Goan Olympians !

Goans and Football go together! It's true that presently there is a decline in the attendance for the ISL matches all over India compared to its inception. This decline is much more noticeable for the home matches of FC Goa at PJN stadium, Fatorda.

In any sport it’s important to have role models who can inspire the next generations to come. We all know how Kapil Dev and the team that won the Cricket World Cup 1983 are still revered and flooded with adulation. From then on the popularity of Cricket in India soared to greater heights and the BCCI capitalized on the same to make it commercially viable; unfortunately the same cannot be said about football. 

How many of us are aware that India won the Asian Games way back in 1951, reached the semi-finals of the summer Olympics in 1956 and then again won the Asian Games in 1962? Thanks to Boney Kapoor, Zee-Studio and others, a movie titled ‘Maidaan’ was released recently and was running in all the theatres in India. It was based on the life of coach Syed Abdul Rahim, the architect of the golden period of Indian football from 1952 to 1962.  

It’s a movie which every football lover must watch. I decided to watch the movie 'Maidaan' at Multiplex Z Square in Vasco, but to my misfortune the show was cancelled due to a lack of audience. It was then that I decided to go to Inox in Panaji and this time to my relief, there were around 20 spectators and it was worth the trouble, travelling from Vasco to Panaji.

Despite the fact that the movie is about coach S.A. Rahim and his immense contribution to the success of Indian Football teams from 1952 to 1962, it was a matter of great pride to see the presence of two Goan footballers in the Indian squad. They are none other than the late Neville D’Souza and the late Fortunato Franco.

Neville D’Souza was born in the village of Assagao in Bardez on the 3^rd of August 1932 but had to move to Bombay with his family for better prospects, as was the case of so many other Goans in those days. He died in Bombay, in March 1980, at the age of 47 years. He figured in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia and was the first Indian and Asian to score a hat-trick, beating Australia 4-2. India reached the semi- finals of the Melbourne Olympics but lost to Yugosalvia  4-1 and then lost to Bulgaria 3-0 in the bronze medal match thus standing 4^th in the 1956 Olympics.  

Fortunato Franco was born in the village of Colvale in Bardez in 1937 and  thereafter shifted to Bombay along with his family. He figured in the 1960 Rome Olympics and also the Jakarta Asian Games in 1962. At the Rome Olympics, India lost to Hungary 2-1, drew with France 1-1, and lost to Peru 3-1 in the final group stage. Despite the group stage ouster, India could still walk with their head held high for the splendid performance. Thereafter, India created history by winning the Asian Games 1962 at Jakarta beating South Korea 2-1 in the finals with  around one lakh spectators and very hostile conditions. After Franco's retirement from the Tata Company in Bombay, he lived in Colva, Goa where he died due to covid-19 in May 2021 at the age of 84 years.

‘Maidaan’ is a must see movie for all football enthusiasts and promoters. It’s important to   acknowledge the contribution of the past football heroes of our small state of Goa, and their legacy must be preserved for future generations, which will in turn inspire current footballers. It would be most appropriate to show this fantastic movie to all the young footballers in schools, footballers training at GFDC centres and those with clubs registered with GFA having a grassroots programme, in order to motivate and inspire them.

Some may say that the two Goan players have not contributed much in Goa but a Goan is a Goan, no matter where he lives or from where he contributes.

Let us take a bow to late Neville D Souza and late Fortunato Franco!

 

 

Inter-Village Football- the backbone of Goan Football

                                                              Late Fr Gervasio Pinto

Inter-village football in Goa is very unique and is hard to find elsewhere in India. Inter-village football played a big part in producing quality footballers and contributed immensely to Goan football in the seventies and eighties, if not earlier. Is it still as relevant as before?  If not, do we need to introspect and make necessary changes?

On Goa Liberation Day, the 19^th of December 2023 I had the fortune to attend the finals of the inter-village tournament organised by Guardian Angel SC, in memory of late Fr. Gervasio Pinto. Who is Gervasio Pinto? For the unawares, Fr Pinto happens to be the founder member of Guardian Angel SC and the then principal of the Guardian Angel High school in the seventies. It was Fr. William Robert Lyons, a British priest, who introduced Football in Goa in 1883. Since then, no one can deny the fact that several other priests have actively promoted football in the villages all over Goa, for which they have not received due recognition.

