This post is inspired from a conversation with one of my
wise cousins Mr. Cirilo D’Souza.
Goan’s proudly boast about their inclination towards
football and their achievements in this particular sport as compared to the
other states in India. But here I just want to put one question ahead. How far
have we come through the journey of football development in the state?
As for how I look at it from a very practical and sincere
perspective, we Goans haven’t really done anything great. Of course I can’t
deny the fact that infrastructure has been set up in nearly every village. But
is infrastructure enough? (Sorry! I posed another question.)
I feel the right understanding of the sport hasn’t been well
seeped into the minds of those involved in the game. The flaw seems to be in
all those involved in the beautiful game i.e. the players, referees, administrators
and even audiences.
Just take a simple example of an inter-village game that is still
played in the paddy fields. In the first place, there are better venues to host
the matches, yet organizers feel it apt to host the games on barren paddy
fields. Over several of years, these fields are still the same; no one even
bothers to level the land. Here’s where the role of administrators/organizers
comes into play. But where are they?
Players are no better. Players sporting big bellies have
been a common sight in Goan inter-village football. And no one even dares to
keep them on the bench as these big belly owners are considered as the experienced
ones. And what do these experienced players do? They occupy a piece of land on
the ground and keep sending long balls to the strikers upfront as if their
opponents were playing without defenders. If the striker fails to get the ball,
he is greeted with some lovely musical Konkani bad-words. As a spectator, the
entire match, you will keep swaying your head from right to left like you would
do for a game of Tennis.
The referees just add to the fun. Again big bellies among
the people who are expected to control the game. But for now let give it a
blind eye.
One encouraging factor for these inter-village matches is
the amount of spectators that witness the match. You won’t find such a crowd
even for one of the professional matches. But have a look at the clearer side
of it. Most of the people come to play a game of Housie which is played during
halftime. Some even leave at the end of the first half. But what’s more
discouraging is that the ones interesting in watching the game keep confusing
the players on field. A midfielder passing the ball to a defender is as severe as
a sin. The midfielder gets the lovely musical Konkani bad-words and is also
considered unfit to play. So indirectly, the audience actually enjoys watching
the ball toss from one half to the other and once the game is over spectators
often exchange similar words. They are mostly – “Sheh! Kitem Game Zali.”
Is there a need to sum up anything? This is the small ugly
Goan story of the Beautiful Game.
