The Evolution of Football in Goa
A quick and dirty summary of Goa's footballing history from the pre-independence era to this years Indian Super League ft. Dil Chahta Hai.
In memory of Novy Kapadia, the voice of Indian Football and chronicler of stories that matter. Thank you for all your work, you’ll always be remembered.
I took my first flight in two years, and it was to Goa. Here is a little something I wrote to honour the work of Novy Kapadia and celebrate the pioneers of Indian football.
This is not a comprehensive history of football in Goa, obviously. It’s more of a whistle-stop tour of the rich footballing tapestry of the state as we look ahead to the new ISL season.
Goa is a small touristy state on the western coast stretching along the Arabian Sea. It has lush green hills and pretty beaches. The place has been memorialized as the ultimate vacay spot by the iconic Bollywood coming-of-age 2001 movie Dil Chahta Hai (amaze songs, btw). The tropical beaches, cheap alcohol, and unique cuisine make it one of India's most visited spots for vacation by locals and foreigners alike.
But I wasn't visiting there for feni* or fiesta. I was there for work. As I crossed Fatorda stadium on my way from the airport, I thought of last year's ISL and how fun it would be to watch live matches in this stadium.
Since COVID, Indian Super League (ISL) matches were all played in Goa across three stadiums. Perhaps it's the tremendous local passion for the game or readily available infrastructure in the three stadiums in the small state.
Now that ISL has started (I meant to finish this before the first game, but oh well), I thought I'd recap the rich footballing history of this state and throw a spotlight on the modern state of Goan football through FC Goa.
I. How did it all start?
Football in pre-independence Goa
Goa, much like most of India, was part of a formal European colony. Even though it was a Portuguese colony, football was introduced by a British priest — Father William Robert Lyons, in 1883. Mimicking the reason for introducing football in the British school curriculum, Lyons wanted boys to embody perfect Christian manhood. Apart from being an exercise of soft power, football would enable these boys to learn fairness, honesty, strength, and intelligence. By the 19th century, two-thirds of Goa had adopted Christianity. With the spread of the catholic church to rural area, football also expanded and became a beloved local sport. Perhaps, cricket was too bougie and still heavily limited to the colonial overlords.
The earliest recorded official football match was in 1900 in Panjim, the capital. Goa soon hosted their first international match in 1923, hosting British Officers and Portuguese Amateurs, with the latter winning the game. Neither team featured any local players, but that changed. Soon after, local talent was featured in inter-Goa football tournaments.
In late 1930, the Portuguese Association of Football India was formed. Under their banner, the state saw friendly matches with visitors from other Indian cities. Goa's "cultural bond" with Portugal was so strong that the dictator Oliveira Salazar used this to show that Goa was in no way part of India. During his reign, he often used football to show the "benefits" of colonial rule. He tried to cement the sociocultural link with Portugal. A few more years of Portuguese rule, perhaps Cristiano would have been an Indian export, aye Senhor Salazar?
II. Goa's footballing identity
in the post-independent India
The Indian football team to play at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics featured a Goan centre-forward. Neville D'Souza went on to score a hattrick in a 4-2 win over Australia. Four years later, in Rome, another Goan was part of the midfield and was part of the national squad that won a gold medal at the 1962 Asian Games.
Post-independence, the number of Goans working and living out of India were at an all-time peak. Many ex-pats formed and participated in several football clubs, making the sport integral to the Goan culture.
Soon after independence, football was used to further political agendas. One political party wanted Goa to join Maharashtra (state it shares borders with) and replace Marathi as their local language. The Goa Football Association (GFA) vice president and a dude with clearly a lot of money started his own little tournament. Inviting teams from across the nation and donating a solid-gold trophy worth INR 30 lakh in today's worth. Despite this, the offers for mergers were eventually rejected. Good for you, Goa, you do you! (the Bandodkar Tournament, named after that solid-goal fella, was played till 1970)
In the 1960s, B.M Parkkot became the new GFA president. Unlike his predecessor, he harboured more footballing ambitions than political ones. A few years ago, he took over Goa's older club Vasco and made them a successful team. They reached the Rover's Cup final, losing to Mohan Bagan 1-0 but winning against EME Secundrabad to win the Kerela Trophy.
Parkkot lobbied to make GFA independent from the All India Football Federation (AIFF). Upon AIFF's approval, Goa hosted the Santosh Trophy. Goa went on to win back-to-back titles and had won without conceding any goal in their last 80s tournament.
In 1987, Goa became a state of the Indian Union. The following year the foundations for Nehru Stadium in Margoa were laid. This Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, houses the legendary Churchill Brothers team and serves as FC Goa's home venue. More on the Churchill Brothers later; it is an amusing story!
III. How is Goa pioneering the new era in Indian Football?
The Goan Football Association (GFA) is the best in the country, both organizing and vision planning. Former AIFF president often joked that if all state associations were as progressive as GFA, Indian football standards would improve rapidly. In the new era of Indian Football, Goan clubs like Dempo, Churchill Brothers and Salgaocar, won the first six editions of the I-League.
GFA were the first to digitize all the football records and get sponsors for their first-division league. They also understood the need to foster young talent, launching the Youth Football Development programme in 1998 with financial support from Tata Tea Company. Before this, goan footballing talent from rural parts never received any help. GFA also started several training centres in North and South Goa for U-12 and U-14. Sadly, the same did not take off for girls football.
