The Goan Network
Panaji
The joint decision by Goan football giants Sporting Clube de Goa and former champs Salgaocar Football Club to pull out of I-League has triggered an emotive public response given the teams' standing in both the Goan and Indian football.
Former India captain Bruno Coutinho, who has a long association with Salgaocar club, was among the first to react.
"It is really shocking to hear (of the decision)," he said. "The idea of a second tier is not something clubs will take easily. If you think about it, the ISL is just a commercial entity. For sports to come up, there must be one league that can benefit everybody. ISL is just a commercial venture; there are people who go to watch ISL games who do not know head or tail of football.
"When the NFL was launched, we had just eight teams in it, but the quality of play and the fan following was at par with the ISL. A Dempo-Salgaocar match would have a minimum crowd of 15,000 people, while it now only gets about 2,000. AIFF must think about this. They must join hands with these clubs and form a league that can last. You have to work with the clubs, because if your stakeholders leave your side tomorrow, what are you going to do?
"I am extremely sad today because I have been Salgaocar's loyal soldier from day one. In our era, we had a very successful run between 1993 and 1998, but for me the high was back-to-back Federation Cup victories, especially beating East Bengal in the final at Salt Lake Stadium in front of 1,31,000 people. That was the best time of my life."