In Curchorem, popularly known as Sanvordem in the seventies, it was the late Fr. Gervasio Pinto who promoted football in a big way. Guardian Angel High school had boarders mostly from Salcete and it was compulsory for them to play football at the Figueiredo Ground which was about a kilometre away from the school, many thanks to the Figueiredo family for the kind gesture of donating the land to Guardian Angel High School. Seeing them play regularly was what inspired and motivated many of us those days. I was eleven years old when Guardian Angel Sports Club was established in 1972 and within another six years at the age of seventeen, I had the opportunity to play for the club in the Senior Division organised by the Goa Football Association. Thanks to the late Fr Gervasio Pinto, Guardian Angel High School and Guardian Angel Sports Club excelled in the game of Football. Thanks to the President of Guardian Angel SC, Mr. Jhoncy Fernandes, being actively supported by the Currchorem MLA Mr. Nilesh Cabral, the organisation of the inter-village tournament by Guardian Angel SC, is a fitting tribute to late Fr. Gervasio Pinto, the then beloved principal of the school and the founder member of the Guardian Angel SC. The club, having completed fifty years in 2022 and presently playing in the Goa Professional League, is a matter of great pride to all the residents of Curchorem and Sanvordem.

For me watching the finals brought back fond memories. So much has changed over the years, the well-decorated stage, the live music, the colourful flags all around, the  beautiful individual and team trophies, but unfortunately nothing seems to have changed on two important fronts. The playing surface has not changed since my playing days in the late seventies. Being a hard ground, one requires good skills to play controlled and attractive football at the Figueiredo Ground. I was disappointed to see that it’s not just the infrastructure which has not changed over the years but football too, dished out by the two finalists: Guardian Angel SC and Curtorim Gymkhana. The players failed to control the ball thus losing possession very easily. Scoring goals is an art requiring quick thinking, good timing and shooting with awareness of the goalposts. The players lacked the composure and skill, failing to score and the game ended in a draw which had to be decided via the tie breaker in favour of Guardian Angel SC.

Inter-village tournaments should be a platform for young players to showcase their talent and grow in confidence on the path to Professional Football. For this to happen, there has to be more discipline, both from the organisational side, as well as from the teams participating in the tournaments. A team arriving late is a norm rather than an exception. The duration of play is very important for the development of the players. The minimum duration of a match should not be less than 70, if not more, as per the GFA Private Tournament Rules. But that remains only on paper most of the time. Moreover, the grounds are much smaller in size than the standard ground of play i.e. 115 X 74 yards recommended for professional football. With shorter duration and smaller grounds, the players are thus deprived of playing adequately, both with and without the ball, which hampers their growth.  As such, many a time after playing inter-village football, the players and teams go home with a false sense of satisfaction of having played well but when faced with tougher opponents on a standard field of play and duration of 90 minutes, they will realise that they have not progressed. Therefore, if not the infrastructure, at least the duration of the inter-village matches should not be compromised. It’s time to be more disciplined in organising inter-village tournaments and this needs to be done with the objective of developing the players in mind.

According to me, the Referees have a big role to play in maintaining discipline among the organizers, as well as the teams participating in inter-village tournaments, so far as the duration of the match is concerned. GFA should pay more attention to the duration of play reported by the Referees in their match reports. Organisers who do not adhere to the minimum duration of 70 minutes as per the Private Tournament Rules should be sanctioned with fines and repeat offenders could even be denied permission to conduct inter-village tournaments. There is no substitute for discipline, if we are to progress in the game of football. To improve the quality of play, it's time the inter-village teams engage a qualified coach, even if it is a minimum D License. Players coming together just before or on the day of the match, with a senior player acting as a guide and coach, is not enough if we are to progress and lift up our level of play. Prior planning, execution and post-mortem of the matches played are the essentials of modern football.  In GFA, we have a well-qualified Technical Coordinator in Mariano Dias and further we have one of the best Technical Committees ever, with Mr Savio Medeira as its Chairman, Mr Armando Colaco and Derrick Pereira among the other members. I am sure they will play a big role in introducing coach education, thus bringing in the much required awareness and demands of modern football in the inter-village games.

