PANJIM: Finally breaking silence on Salgaocar FC’s decision not to field its team for Goa Professional League thereby bringing the curtains down on the club’s illustrious journey, club owner Shivanand Salgaocar on Saturday said over the years, the football scene in India underwent several changes, which forced the club to re-examine its original vision.
In a series of tweets Shivanand said, “The Salgaocar FC Goa Pro League team has consisted of predominantly of players who have risen through our Youth Development Program who could match other teams with established players. However, going forward, this model will not be viable as players below the age of 18 years are not allowed to be registered in the non-amateur category. All amateur players can be transferred to a club without an NOC from the previous club.”
“Further the team strengths for U-13 and U-15 have been reduced to 7 and 9 respectively in State and national tournaments, in turn reducing the pool of players for promotion to higher age group teams. Hence, we decided to maintain only our U-13 and U-15 teams, since the feeder to the higher age groups would not exist and these are formative years for any player,” Salgaocar tweeted further.
In another tweet, Shivanand said, “Over the years, the football scene in India underwent several changes, which forced us to re-examine the original vision of Salgaocar FC. With the I-League becoming a Tier-2 tournament and the introduction of the ISL, most of the historical national tournaments died a natural death and forced a number of clubs like Mahindras, Tatas, JCT, Pune FC, etc, to close down. Even the Federation Cup, winners of which were declared the Champion Club of India, has not been held since 2017.”
“In 2016, Salgaocar FC took the decision to withdraw from the I-League as we did not see a future for the I-League and non-ISL clubs in India. Nonetheless, we continued maintaining the Goa Pro League team and age group teams with a full youth development setup. We ensured the highest quality of coaching and support for our players including nutritional guidance, injury prevention/rehabilitation sessions, psychological training and technical guidance indoctrinating them with the rules of the game and fair play,” he tweeted further.
In another tweet, he said, “Ever since we exited the I-League, we took a conscious decision not to field any foreign players primarily to encourage local talent.”
“Salgaocar FC will continue to monitor developments in football at the State and national level on an on-going basis and will reconsider our decision at a time when we find alignment with our original goals and purpose,” Shivanand concluded.