GFA is among the few associations to fully sponsor AFC coaching courses and develop referees. While GFA has played a significant role in football development in the state, the leading clubs have contributed to building a solid and sustainable footballing culture.
Salgoacar Sports Club
The Salgaocar Group is known for their industrial conglomerate exporting ores, and large steel mills are known all over Goa. In 1957 they purchases the Vimson FC and renamed it to Salgaocar Sports Club. Fresh after British departing India, this club was invited to play in Delhi to flex the Portuguese style of play. Their visit was celebrated, and then PM Jawaharlal Nehru hosted a tea party for the team at his residence.
They won their first Federation Cup after playing six matches in eight days, a testimony to their fitness and planning (Spurs could never).
Churchill Brothers
Churchill Brothers are India's only family club. Six brothers of the Alemao family dreamt of building a kickass football club that would go on to win titles, and they did! The brothers knew they had to diversify their income to compete with big money clubs or institute-backed teams. They owned the finest Chinese restaurant and invested their profits into the game.
The failure of an academy set up by MRF left a lot of young players without a job; Alemao's seized this opportunity and hired them to form their own team, naming the club after the eldest son. (Not sure why they didn't call the club Alemao Brothers, you know).
Under president Churchill Alemao, the team progressed from third division to first division of Goa League in 1994. They were one of the early clubs in Goa to poach players from other teams, in some sense cutting down the waiting periods that would cause monetary loss for the players. By investing the majority of their business earnings, the club could pay lucrative salaries to the players.
The brothers faced criticism for hiring non-local players. Still, they argued that the presence of quality foreign and outstation players improved the standard of football in Goa. They also scouted a lot of local talent for bargain buys to strengthen the team.
The club went to make history by winning several prestigious national trophies and bagging two I-League titles.
IV. Indian Super League and FC Goa
FC Goa, nicknamed Gaurs, was formed in 2014 and play in the top flight Indian football league. They were the first Indian team to qualify for AFC Champions League in the current format. After losing two finals, FC Goa defeated Chennaiyin FC to win their first Indian Super Cup in 2019.
So the formation of ISL and the issues with I-League is a story in itself that I won't go into detail about. You can check out explainer videos by Tifo.
In 2014, the FC Goa bid was won by Venugopal Dhoot ( rich fella, owner of Videocon) and Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas Dempo (the two people who previously owned clubs in Goa). Later that year, Virat Kohli (cricket icon, national hero and guy who makes people think they too could have sexy beards) became a co-owner. Varun Dhawan (whose biggest flex is starring in daddy's movies) is also a co-owner. Salgaocar and Dempo eventually stepped down from ownership in 2016, and Jaydev Mody bought majority stakes for the club.
Since 2014, the club has seen three coaches — former Brazillian football Zico, Sergio Lobera and Juan Ferrando. Zico led them to their first ISL final in 2015, bringing young talent from La Masia, but after a poor run in his third season, the club did not renew its contract.
Goa won their first Indian Super Cup trophy with Sergio Lobera, but in February of 2020, they mutually parted ways. Goa topped the group stage and won the ISL League Winners Shield, later becoming the first Indian club to qualify for the AFC Champions League group stage. Sergio Lobera went on to coach Mumbai City FC who went on to win ISL last season. Their current main man, Juan Ferrando is a Catalan coaching since he was 18. Experience in both academic and on-field domains, he has worked as a coach, analyst and physical trainer in Spain, the UK, Italy and Canada.
In April 2020, Goa announced a partnership with RB Leipgiz youth and a new coach in Juan Ferrando. Last month, they won the Durand Club by defeating the historic Mohammedan SC. The team enjoys enthusiastic local support, and you won't be able to buy shirts for any other team than FC Goa; trust me, I tried. You can find out more about their current squad over here. The club mascot is an Indian Bison that represents strength, attack, and integrity. Their youth team has won several national titles. Some budding young Indian players from FC Goa to watch out for this season are Devendra Murgaonkar (top performer in Durand Cup, a promising forward)and Mohammed Neil (19 year old tipped as the next Indian superstar).
With only four foreign players allowed in XI from this season, it is fascinating to see how the homegrown young players perform for their teams. While reading up for this piece, I feel good about the future of Indian football; with the state's focus on youth development, coaching and local recruitment, we seem to be on a good path.
Here's hoping for a successful run for the club and a chance to watch them live very soon. Plus, there are some cute beaches in south Goa I really want to visit while blasting Dil Chahta Hai title track.
References
Kapadia, N. (2017). Barefoot To Boots: The Many Lives of Indian Football (First). Penguin Random House India.
ISL 2021-22: From Goa’s Muhammed Nemil to Mumbai’s Gurkirat Singh, young players to watch out for. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://scroll.in/field/1010767/isl-2021-22-from-goas-muhammed-nemil-to-mumbais-gurkirat-singh-young-players-to-watch-out-for
ISL 2021-22, Mumbai City FC vs FC Goa preview: Big guns hope to set an early marker. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://scroll.in/field/1011117/isl-2021-22-mumbai-city-fc-vs-fc-goa-preview-big-guns-hope-to-set-an-early-marker
About FC Goa | Goan Football Club Pvt. Ltd. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://fcgoa.in/about
India’s Football Merger Has Some Problems—Tifo YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2021, from here.
History of Indian Football Part 2: A Tale of Two Leagues— Tifo YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2021, from here.
* Feni is a spirit produced in Goa, India. The two most popular types of feni are cashew feni and toddy palm feni.
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