Further, it is important for players to develop their individual skills.  All top players are known to be practicing beyond the team training sessions, to improve their individual skills in trapping, passing, shooting, heading and set pieces. Very often we talk about Goa’s glorious past and the individual brilliance of the players of the sixties, seventies and eighties! They excelled because besides team training, they practiced individually with devotion, discipline and hunger for success which unfortunately, is missing among our youth.

There cannot be development of footballers when football is not played throughout the season! Competitive football is what drives footballers to excel in the game.  Inter-village tournaments give the much required competitive football to our youngsters to play round the season and thus compensates for the shortfall of competitive football in our official games/leagues organised by GFA. Most of the village clubs depend on organising the inter-village tournaments to sustain their teams for year-round activities. Inter-village football is thriving in Salcete and Bardez and therefore the majority of successful players and clubs come from these two zones. Inter-village Football serves as a great motivator for  the young to take up this beautiful game. In Mormugao and Ilhas, inter-village football has taken a backseat and this is the reason why the players as well as the clubs, are lagging behind the other zones. Therefore, inter-village football is considered as the backbone of Goan Football.

It’s time to introspect, change and strengthen the backbone! 

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. 

 

FIFA U17 World Cup-A Giant Leap For India

Finally, it will kick start today, the 6^th of Oct 2017 ! Neil Amstrong after landing on the Moon and on his return said 'It’s a small step for a man but a giant leap for mankind'. Yes something similar is about to happen with the first kick of the ball in the U 17 FIFA World Cup, 2017 being hosted in India. I would say 'It's a first step for the Under 17 Indian football team but a giant leap for Indian football'. What a moment for all football aficionados in India and all over the world! The future stars are here! The World Cup, no matter it being the U 17 World Cup, has its own charm and aura. So, what’s in store for us and what do we gain by hosting the world cup? 

Well, first of all India gets the opportunity to compete with the best in the world which would not have been possible otherwise. Secondly, the experience of playing in the world cup gives our players the right exposure which will  enable them to face any opposition in the future with confidence, provided the young  team is maintained with proper planning and execution. Thirdly, the infrastructure put in place for this world cup will enable India to bid for other prestigious, Asian as well as FIFA events, in the future which will give more opportunities for our players to perform at a very high level and fans too, get better facilities at the stadiums which will enable them to watch football games in a very affable ambience with friends and families, including women and children.

Social media is agog these days about watching the future stars in the U 17 World Cup and we have mixed reactions from Goans, some are very excited, others lamenting about having no Goan player in the U17 India squad blaming the selectors and major stakeholders in Goan football. But what exactly is the reason for having no Goan in the U17 world cup team? A proper introspection and analysis should be done so that corrective measures are taken for the development of Goan football.

it is a fact that Goan football is not progressing. It is static! Both Goa and West Bengal are living on past laurels. Yes, we have maintained our top places at the Club level by investing heavily on hired outstation players. Not much was done at the grassroots by both the Clubs and the State Associations in these states.  Yes, the clubs had their grassroots programmes but these activities are not good enough to produce players to compete at a high level, such as the world cup. To play at a high level, we must realise that we need ‘Residential Academies’ to produce quality footballers. A cursory look, at the present Indian team consisting of 21 players, will drive the point, I am trying to make. Here are the stats: out of the 21 players, 15 players are from the AIFF Academy, 4 from Minerva Academy, Punjab and just two players from the talent available overseas. State wise, you will notice that there are eight players from Manipur, Punjab-2, West Bengal-3,Karnataka-2, Maharashtra-1, Sikkim-1, Mizoram-1, Kerala-1, US(PIO)-1 and Canada(PIO)-1. Instead of asking why there are no Goan players in the world cup, we should have asked why there were no Goan players in the AIFF Academy when it was launched in 2013. The foundation of this U17 Indian team was laid then, in 2013 and since then it has been a long hard journey for all the boys in the AIFF Academy. And I don’t think that AFF has discriminated Goan players and preferred Manipuri players. I don’t see many complaining why there are no Goan players in the current U16 Indian team which has our very own, Bibiano Fernandes, as the Chief Coach. The U 16 Indian team has qualified for the AFC U 16 Championship. Surely, he has not discriminated our Goan players during the selection! There is no doubt Goan players are talented but talent itself is not enough to be successful. You need the right attitude, discipline and hunger within, to achieve success. Yes, this desire and hunger for success is sadly missing among the Goan players, probably our players get what they want on a platter. The Manipuri players, most of them coming from very humble background, are more serious, disciplined, determined and hungrier than the others to make it big.   

