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  • dev_pfcdev_pfc Pune1935 Points
    edited June 2018
    Aizawl and Minerva both don't have the team nor the resources to compete at continental level even at group stage. Also current AFC cup format is ill structured, with only one group for South Asia which Indian teams together in same group and only winner going through.   
    Deb_Ban
  • Deb_BanDeb_Ban 9950 Points
    That is why I think it's better that no corporate teams is allowed next year. Until they improve the economics of the league, only shitty corporates would come. Better not to have one.
  • souravindiasouravindia 3593 Points
    So now will they be called Atletico Jamshedpur FC :D
    ashindiamunna219777goalkeeparindian_gooner
  • spartasparta Jamshedpur FC2074 Points
    That name changing isn't going to happen I guess. If it happens then academy tie up will be the best things if the TFA kids can go their and get some coaching out there
    deepu
  • EastBengalPrideEastBengalPride India9281 Points
    Unless ATM can do proper coach education for TFA coaches, sending 3 kids of 3 months to Madrid would be just pr stunt. What fuck all benefit ATM did for ATK's youth development program? 
    indian_gooner
  • mohammed_87hassanmohammed_87hassan Sumeet Passin FC Jupiter10440 Points
    I do think some academy stuff will be involved 
    Looks like deal is completed 
  • thebeautifulgamethebeautifulgame Durgapur,India29574 Points
    https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/football/top-stories/footballs-old-order/articleshow/64719610.cms

    Football's old order

    As a 11-year-old, summer holidays were never so much fun for Goa’s first Arjuna awardee Brahmanand Shankhwalkar. Break from school meant there was so much more time on hand for his favourite sport. He wanted to play football from dawn till dusk but not everyone was supportive. There were other games to play, particularly cricket, a favourite among the Hindus from their locality in Taleigao.

    So Brahmanand and the rest of the gang had an understanding. Mornings were reserved for cricket and football would be played later in the day. All went well for a day or two, until one evening Brahmanand was left all alone with a football in his arms, waiting for his friends to turn up at the village ground. Nobody showed up, and a furious Brahmanand ran to his neighbour’s house, located the cricket stumps and broke them into pieces.

    “I was furious that they failed to show up to play football. How could anyone not play football,” asks Brahmanand, as he rewinds the clock to more than 50 years ago.

    Brahmanand and the Shankhwalkars are an exception rather than the rule that everyone born in Goa instantly falls in love with the beautiful game. The Shankhwalkars—all seven brothers—were instinctively attracted to the game, and even played at a very high level, but most Hindus didn’t take to the sport as much as their Christian brethren.

    “Most Hindus feel football is a dangerous sport. It’s not for us, they feel. We are grateful to our parents that they encouraged us. But not every Hindu family thought like that,” said Vallabh Shankhwalkar, formerly with Academica, St Inez and Panvel Sports Club.

    Shankhwalkar senior—Sagun—was cut from a different cloth. Known to keep the goal attired in a dhoti and with a cigar in his hand, he encouraged all his seven sons to play football. Even when one of his son, Ramesh, needed six stitches on his forehead after clash of heads during a football game, he didn’t blink an eye. When Brahmanand hobbled home with a swollen ankle, the former president of Goa Football Association suggested the treatment himself.

    At other places, like the Joshis for instance, injury meant goodbye to football. Shripad Joshi, neighbour to the Shankhwalkars, was an excellent footballer but never got permission to kick the ball once he fractured his leg.

    Football embraces all and has no religion. But you cannot ignore the fact that while the big promoters and sponsors were predominantly Hindus (Salgaocars, Bandodkars, Dempos among others), the bulk of the players were mainly Catholic.

    “For Hindus, the priorities were different. With education being the main focus, lot of youngsters dropped out, despite being good, to pursue education,” said former Sesa Goa defender and coach Vishwas Gaonkar.

    Football is now such a well-paying sport but you hardly see Hindus taking to the game in droves. In the Goa Pro League, Goa’s premier football league, there are only 50 Goan Hindus from the 380 players registered across 12 teams. Interestingly, it’s the opposite in cricket where Hindus dominate the sport with only a smattering of Catholic players.

    “In my opinion, it’s all about support from your parents. Most Hindu families don’t want to take a risk (with football as a career). For them job security overtakes everything,” said former India defender and now Dempo coach Samir Naik.

    The role of the Catholic Church in the development of the sport also cannot be ignored. British missionary Fr William Robert Lyons had brought le jogo bonito (the beautiful game) to Goa, where he fetched up to recuperate, introducing football to a school he founded at Siolim in 1883. The game slowly spread to other Goan villages, mainly through the exertions of the Catholic clergy, with several clubs springing up in the villages.

    After football was declared the national sport of Portugal in 1893, the colonial government took an interest in its promotion.

    “The Catholic Church was, and indeed still is, important in promoting football in Goa as it provided an institutional means of introducing young men to the game in both the cities and the villages and among both the schooled elites and the church-going peasantry,” British academicians Paul Dimeo and James Mills wrote in ‘Soccer in South Asia: Empire, Nation, Diaspora’.

    Across Goa, wherever you see a Church, chances are that a football ground will be in the vicinity. But like a veteran Goa Football Association official said, “Football was never communally restrictive in Goa.” 

    “Seminaries and boarding schools also played a significant role. The significance of the players at the seminary was that they took the game with them when they went to serve in the villages so football quickly spread, and at boarding schools, primarily filled with Catholics, football became an integral part of your evening routine,” said the official.


    Another school of thought is that a lot of Catholics, particularly from dominant Salcete, looked at football as a means to escape poverty. The Hindus trusted education for a better life, but Catholics knew they could trust football to bail them out.


    “If you look at the top of Goan football’s pyramid, you will find some excellent Hindu players. I dare say for every 10 Catholic players, a Hindu player would emerge and would be as good, if not better, than 10 players put together. Only players who knew they can make a career out of football pursued the sport,” said Gaonkar, an excellent footballer himself, probably referring to the likes of Vasu Raiturcar, Brahmanand Shankhwalkar, Mahesh Lotlikar, Ramesh Redkar and Ashok Fadte, to name a few.


    Goa’s first Arjuna awardee, the highest recognition for sports in the country, and the man to captain India more than anyone else is a Hindu. Except for people like Churchill Alemao and Peter Vaz, the major promoters have also been Hindus—six Hindu presidents of GFA since liberation in 1961. Yet, Catholics continue to embrace and pursue the sport more than anyone else.
    goalkeeparmunna219777indian_goonerCarbon_14EastBengalPridekartik91
  • indian_goonerindian_gooner 3394 Points
    Good that people like him break the barrier for other community people. Like we have mehrajuddin wadoo from Kashmir who inspired kashmiri muslims to play football at national level.
    munna219777EastBengalPride
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