I-League 2013/14: Inspections end at Goan clubs!

The AIFF Delegation, headed By Indian national team coach Wim Koevermans, completed their two-day Inspection Of The Goan I-League clubs – Salgaocar FC, Dempo SC, Sporting Clube de Goa and Churchill Brothers SC.The visit was to inspect the existing infrastructure and facilities and to encourage the clubs to follow the professional AFC Club Licencing guidelines set by the Asian Football Confederation and world football governing body FIFA.

Salgaocar FC general secretary RAJ Gomes took the AIFF Inspection team through a tour of the club’s training grounds – BITS Pilani for the senior team, and Cansaulim grounds for the junior teams.

Wim Koevermans took a particular interest in the club’s youth development program and appreciated the fact that SFC had good infrastructure and a large field staff for their youth teams. “This is the way it should be,” he said, “you start off as an U-12 player, move up the ranks to join the Salgaocar Senior team, and then if you’re good enough, get called up to the National team.”

Koevermans cited the example of home-grown Salgaocar player Francis Fernandes and encouraged the boys to watch games on television and the I-League matches to learn as much as they could. He propounded Rob Baan’s youth plan as the way forward and encouraged all the coaches to keep updating themselves on football philosophies and styles.

Koevermans also stated that as compared to the number of competitive matches played by the U-14 and U-16 age groups, the U-12s were at a disadvantage because of the lack of tournaments organized by the Goa Football Association for this category. However, he stressed that the I-League clubs should get together to have competitive games for this age group so that the U-12 boys could get much-needed match exposure.

I-League licensing manager Roma Khanna also visited the Salgaocar FC headquarters in Vasco da Gama to assess the club on administrative, sporting, financial, legal, marketing criteria and personnel.

“We’ve already submitted details of the required criteria to the AIFF and this inspection was more of an audit to check that all the Clubs fulfill the licensing criteria” said Club General Secretary RAJ Gomes. “The visit was very fruitful, they were happy to see the type of infrastructure we have and the facilities we offer to our senior and junior teams, and I’m hopeful that we meet all the requirements,” he concluded.

All the four Goan I-League clubs have named Tilak Maidan in Vasco da Gama as their home ground from the 2013/14 I-League season.

Having visited Dempo SC and Sporting Clube de Goa yesterday, they will be travelling to Kolkata and the North-East for the next stage of I-League club inspections.