It’s time to look ahead rather than just lamenting about the lost opportunities. The fact is that we were not ready and were caught napping. To make it big in football, residential academy training is the need of the hour. It’s the academies which are churning out quality footballers all over the world. in India,  AIFF football academy did a wonderful job and most of the players got the right exposure by playing competitive football in Asia and all over the world in the past two years. The only other academy that did well is the Minerva Football Academy, Chandigarh established in 2005. But again, here out of the four selected from their academy, three are Manipuri players and only one player is from Punjab.

 In Goa, if we consider 2013 as the relevant year for the selection of the present U 17 Indian team, we had just one residential academy ie Sesa Football  Academy, founded in 1999. I had once attended the selection of U 14 boys at the Sesa Academy being invited by my friend, Shri Brahmanand Shankwalkar, who was their administrator. After the selection we did discuss about why talented Goan do not come for the selections in the Academy. It was found that some very talented U 14 players preferred to be with the non residential academies run by Dempo SC, Salgaocar FC and Sporting Clube de Goa who were then playing the I League with the hope of getting into their senior teams someday not realising the importance of training in the residential academies. To play at the high level, such as the U 17 World Cup, what is done in these non residential academies is not good enough. In the residential academies one tends to be more focused and discipline which is not the case outside when one is exposed to distractions in non residential academies. That’s the major difference! There is no substitute for a ‘Residential Academy’, if our Goan players are to get selected to represent the country. Several quality residential academies are coming up in India. The Reliance Foundation Young Champs is one such academy and again we find no Goans in there, too. We have to pull up our socks at the grassroots and not just blame the selection process. Real talent cannot be hidden nor be discriminated for long. That’s the truth! All professional Clubs must have their own residential Football Academies. That’s the only way forward.

Neville Stephen J D’Souza (1 January 1932 – 16 March 1980): The greatest Goan footballer of all times in the history Goan Football.

Who was the only Indian to score a hat-trick in the Olympic? In the year 2000, Calcutta resident Ramesh Dubey would have won rupees one crore if he could answer the question asked by the big B-Amitabh Bachchan on the Kaun Banega Crorepati show (KBC).He opted out and lost 50 lakhs because he did not know the answer. Prior to this, the majority of Indian did not know that it was none other than Neville Stephen J D’Souza, a Goan who died on the !6^th march, 1980  in Mumbai, Maharashtra, his adopted state.

Goa is known as the land of sun, sea, sand and football. In the game of football, Goa has won all that is up for grabs in Indian football, from schools championship to the senior national ie the Santosh Trophy. Besides this Goan Clubs, Dempo SC, Salgaocar FC, Churchill Bros have all won the I League, with Dempo being the pick of the lot with five titles. Therefore, Goa rightly had the tag of being ‘Numero Uno’ of Indian football.

Goa, being a Portuguese colony, naturally had the influenced of the Portuguese way of life. And needless to say, the Portuguese being very passionate about football, Goans took to football as fish takes to water. But contrary to assumption, it wasn’t the Portuguese who introduced football in Goa. In 1883, reverend Fr Willaim Roberts Lyons, an Irish priest, introduced football in the carriculam of Christian education at Siolim,Goa. From there, other schools picked up the game and thanks to the clergy, the game soon spread all over Goa

Goa was liberated in the year 1961 but Goa Football Association was founded in during the Portuguese regime in 1959, as Associação de Futebol de Goa, with Lt Jaoa Luis Aranha as the first president of the Association. Goa has seen the emergence of great players over the years with Menino Figuereido of Salgaocar Sports Club(1963)and  Andrew D’Souza of Vasco Sports Club( 1968) being the two Goan players who represented the Indian team against the Russian Teams in the sixties.. Therafter, several other footballers donned Indian colours with distinction with some of the prominent players being Brahmanand Shankwalker, Nicholas Pereira, Bernard Pereira, Camilo Gonsalves, Derrick Pereira, Mauricio Afonso,Bruno Coutinho, Climax Lawrence and Mahesh Gawli. From the above, only two Goan footballers, Brahmanand Shankwalker and Bruno Coutinho were honoured with the Arjuna Awards by the government of India.

