THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO/PANAJI
The organisers of U-14 Subroto Mukherjee football tournament found themselves in a big soup on Thursday morning. With referees deciding not to officiate the opening matches of this popular school tournament in Salcete, parents, school officials and organisers had no clue what hit them on the day of the opener.
Mandar Adpaikar, the new TSO for Salcete, who had taken charge on July 1 was at the receiving end on Thursday morning knowing nothing of what was going on at the ground. Yes, two referees did turn up at the venue by 9.30am and even six teams had lined-up for the day's proceedings at Davorlim grounds. To the TSO's surprise, the referees informed him that the DSYA owes them two years' dues which despite repeated reminders was not paid to them. Adpaikar said that he had finalised on the four referees that would officiate in the tournament but had no idea about the fact that the DSYA did not pay their dues.
The TSO had no option but to inform Anant Raut Dessai, Asst Director of Sports about the situation on the ground and was forced to call off the matches and postpone the tournament at least by a week. Parents of the boys who had turned up at the venue were shocked in disbelief. They blamed DSYA squarely for for the mess their wards were forced into after all the hard work and preparations that had gone into the pre-tournament training.
Adpaikar was left clueless."I had done all the planning for this entire event and even the referees were informed in advance. I never expected that the referees would not officiate at all," the TSO told The Goan, adding that he had put in all the efforts to plan the scheduling of all the 44 matches at the U-14 level and had even done prior ground booking. "All this has gone in vain. I had no clue this would happen. I feel for the teams," said Adpaikar, disclosing that he had already updated his higher-ups in Panaji. He said as of now he had no choice but to postpone the tournament at least by a week. "The postponement will also affect the U-17 tournament which was scheduled to start on July 20," bemoaned Adpaikar, admitting that he was totally caught unawares.
MATCHES AFFECTED ON DAY1
Infant Jesus vs Perpetual Succour
King's School v Bethany Convent
Fr Agnel vs Govt School, Davorlim
BOX
'Players should not be made to suffer'
Sudhakar Shanbhag
PANAJI
While most parents blamed the DSYA for the opening day fiasco at the Subroto Mukherjee football tournament at Davorlim, some pointed out that the issue should have been resolved much ahead of the event and should not have been allowed to be silently dragged until the day the event was supposed to kick off.
While the blame game had already begun soon after the matches were postponed, a DSYA source is known to have informed the local organisers that the referees' dues were fully settled by the office.
According to reliable sources, the DSYA owed around Rs 40,000 to the four referees who have been regularly officiating the DSYA tournaments. The referees association had maintained that the DSYA has not paid the dues so far and hence the match referees were within their rights to stay away from officiating the three games scheduled at Davorlim today.
Contrary to their contention, a DSYA source informed that all dues were settled and it was wrong on the part of the referees to inform about their unwillingness to officiate on the day of the matches.
The DSYA is under immense pressure to sort out the issue as soon as possible as in retrospect it is the young players who are unnecessarily being forced to suffer for no fault of theirs.
"Hope the issue is amicably resolved and the boys are back on the field playing the Subroto matches. At no cost the footballers should suffer," informed Mario Moraes, assistant organiser of U-14 Subroto tournament.
In fact, Mario being a former referee was asked to stand on the line today which he flatly refused to do so. He is also the PE teacher of Bethany Convent and felt for the dilemma the young footballers and parents went through for the kind of situation they were forced to confront with. "It's a pity that such an unforeseen event happened," stated Mario. "Hope the action resumes soon," he said.
With DSYA being the organisers of the tournament, the onus is now on them to get the things sorted out and ensure that the boys are back in action for football's sake. There are 33 entries for U-14 Subroto and 50 for DSYA events and the season ahead is demanding. The schools and players are ready for action, is DSYA game to kick-off the event? Well, hopefully very soon.
