the necessary importance on the protection of creditors and to ensure that clubs settle their liabilities with employees, social/tax authorities and other clubs punctually;

Many of our football clubs registered with GFA have not been registered under the Society’s Act,1860. And therefore, the club president or the secretary treats it, as if it is his personal fiefdom. The structure of all clubs registered with GFA must be changed and brought in line of the criteria set as per the Indian Club Licensing Regulations 2021. Special attention must be paid to the improvement in the financial capability of the GPL clubs so that the players are paid adequately for their upkeep. Players not being paid or paid timely is a very serious issue and players/GFA must take action against such clubs for breach of contract. It was sad to know in the newspapers recently that two outstation footballers registered with a club in Goa were involved in chain snatching and were booked by the Goa Police. The players informed the police that they were not paid by the club despite having a contract. Has GFA taken suo moto cognisance of this incident?  Match fixing must be condemned by all but at the same time the welfare and the grievances of the players must be addressed and resolved by the Clubs and GFA.  

 Football being the State Sport of Goa, the Government should help bring in the corporate support in the form of ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ to these village clubs, so as to cope up with the rising cost of running a club. It has been learnt that most of the clubs in GPL are giving a six months contract to the players.  If this is so, how will the players be able to train and remain fit throughout the year? And with this type of environment, how do you motivate young promising footballers to take up the game professionally?

Goa Football Association will be having its Annual General Body Meeting in a couple of months and will also be electing a new Committee to run its affairs. Has the outgoing committee done justice to the job entrusted to them? We need to elect the right people to bring in reforms in the functioning of the GFA and the Clubs. It would be interesting to know how many of the clubs in GPL meet the club licensing criteria, as mandated under the Indian Club Licensing Regulations 2021. Should GFA make it compulsory for all the clubs registered with it, to become legal entities by registering themselves under the Society’s Act 1860?  If they don’t, should their voting rights be curbed? Should the GFA statute be amended accordingly ?

It is time to act now- not just to bring Goan Football back to its past glory but for its very survival.