Every footballer aspires to play for the country and playing the Olympic Games, the World Cup is the ultimate goal.  Taking this as the yardstick, the achievemenf of two other Goan footballers who  spent their entire careers in Bombay and represented the country at the Olympic Games, needs to be eulogised and should be a matter of great pride to all Goans.

 A Goan is a Goan, no matter where he resides. Neville D’souza and Fortunato Franco are the two Goans who may not had the fortune to play for Goa but their contribution to the Indian team at the international stage is beyond comparison.

Fortunato Franco hails from Colvale, a village in North Goa. He represented India from 1959 to 1966 and played the Rome Olympic games in 1960.He was also the proud member of the Indian team that won gold in the Asian games in 1962 at Jakarta.

Neville D”souza was born in Asagoa, a small village in North Goa from where his family migrated to Bombay.He represented India in the  Olympic Games in 1956 at Melbourne, Australia. He happens to be the first Asian footballer to have scored a hatrick in the Olympic Games. Thanks to his exploits on the football field, he won the golden boot and the Indian team went on to claim the forth place in Melbourne Olmpic Games,1956.

Surely a fourth place for India and the golden boot for Neville D”Souza in the Olympic Games is the greatest achievemnet in the annals of Goan and Indian football history. Therefore he can truly be called the greatest Goan Footballer of all times. The other olympian Fortunato Franco now resides in Colva,Goa and was honoured by the Govetment of Goa with the special award of Rs 5,00,000/- in 2010. The contribution of Neville D’Souza has completely been forgotten. GFA and the Government(GFDC) must recognize the services rendered by Neville D’Souza and honour him posthumously. It would be also in the fitness of things to have his statue installed at a very prominent place, in or outside, the very popular Nehru Stadium, Fatorda,Goa and the ‘Goa State Award for life time achievement’ for footballers should be named after ‘Neville D’Souza’ instead of ‘Jivadababa Kerkar Award’. Its better late than never.

Ten differences between ISL and I League

1. ISL is a short league of three months with 8 teams whereas I league is a longer league of five to seven months with 11 teams (2014-15).

2. ISL can register 10 foreign players and play 6 in the first eleven whereas I League can register 4 foreign players (three non- Asians and one Asian) and play 4 in the first eleven.

3. ISL players have a contract for three to four months whereas I League players have a contract of one to three years.

4. In ISL there is no promotion nor relegation from the bottom placed teams whereas in I League there is, both promotion and relegation, from and to the lower league.

5. The prize money in ISL is Rs 8 crores for the winners whereas in I League it is 70 lakhs.

6. ISL matches will be played under floodlights at 7 pm whereas I League matches are played at odd hours between 3 pm to 5 pm with no fixed timings.

7. All matches will be telecast live with a record number of nine channels whereas in the I League few matches are selectively telecast by just one channel.

8. Referees and assistant referees in ISL are connected with wireless sets improving communication and decision making whereas in I League without the equipment the men in black are found wanting. 

9. ISL franchises are new and have a deal for 10 years to play the ISL whereas some of the I League clubs have been in existence for more than 20,50 and even hundred years and they will play the I League as long as they are not relegated.

10. The champion club in ISL will get to play the next edition of ISL whereas the champion club of I League will get to play the next edition of I League and also the higher level of club competition in Asia ie the AFC Cup or even the Champions League.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The positives and negatives of ISL

The slogan ‘Lets football’ coming from IMG-R backed ISL has captured the heart and minds of all the sports loving people in the country. The stage is all set for an extravaganza to be unfolded on the 12^th of Oct 2014, where else, at Kolkata, the football crazy state in India. Football is the most popular game in the world and that’s why FIFA has more countries affiliated with it (209) than even the United Nations Organization (193).

Will this be revolution and a re- birth of a new footballing nation? Will it help India qualify for the FIFA World Cup in the near future? Or will it be just be an excellent league but not much beneficial to Indian football.

Here are some of the positives and negatives of Hero Indian Super League.

The Positives:

1. Grassroots Development:

All the eight franchises ie   Atlético de Kolkata, Chennai Titans, Delhi Dynamos, FC Goa, FC Pune City, Kerala Blasters FC, Mumbai City FC, NorthEast United have a commitment to work at the grass roots through in schools and maidan initiatives. This is undoubtedly the basic requirement for any country which aspires to play the game and take it to the highest level. In times to come if the stakeholders focus on the infrastructure, training, diet and other aspects of the game at the grassroots, Indian football will surely be heading in the right direction.

