GFA questions AIFF awards selection, says disheartening when commendable work is overlooked

Panaji: Goa has told the All India Football Federation (AIFF) that the lack of recognition at last week’s AIFF Awards has caused concern among its members.The Goa Football Association (GFA) did not receive any recognition at the annual ceremony in Bhubaneswar, prompting its president Caitano Fernandes to complain to AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey about the “skewed and unjustified manner” in which the AIFF Awards were selected.“It is disheartening when the contributions of those who are doing commendable work appear to be overlooked,” Caitano wrote to Chaubey in a letter on Tuesday. “In this regard, I must express my disappointment at the GFA not receiving any recognition at the AIFF Awards 2025.”At last year’s awards, Goa and Odisha were declared joint winners of the ‘Best MA for hosting most AIFF competitions’ award. This year Goa missed out, with West Bengal, Manipur, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Kerala and Punjab all winning awards, some of them more than one.The GFA has questioning the criteria used to determine the winners and requested detailed information regarding the criteria used for these awards and the composition of the committee that was entrusted with the selection process.“Understanding the basis upon which these award categories are decided is crucial for us to appreciate the recognition bestowed and to identify areas where we, as member associations, can strive for excellence,” said Caitano.The GFA argued its case with numbers.Caitano said Goa, with approximately 6,800 players registered on AIFF’s centralised registration system (CRS) out of a population of 15 lakh (roughly 1% of the state’s population) was overlooked for the winning members association (Maharashtra), whose registrations amount to 0.04% of its population (5 lakh out of a population of 127 million).“We feel that this is a very skewed method of identifying the winner in this category, because the smaller states will always fall behind even though technically football is more popular amongst the population,” said Caitano.According to GFA, Goa staged more than 1400 matches this season, which translates to 3.88 matches per day.“We are probably the only state that organises l6 leagues and have a well-structured youth competition, for both boys and girls, which was even commended by the League committee. GFA has also registered all of its leagues on CMS, probably the only state to do so. The association organises Third Division, Second Division, First Division and the Goa Professional League in the senior men's category and U-l3, U-l5, U-l7, U-l9 and U-2l in the boys category.“In the women's seniors, we organise the Women's League while also organising U-l3, U-l5 and U-17 girls Leagues. This is in addition to the Khelo India leagues and other privately organised tournaments. We also organise the men's futsal league,” said Caitano.The GFA said, for a state with an area of only 3,702 square kms and 15 lakh population, this is a huge number that cannot be ignored. “Goa also has a well-structured calendar and club structure with approximately 200 clubs registered which is one club every 18.75 square kilometres,” it was pointed out.