PANAJI
By winning their third I-League title, Churchill Brothers has put Goan football once again on the national spotlight. Their win has given a much needed boost for Goan football and Goan sports in general.
Goa and football has been synonymous for decades. In fact, football which is the ‘state sport’ of Goa, is one of its identities at the national level.
But, off late, the standard of Goan football has been on a decline. The reasons for this are plenty, including lack of passion for the game among budding footballers, lack of connection between clubs and fans, decline in national team representation at club level and player participation, decline in crowd attendance, academic pressures and availability of other career options.
In fact, in the last decade, no Goan club had won had won an I-League or ISL Trophy. Before this year’s win, the last time a Goan side had won an I-League title was when Churchill Brothers were crowned I-League champions during 2012-13 season. Its latest victory has come after a gap of 12 long years.
This is a stark contrast from the days Goan clubs dominated the I-League like no other clubs. From 2007-08 to 2012-13, I-League was won by only Goan clubs for all these six consecutive years – Dempo Sports Club (3), Churchill Brothers (2) and Salgaocar FC (1). Such had been their dominance in the league. In fact, Dempo Sports Club is the most successful club with five I-League titles in its kitty.
In recent times, Churchill Brothers had come close of winning the I-League title but finished runners-up during 2020-21 season.
In fact, the decline of Goan football started after the exit of Goa's top football clubs namely Dempo Sports Club, Salgaocar FC and Sporting Clube de Goa from the I-League in 2016.
Another reason for the decline was due to the reduced budget in the local Goa Professional League (GPL), the standard of the teams dropped drastically over the last decade as there were hardly any foreigners playing in the Goa Professional League and even if they were recruited their quality displayed in the matches was not up to the mark.
Also, some GPL teams fielded seven to eight outstation players in their starting XI, thereby depriving local Goan talent a chance to play in the GPL
In Santosh Trophy, country’s premier football tournament, Goa has failed to win the trophy in last 16 years. Its last Santosh Trophy win had come during 2008-09 season when they defeated Bengal in the finals at Chennai although the state has won five titles on previous occasions. In recent times, Goa came agonizingly close of winning Santosh Trophy but had to finish runners-up during 2016-17 and 2023-24 season.
In ISL, FC Goa has still not managed to win the trophy despite finishing runners-up twice and reaching the semi-finals on six other occasions in last 11 seasons. However, the Gaurs did win the Hero Super Cup in 2019.
With Goan football facing a declining trend, Churchill Brothers’ I-League title is a silver lining and has bought back old memories wherein Goan football clubs were a dominant force at the national level.