2.  Prize money, Marquee Managers and Players

Never in the history of the game has such a huge investments been made to create an environment and draw fans to the stadium in this otherwise cricket crazy country. The prize money of Rs 15 crore is second only to the hugely popular Indian Premier League (T20-Cricket) which offers Rs 35 crore. The array of marquee players and former world cuppers with the likes of Allessandro Del Piero(Italy/Delhi Dynamos), David James( England/Kerala Blasters), Joan Capdevila (Spain/NorthEast United),David Trezeguet(France/FC Pune City), Freddie Ljungberg (Sweden/Mumbai City FC) will make the world take notice of the Indian Super League. The presence of high profile managers such as the great Zico( Brazil/FC Goa), Ricki Herbert( New Zealand/NorthEast  United) Franco Colomba( Italy/FC Pune City), Harm van Veldhoven( Holland/Delhi Dynamos), Antonio López Habas(Spain/Atletico deKolkata) and Peter Reid( England/ Mumbai City FC) together with the marquee and other international players will collectively add experience and make the league highly competitive. The local players will get an opportunity of the lifetime to share the dressing rooms and rub shoulders with these great managers and players thus boosting their confidence.

3. Infrastructure:

All the venues ie Salt Lake Stadium,Kolkata, West Bengal, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (Chennai) Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (Delhi) Fatorda Stadium,Goa, Balewadi Stadium,Pune, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (Kochi), DY Patil Stadium,Mumbai, Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium,Assam are being refurbished and upgraded to give the fans the best of facilities. .It will be an altogether different experience and environment at the stadiums where even families can come and enjoy the game

4. Telecast:

The telecast, rights bagged by Starports, is expected to be of high quality and millions of fans all over India, specially those places where there are no franchises, can watch the games in the comfort of their living rooms. The timing of the matches being at 7 pm in the evening makes it very convenient for fans to see the games live, either in the stadiums or in their living rooms. This will improve the viewership of Indian football which will make the game economically viable.

5. The Glamour factor:

The involvement of cricketers viz the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, the Bollywood star such as Salman Khan, John Abraham, Abhishek Bachan and the heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor, all co-owners of the franchises will surely add glamour to the whole environment at the stadiums on match days and may thus attract crowds to the stadium. Sponsors has always been a problems for this game to survive and with the active involvement of such stars from Bollywood and Cricket, football in India has a new launching pad.

The Negatives:

1. The duration of the league:

Indian Super League will be played for a period of three months ie from 12 of October 2014 to 29^th of December,2014. It’s a round robin league with each franchisee playing games on home and away basis. With eight franchises in fray, a maximum of 17 matches will be played by the two franchises who reach the finals. For the development of the game, it is very obvious that the game has to be played throughout the season. All over the world where football is highly developed, the mainstay is their professional league which gives the players a minimum of 30 to 40 competitive matches in a season. This helps the players to get the required exposure and experience to perform at their optimum. In most of the European countries, the number of clubs in the top league is normally twenty. EPL (England), La Liga(Spain), Serie A (Italy),Bundesliga(Germany) and Ligue 1(France).Besides this they play the Champions League and also play for the country. In the calendar year 2012, Lionel Messi played 69 official matches and scored a record number of 91 goals.  In Asia, the countries specially those who have played the FIFA world Cup, have 12 or more clubs playing in their top leagues: J League(Japan- 18 teams), K League (Korea Professional Football League- 12),Iran League-16, Kuwait League 14, Saudi Arabia League-14. India is a much bigger country, both in size and population and therefore the number of professional clubs in the top league should be raised to 20, if not more. Japan, the most successful country in Asia in the game of football has a vision for 100 professional football clubs in the nation of Japan by 2092, the hundredth season.  

After playing the ISL, the players have to depend on the I League for their development. The present duration of the ISL,being too short, is neither good for the managers to implement their ideas and change things nor conducive for the players to sustain the high standard set by  ISL, throughout the season. It would be much better then, in times to come, to merge the two leagues (12+8) into one major football league, just as it is all over the world.

