Dwelling on the poor performance of the FC Goa team, everyone following the franchise would tell you that the cub was besieged with problems right from the start- problems of their own doing. It started off with ISL striking deal with Jaydev Mody and throwing out true blooded Goans-Dempo and Salgaocar- who had passion for the game.
It was apparent that Jaydev Mody knew nothing of football and that’s where part two of the whole thing started. Alleged cut money signings by FC Goa CEO Sukhwinder SIngh. An unfit Robin Singh- who is supposed to be very close to him- was signed for a huge sum, making him the highest paid Indian player at the club. Beto too ruled the roost, with several cut money signings and failures from last year like Reinaldo making their way to the team this year too. Players who don’t even feature regularly in I-League sides featured in the team while Oldies like Gregory, Luciano, Julio Caesar were signed. A goof up from the management of FC Goa resulted in them having one less player compared to the rest of the teams. The management team had a major revamp with at least four staff leaving or being asked to leave.
Pre season then was a disaster, players being made to travel half way around the continent to train at Zico’s academy in Brazil. There was only one man laughing his way to the bank, and that was the gaffer himself who must have made a fortune after renting out his academy to the team. Incompetent and shady staff like Gavin Araujo ( who was allegedly involved in fixing of a second division match in 2010) were hired. Problems started there itself with Gavin refusing to buy water and ice for the players apparently citing instructions from Sukhwinder Singh to tighten the purse. Undeserving players were given exorbitant salaries while necessities like water and ice were controlled citing budget control.
Then came Goa and more disaster was to follow. A dearth of training grounds due to the AIFF U-16 Championships meant that FC Goa were forced to shift their training to the Sesa Academy. The ground was refurbished and missed the deadline of completion forcing Zico to cancel two scheduled friendlies and shift training for a week to a Panchayat ground in south Goa. Logistics were a mess, players were made to stay in a two star hotel owned by Deltin Group causing major divisions in the team between senior players like Lucio and the management. The matter escalated so much that a month later, Lucio shifted himself at his own cost to a five star hotel and had a major falling out with Zico. As I had predicted a while back, he hasn’t played a single match in the past month even though he was fit. He has apparently skipped many training sessions and appears to have completely lost his focus. Pictures were also uploaded on a social media account of a support staff, showing players being made to stand in the bus arranged by the club to transport them from the airport to the hotel in Guwahati due to lack of seats.
Off the field too there were plenty of problems. The marketing team was a complete failure. Compared to last season where they had around five paid sponsors on their jersey, this year the amount reduced to just two. Tickets were a disaster. Prices were hiked and when the performance went down free tickets were distributed and gates were opened to fans after half time. Revenues would be at an all-time low this season and losses at an all-time high. FC Goa fans though can rejoice having won many twitter and social media battles, unfortunately football isn’t played in cyberspace.
So a major clean-up is expected. Expect a new look FC Goa in ISL-4 (subject to it being held after the merger).
(This article is written by our forum member @lokeshchandaindia and it is edited and posted by the authour @mohammed87_hassan
link to th post http://forum.indianfootballnetwork.com/discussion/1920/isl-week-7-discussion-thread/p17 )
