INVASION OF SOCCER GROUND BY GOANS – II.
Since the establishment of our competitive soccer at Sour Grounds in 1979
the first invasion of Ground was done somewhere in 1982-83. The incident
occurred like this. G.O.A. Maroons were playing against Flying Arrows.
Jennifer was refereeing the match and somehow or the other as many times in
the past he was found wanting in controlling the game. Maroons was in
bombastic form, they had excellent players, defense was manned by me, Pillay
and Lucas while half line by Menezes and Peter Santimano, forward line by
Tony Correia, Gilbert, Rogtao and late Cosme. Up to now I have not seen at
Sour Ground such a mighty team with such excellent players. Rogtao was in
such a graceful form that some of the best goals I ever seen at Sour Grounds
were scored by him exactly the way Dutch and AC Milan’s Van Basten used to
score even from difficult angle. He was simply unstoppable. In the midfield
Peter Santimano was like a maestro conducting the orchestra. Maroons scored
first goal which referee whistled for “yes” but when opponents protested he
after few minutes changed his decision. Maroons captain Phillay said that
he is going to stick to the first decision of the referee. UGC were the
organizers of the tournament which was a League. There was heavy pressure
on referee who was then called “Ponch Referee”. Finally the match was
abandoned and UGC managing committee in the absence of KIFF which came into
being much later, suspended Maroons from that tournament. Maroons was
annoyed and protested but could do nothing. On the following Friday Maroons
led by one of the “Rostad” committee members invaded the soccer ground. I
pleaded not to, settle the matter amicably even at the last minute. A few
minutes before the invasion of the ground I while requesting with UGC
President Tony Fernandes to put things into order even at the last minute
was stopped by that Rostad committee member whose whereabout now is
unkknown. Having no choice I retracted and thus the proceedings of that day
were abandoned. As a matter of fact G.O.A. Maroons officially was not
involved in this invasion, it was not approved by the management of G.O.A.
Even the leadership of G.O.A. was not aware of this invasion. They were
nowhere on the ground on the invasion day. This was done by few dejected
players with the backing of their few supporters and one or 2 more committee
members along with Rostad who were not authorized by the committee to
participate in the invasion nor initiate it. Soon after the invasion of the
ground when Nets from the goal post were removed by UGC members and most of
the people dispersed, somebody informed the police that there is some
problem going on at Sour Ground. Immediately a Police patrol car came but
to their innocence they found nothing wrong going as almost everyone by that
time departed. Then one of the top Policeman told the few people gathered
there that this place is meant to play foot-ball and not for problem, if
there is problem then we will take severe action against those who are
interrupting the goings on here. Then I realized the gravity of the whole
situation and decided then and there that if necessary I will give up
playing but will never associate with rowdies and Rostads. Because of this
invasion the fair image of G.O.A. was very much affected. If invaders of the
ground were found by the police then and there they would have got their
“Kansulam” polished by the solid police “Thapttam” for disturbing the peace
at Sour Ground and moreover they would have even been handcuffed and taken
to police station for further questioning and further polishing their
“Kansulam” and then may be deported. In this case, who would take the
responsibility of the whole situation? We are come here to earn and live
peacefully, this is not Goa to show our dadagiri. Those who are involved in
doing dadagiri here are the ones who were living like Rostad in Goa and for
them anything can do, either here or there, their motto is “Bhor ga potta
ani sor ga dissa” exactly like wild animals. Good and decent people should
boycott such wild animals and stop associating with them if they want to
have peaceful life. Kuwait is a peace loving country and we have no right to
disturb peace of this country from where we earn our livelihood.
Today the best of Rostad Goans are among those who are involved in soccer at
Sour Grounds. If you want to see who are these Rostads then you go to see
soccer matches at Sour Grounds and you will know who they are. Good that
they are in Kuwait to earn Dinars otherwise they would rot on the streets in
Goa. Some of them are office bearers, holding good positions on the jobs
but when the matter of soccer comes especially when their teams are lost
they feel heaven is falling as if they are ousted from World Cup. Even World
Cuppers are not that serious inspite of putting in so much of efforts and
money. Some of the worst culprits are the presidents of our Teams and Clubs.
They feel they are in places of Sepp Blatter. Good that our soccer at
Sour Grounds is not recognized by any authority in Kuwait. Some of the
presidents are so cheap that it looked they are just come from the “Zongoll”
because they are acting like “Zonglli” but to acquire the presidentship they
will stoop to any ebb. The other day somebody said that at Sour Ground even
you can get president on rental basis (“baddeacho president”). In fact
presidents are in better position to bring about peace there but they are
incapable due to their all round weaknesses. It is Soccer at Sour Ground
that gave identity to many of them otherwise they are non-entities. Because
of our foot-ball at Sour Grounds lot of people got lot of benefits and
because of these benefits our soccer at Sour Grounds should survive instead
of moving it elsewhere due to rowdism and invasion of ground. I am
surprised how toothless people are involved in organising our tournaments.
If they have no teeth of lion then they must withdraw from organising
tournaments. Running the affairs of an organisation means you have to be
strong in all respects and be prepared to take risks and strong actions. It
is a good lesson for some of the current so called soccer stalwarts to know
how to face the complicated situation. It is a shame that the tournament and
soccer organizers are unable to face few rowdies who wrongly think that
Sour Ground is their fathers’ property. Impotent people should never come
forward to run the affairs of any organization and if they feel they are
unable to do anyting then they must like gentlemen resign and go into
oblivion. If because of repeated invasions of ground our foot-ball at Sour
Grounds is stopped then not only the invaders of the ground but also the
organizers of the tournaments and the apex controlling body would be held
responsible and this will remain in the history of Goan community in Kuwait.
KIFF is equally responsible for the disaster that is going on at Sour Ground
by not acting promptly and strictly.
Because of many of our problems involving rowdism the fair image of Goans in
Kuwait is getting eroded. Not only this, because of Goans the fair image of
Indians is getting soiled. During the invasion of Kuwait by organising
meetings and rallies in support of Kuwait we created a very good impact of
Goans among Kuwaiti minds. I have very good contact with number of people
who are involved with me in Goa-Kuwait Solidarity Centre and they will find
it difficult to accept the fact that Goans in Kuwait are also involved in
rowdism. If KIFF is serious in putting an end to invasion of ground by few
rowdy Goans then it must first approach Indian Embassy complaining against
those who are responsible in creating disorder amongst us. Indian Embassy
has vast powers not only in impounding Passports of guilty but also to
approach Foreign Ministry to take action against the guilty. The other
option, KIFF should write directly to the sponsors of the rowdies who are
guilty of creating disorder. If proper evidence of rowdism is provided to
the sponsors of rowdies I am sure action will be taken by the sponsors
against the rowdies. The third option is to inform the Interior Ministry
thru proper channel and let the authorities come at Sour Ground and then see
the “dadagiri” of rowdies. But before taking action let the warning go to
all the concerned rowdies and still they persists in their rowdism then let
the salvo be fired. If we do not finish rowdism then rowdism will finish us
and also the good image of Goa and Goans. To create good image of Goans
these rowdies have done nothing and as such they should not be allowed to
tarnish the good image of our Goa.
concluded.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
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