WEDNESDAY, JULY 03, 2024
by invitation Elvis Gomes
The birth anniversary of the hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand Singh is commemorated as National Sports Day. Recently, this writer had the opportunity to meet with his son Ashok Kumar, a legend in his own right, who scored the winning goal against Pakistan that saw India win its only Hockey World Cup title way back in 1975.
Discussions with Kumar on a wide range of issues regarding Indian sports led me to conclude that officialdom has outgrown sportspersons in terms of size and control.
Creating hype around symbolic tokenism during sports day celebrations, while ignoring the struggles of sportspersons, may serve the political interest of the government that is. But what it should seriously do instead is move to facilitate the growth and development of sportspersons including sports officials. Ultimately, it is pouring taxpayers’ money into sporting bodies.
There’s a complete lack of transparency and accountability on how every penny that the taxpayer contributes towards sports is spent. The government of India attempted to resolve this through a set of regulations called the ‘National Sports Development Code 2011’ or simply ‘Sports Code.’ This code has suddenly taken the spotlight with the Supreme Court’s intervention in the AIFF issue. The FIFA ban, now lifted, also brought football into focus.
The code has been resisted at all levels under the guise of ‘third party interference.’ Relying heavily on government grants while resisting government instructions has been the bane of sports development. Though it may not be an all-encompassing solution to the issues that plague sports in India, the sports code, at the very least, will subject sporting bodies to accountability.
Closer home, there has been strong resistance to the implementation of the provisions of the Sports Code. The Goa Olympic Association has also interpreted it as not being applicable to state bodies but only national federations. However, while the Sports Code has only now come into discussion at the national level, the Goa Football Association (GFA) under the presidency of this writer, became the first to implement it by amending its constitution in 2018 itself.
Despite these regulations, the incumbent president, upon being elected claimed — a claim disputed by some —that the age barrier clause of 70 years has been removed by him, by amending the Constitution to evidently allow the continuation of his tenure beyond that age.
The current president and committee have even exceeded the regular tenure of four years, citing a pending High Court case filed by one member club seeking the Court directions to order the president to vacate the chair. Football has seen the steepest decline in the last four years with Goa even failing to qualify for the Santosh Trophy finals for the first time!
The new Sports Minister of Goa Govind Gaude appears to be making the right noises through his utterances, both on the floor of the house as well as off, displaying intention to do right the course. He should demand accountability not just from the sports associations but with his own department of sports and the two special bodies -- the SAG and GFDC. In fact, charges of corruption and nepotism in the GFDC have been flying thick and fast.
Then come the state associations who get grants. There has to be accountability in spending vis-a-vis performance of players. Money, to the tune of crores of rupees, is drawn at will and distributed to clubs or individuals purely on the basis of political considerations for those in proximity with the powers that be, leaving many deserving sportspersons in the lurch.
There should be accountability on what’s happening to the huge infrastructure created in recent times, in the name Lusofonia Games and the elusive National Games. The indoor stadium at the university is now an official exhibition centre for all and sundry. What a shame!
It’s time the government submits to demands of accountability every taxpayer rupee, spent in the name of sports. National Sports Day should then be a day of accountability in Sports.
(The writer is former Executive Director of the SAG, founder member secretary of the GFDC, and ex-President of the GFA)