2. The Number of foreign players:

The composition of each team in in the ISL is thus: one marquee foreign player and seven other foreigners along with 14 Indian players. Out of this, five Indians and six foreign players are expected to play in the first eleven. So out of the 112 Indian players drafted in the ISL, only 40 Indian players will be actually playing in the first eleven and presuming that Indian players will mostly be substituted, another 24 players may also play. With few more changes in the first eleven, not more than 70 players out of the 112 Indian players are likely to play the ISL league. The situation in the I League is completely different. Only 3 out of 4 foreign players were allowed to play in the first eleven in the I League. Despite this, national coaches and also pundits of the game have been crying hoarse that the local players do not get enough exposure, more so in the ‘strikers’ position and thus hinder the growth of Indian players.

The world over, the influx of foreign players is a matter of concern. In Europe specially where there are not much of restrictions, the players produced in the local academies have been given a miss. The whole focus is on buying players from abroad and improving the quality of the league. The classic example here is the English Premier League where the number of non-home grown players allowed in a team is 17 in a squad of 25. And that is why in a recent survey conducted, it was found that only 32 percent of home grown players started in the first eleven in the EPL. On 8^th May 2014, The FA Commission has submitted a report which suggested reducing the number of non-home grown players to 12 by the year 2020-21. FA chairman Greg Dyke said recently to BBC Sport “If we don’t arrest the decline you feel quite bleak about the future of English football. In EPL “You’ll have very a good league, but it’s not about English football.” The J League in Japan, with 18 clubs and only four non –home grown players allowed, is the only professional league in Asia to have been given the ‘A’ certification by AFC. Thus like the EPL,we may have an excellent ‘Indian Super League’ but that may not necessarily improve the ranking of ‘Indian football’, if the number of non-home grown players is not reduced in due course and duration of the ISL is not increased, to have a season long league.

 

 

Churchill Bros SC,Goa deserves a second chance

Inter-village football is unique in Goa and for those not familiar about Goan football may be a bit surprised to know that it has been its lifeline. It could also be called a nursery where budding footballers get an opportunity to exhibit their talent and big clubs get an opportunity to scout and recruit. Some of the big names of the game in Goa such as Brahmanand Shankwalker, Nicolas Pereira , Francis D’Souza, Derrick Pereira, Camilo Gonsalves, Mauricio Afonso and Bruno Coutinho have all played for their respective villages in their teens.

Inter-village football has not only given great footballers to Goa and India but has also resulted in giving them a club of great repute. In the early eighties, a village club in Varca,Goa  started making headlines in the sports section of the newspapers. Varca SC with the backing of Churchill Bros had this path breaking idea to invite top players in Goa to represent Varca SC in village tournaments by paying the players handsomely. Money has always been a great motivation for players and why not. Other village clubs had to pull up their socks to compete with Varca SC.  Churchill Alemao has been a visionary in football and it was at his initiative a corporate was drawn into the game of football. Varca SC was sold to Madras Rubber Factory,Goa  and the club was renamed as  MRF, Soccer Foundation in 1986-87.

Churchill Brothers SC started up in 1988 as Varca  Club. A year later, Varca Club was taken over by Churchill Braz Alemao and along with his Bothers, renamed the club as ‘Churchill Brothers SC’. Since then, it has been a historic rise from being just a village club to being the champion club of India and has won the I League twice, three Durand Cups, IFA shield and the Goa Professional League titles for a number of times. They have not only played the AFC cup but have also played the AFC Champions League, the highest level of club football in Asia qualifiers in the year 2010.

With such a rich background, Churchill Bros SC can safely be called one of the leading pioneer clubs in the game of football, both in Goa and India. We are all excited with the signing of high profile managers, marquee and other international players for the forthcoming Indian Super League. Churchill Bros SC has done and seen it all. Some of the high profile managers being  Danny Maclean(Scottish), Zoran Dordevic(Serbia),Carlos Roberto Pereia(Brazil) and Manuel Gomes (Portugal). Some of the high profile players who have donned colours for Churchill Bros SC  are Edward Ansah, the former Ghanaian international who later on became the goalkeeping coach of Ghana for two world cups in 2006 and 2010, Yusuf Yakubu(Ghana), Odafe Okalie(Nigeria) who have contributed immensely to the rise of Churchill Bros SC.

