Like every State in the country, Goa too will be celebrating August 29 as National Sports Day. It is learnt that the DSYA, in its wisdom, has decided to hold a sports quiz for Secondary and Higher Secondary School students. If at all anyone needs to be quizzed, it has to be everyone at the helm of affairs starting with the Chief Minister and others down the line to find out about their performance when it comes to promotion of sports in the State.
Has anyone heard of the CM or the state Sports Minister, Secretary, the department or special bodies such as SAG or GFDC devising any means by which there is any accountability in the expenditures made and the returns on such spendings?
Today, the state of sports in Goa is dismal and in some disciplines, pathetic or even disastrous. If I have to talk about football which is the one sport that had caught the imagination of most Goans since the time they had started to be at par with the colonial rulers, the picture today is at its worst ever in recent history. The late chief minister Manohar Parrikar had in his wisdom rightly decided to make football the State sport after consulting with a few including me. But with charges of corruption gripping GFDC, it is turning out to be just another government department.
Love for football was and still is in the blood of Goans. Lack of funds notwithstanding, Goan teams of all ages, over the years, had been proving time and time again that our Goans were among the best of the best in the country.
But the pulling out of leading Goan clubs from the I-League forced upon them by the AIFF, the nation's football governing body, hit hard the homes of several Goan families whose sons were the only bread earners. No matter how much the clubs tried to save the situation, pay cuts became inevitable as the three leading Goan clubs in the country decided to settle for the Goa Pro League.
Except for may be Churchill Bros, the government did not step in to help frontline clubs -- Vasco SC, Dempo SC, Salgaocar FC and Sporting Clube de Goa -- who were responsible for keeping Goa's flag flying high and through whom football had attained an industry status for the sheer size of the economy that revolved around it. Other professional football clubs too had been doing their bit.
To compound the misery, the pandemic has driven a knife into Goan football. Goa's national ranking has shockingly dropped to joint 8th from 11 teams in the rankings released only last month. Except for the senior team that did excel in the Santosh Trophy, the other State teams at different age groups fell far short of expectations.
A few days ago, the State government's sports secretary, Ashok Kumar, boasted how Goa is ready to play host to the Indian Super League which will be staged in Goa as a single venue. He has no clue about what he is talking. GFA has not spelt out any plans for the upcoming season. With ISL granted all three stadiums at Fatorda, Bambolim and Tilak Maidan, besides 10 other practice grounds, I wonder whether GFA, will run their various annual leagues. It will probably be for the first time in Goan footballing history that the GFA will be clueless of where and when they will kick-start their leagues for the 2020/2021 season.
Volleyball, hockey and many such team sports are facing extinction. If Goans have excelled in sports like tennis, badminton and squash, it is more so because of individual pursuit, dedication and hard work by them backed by their families. Some of them, like Yash Fadte, who have made it big have been treated badly by insensitive people whose focus lies elsewhere.
The government that had grabbed the opportunity of hosting the National Games when it was granted hosting rights in 2011, is still far away from doing so. Whether a Goan makes it to the podium to receive an Arjuna or not, the government thinks that its ‘stupid show of insensitivity’ must go on. It is unfortunate that celebration of National Sports Day will completely gloss over the tears, sweat and toil of Goan sportspersons whose potential continues to be stifled by the Government of the day which has failed to empathise with them and create sporting opportunities.
(The writer is a former executive director of Sports Authority of Goa and ex-president of Goa Football Association. Views expressed are personal.)
