MARGAO: With less than two months remaining for the elections to the GFA Executive Committee, aspiring candidates are scurrying to garner support from clubs and other resources.
Several new faces are vying for berths while the older ones are seeking to be re-elected for the state’s most powerful association. However, former national referee Peter Rodrigues felt that the GFA should be ruled by people with apt knowledge of the game.
"It’s extremely important to note that persons who played football and have the knowledge of the game should be elected to run the affairs of GFA. Such individuals can take Goan football to a new level. It’s not entirely necessary that everybody should be educated but sadly it has become a criterion all these years that people with scant knowledge of the basics of the game gained the chance and what they do is just ‘nod’ at everything which is put into their ears by their masters," Peter pointed out. "You can’t be just a show piece at matches and functions, they’ve to justify by their duties but when you don’t posses that knowledge it’s natural that one doesn’t have the say. These type of individuals had been in the GFA in the past and they’ve been there just to warm the chairs," Peter, the ex-Academica and Panvel Sports club player, contended while criticising persons who got into football administration purely on their high influences.
Peter’s adoration and the obsession of the game can be judged and despite his ripe age he’s a regular for almost all the inter-village tournaments in Salcete. His condemnation on the administration of football has also been more than factual as he revealed that even after more than a decade of officiating at the highest level, the football authorities have never recommended his name to the FIFA. "It happened even after officiating in seven senior nationals, the Fed Cup, juniors, sub-junior nationals and other tournaments,my name was never recommended to the AFC," Peter, who is now the AIFF Referee Instructor and I-League match Commissioner, bemoaned.
Continuing further, Peter also highlighted the injustice meted out to the deserving former Goan football players who were not felicitated or honoured while selecting and choosing those who remained close to the high-ranking officials for the tribute. "Footballers simply never got the recognition they deserve after the retirement. You get honoured only if you associate with the people who control those things; you get utmost respect depending on the shape of your lifestyle, merits don’t matter. Many of our past Goan footballers had alarming difficulties but nobody was bothered about it and things just drifted along," Peter disclosed while narrating a miserable tale of former international Prevel Fernandes, whose both legs have been damaged by a rare syndrome restricting his mobility severely.
The Varca resident was once the face of the now disbanded Mafatlal Football Club, Mumbai and represented Maharashtra for several years in the Santosh trophy nationals.