Churchill Bros demotion from the I League is a major setback not only for them but Goan football as well. That is why an appeal to AIFF by Goa Football Association to retain Churchill Bros SC in the I League is in the interest of the game. Churchill Alemao the patron of the club had in the past expressed his desire and even publicly requested that the number of foreign players eligible to play in the I League be increased, so that the standard of the game is improved and more crowds would come in to watch, thus attracting sponsors to the game. It was the opinion of most pundits and the AIFF think tank that increase in the number of foreign players would result in depriving the local players the right exposure and playing experience at the highest level of the game in India. Now that AIFF, with the introduction of Indian Super League, has allowed seven players to be registered in a franchisee and has departed from the laid down dogma for I League, it should also be accommodating and retain Churchill Bros SC in the I League for season 2014-15. It was argued by GFA that originally the I League was scheduled from Oct 2014 and at the relevant time Churchill Bros SC had failed to meet the criteria for club Licensing set by AIFF. Now that the I League has been postponed to accommodate Indian Super League and will be held only from Jan 2015, in all fairness Churchill Bros deserves another chance at the top in the I League, if the criteria for club Licensing has been fulfilled by yhe club.

Churchill Bros SC, a family club which has spent crores of rupees, season after season and has done yeomen service for Goan and Indian football, for the last twenty five years deserves better treatment by AIFF.

In football, which is better- Club/State team or National team?

If you were to judge purely on the basis of football on display in any competition, what would be your answer be to this -Is club football better than the football played by the national team? Take for example, is the football played by FC Bayern Munich better than the football played by the World Cup winners Germany?

It is a fact that almost everywhere, the top two to three clubs in a country contribute most of the players for the national team. When Spain won the world cup in 2010, most of the players were from FC Barcelona and Real Madrid C.F and this year too when Germany won the world Cup 2014, they had players mostly from FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

These stats are enough to conclude safely that the success of a national team depends very much on the success of the prominent team or teams in a country. Germany and Spain have a good balance of both home grown players and international players. It is for this reason they have won the world cup in the recent past and also an array of players from different countries propel the local league into an international extravaganza. These international footballers bring in the hordes of talent and experience which in turn makes the league a huge business venture. A classic example is the success of English Premier League which is hugely popular in India. It is for this reason why a league in any country must be supported by all the stakeholders to make it vibrant and kicking for the development of the game.

In this context, the Indian Super League to be unveiled shortly is a huge step in the right direction as it brings in the cream of players from all over the world and gives an opportunity for local players to rub shoulders with some former world cuppers and highly successful managers. This would not have been possible otherwise even in their wildest dream. But the only problem is that three months of football is not the pill, doctors of the game of football would prescribe. For healthy growth, one has to take the medicine throughout the season. And that is why merger of ISL and I League would be the perfect dose for the football giant to wake up in India.

Coming back to the question whether club football is better than National football, I would be more inclined towards the former. The main reason is that in the clubs, players are together for a longer period which helps them to understand one another better, both on and off the field. Whereas in the national team, players assemble for a very short period and many a times found wanting in commitment, mostly on account of the club’s reluctance to release players fearing injury to their star players.

India is a huge country and most from the outside consider its size and population as the main parameter for the development of the game, which I feel is absurd. Development doesn’t depend on the size and population but on the talent, passion, infrastructure and facilities available. Talent is there in abundance in India but has not been tapped efficiently. I am of the opinion that instead of trying to take football everywhere in India, it would be prudent to concentrate in those areas where there is real passion for the game. Cricket, anyway, is considered to be next to religion in India.

India’s performance in the two friendly matches played with Pakistan was mediocre and I wonder if the under-23 Goan team could have fared better if given an option to represent India in place of the present Indian side selected for the Asian Games. The players being from one state have better understanding and camaraderie, which is very essential for the success of a team. Goa(India-ranked 156) won gold in the recently held Lusofonia Games, Jan. 2014 in Goa beating a much higher ranked(120) Mozambique under 23 team by a score of 3-2. Another great way to prepare for Asian Games would be to make the Santosh Trophy an under-23 competition with 3 players senior players allowed, as done in the Asian Games. There is so much of talent in India but no proper scouting is done. Mizoram won the Santosh Trophy in style by beating Railways 3-0 in March, 2014.  In the future, winner of the Santosh Trophy (Under -23) could be given an opportunity to represent India in the Asian Games and Olympics which have the same criteria.

 If an all India selected team can lose to Pakistan by 2-0, what harm will it do, if a state team representing India loses by the same margin or more?