Before coming to Kuwait for employment while I was in Goa doing my studies at Arpora first and then St. Xaviers College at Mapusa and being a very good footballer I was reading lot of Kuwait soccer especially when Kuwait employed the services of world best Brazilian coach Mario Zagallo immediately after the 1974 World Cup. Zagallo was brought to Kuwait with a world record fee of 10 thousand dollars per month with everything found. Since this was the case I was more impressed by the development of Kuwait soccer. I was longing to be in Kuwait so that I can play there for any big club in Kuwait’s League and other Kuwaiti soccer tournaments organised by Kuwait Football Federation. Though I was keeping track of Kuwaiti soccer yet I was ignorant of the real fact that this soccer is only for Kuwaiti citizens. When I came to Kuwait I was very happy but when I enquired I was shocked to know that expatriates are not allowed in Kuwaiti soccer and Kuwaitis alone can register in Kuwaiti soccer. All my hopes of playing top soccer in Kuwait gone down and my ambitions collapsed. My thoughts remained thoughts only. It was like what we say in Konkani “Chintnam Zalint Sopnam”.
There were two great soccer players in Kuwait playing for Kuwaiti National Team and both of them were expatriates, one was Lebanese Tarabulsi and the other an Egyptian Fati Kameel. Both were exceptionally talented and skilful; Tarabulsi was a goalkeeper who even received offers from Brazil and the other was Fati Kameel a forward, a very good dribbler like having magnet to his feet. His style of playing and dribbling was like that of the great Frenchman Tigana of Eighties. Kuwait has not yet produced such great players, both of them represented Kuwait National Team in the World Cup in Spain 1982. However, before they were inducted into Kuwaiti Soccer and in the National team, they were conferred with Naturalised citizenship making them a way to represent Kuwait.
Among the expatriates in Kuwait, Goans are known to be great lovers of soccer. It is not that other nationalities and other communities are less, in fact they are more but we Goans are making big noise of our soccer thru media. Many of the expatriates in Kuwait know thru Goans that in India people play foot-ball also otherwise Indians are known to play Hockey and Cricket. Even in Kuwaiti society there is an impression that Indians are very poor in soccer. In fact, India is very poor and backward in soccer while Kuwait and other Gulf countries reached to very high level. Kuwait played in the Olympics soccer and World Cup besides at Asian soccer Kuwait created a strong mark for itself while Indians are very backward. India with the current rate of development will not even dream to represent in the World Cup. While the rating of India is so low, we Goans in Kuwait are depicting our image as so high.
Earlier I was supplying the news of Indian soccer activities in Kuwait to both the local English Dailies. Reading my news the Sports Editor of Arab Times, Mr. Porter a British was getting astonished. To confirm for himself what I write is deservingly correct, he one day personally came to watch our soccer at Sour Ground and immediately made up his mind telling me “it is only on paper a reader is getting an inflated image of your soccer”. In fact our soccer that we play in Kuwait is very low compared to what we play in Goa, we play soccer in Kuwait as a means of past-time or for recreation and many of us to gain cheap prominence because local English Press is very considerate in allowing lot of coverage for our soccer with photos many times of cheap publicity seekers.
One of my reasons to give enormous promotion for our soccer since its inception in 1979 in Kuwait was to get employment opportunities to many of our young footballers who have no godfathers to employ them in good organisations with good salary. We do not have professional clubs and organisations to employ footballers but we have some people working in good positions in their companies. Since they run their teams they try to use their influence to get employment in their companies for good footballers who then play for their teams. Peter D’Souza of Bosh and the late Willie Gomes of Tanagra were known to have helped many Goan footballers in getting jobs in their organisations since both were holding good posts in their companies. Peter D’Souza was for Salmiya Youth first and later on for G.O.A. Maroons while Willie Gomes for Goan Sporting.
Though our soccer is big for us here especially for those who are directly and indirectly involved in it yet the overall standard of our soccer is that of what we play in “Xetan” in Goa. At moment the soccer what we play in Xetan in Goa brings us closer to each other and one another thereby creating a strong and lasting bond between and among us. But in Kuwait unfortunately many times more rifts are created among us because of this soccer. When there is a conflict due to the rivalry on the field the end result turns out to be like Indo-Pak War. Most of the conflicting acts and rivalries took place when our soccer activities were conducted at Sour Ground because rowdies used to take benefit of the chaotic situation to carry forward their rowdism. Since last 4 years Sour Ground is closed and our activities are shifted elsewhere. However, unfortunately what damage this soccer has done for Goan unity during the last 4 years was much more and much disastrous than all the preceding years at Sour Ground because few Goans have mortgaged their Goan pride into the hands of non-Goans who were instrumental in creating rifts among Goans from the time of the formation of Kuwait Indian Foot-ball Federation.
Many of the third grade Goans in Kuwait are involved in running our soccer here. People known as professional Drunkards are on forefront, people leading an immoral life deserting their wives are playing major role and the corrupt persons promoting the interests of the corrupt Goan politicians are fully immersed in our soccer activities. They get from corrupt Goan politicians lakhs of rupees looted from Goans in Goa. Why such third graded Goans are so deeply involved in our soccer? It is only to get cheap prominence in public life, to get their photos appeared in the media thereby falsely depicting them as heroes of the Goan community. In fact none among them is a real hero, they are all first class Zeroes for this reason they opt for soccer activities which fetch them good dividends in cheap publicity. This is good for cheap Goans for cheap Tamasha. Undignified Goans alone crave for such cheap publicity because there is no other way for them to gain limelight. This type of cheap publicity better seen during the prize distribution ceremony and when introducing the players to the chief guest when all the Goan Ladrus & Pedrus are unnecessarily also seen in the “Q” to shake hands with the players.
When you observe their movement during the soccer matches they give an impression that they are running the affairs of FIFA. If you see their faces on the photographs in the media they look like the organisers of World Cup. In fact they are nothing when out of Kuwait. This place is the best place for such people to make their presence felt and to identify themselves as somebody in somebody’s land. Once they are in Goa for good, they will be drowned in the ocean as drops of water like their predecessors who are living their retired life in Goa as unknown entities.
According to my information, those who are promoting the names and images of corrupt Goan politicians in Kuwait are receiving lot of looted money from the corrupt Goan politicians. Every person especially players playing for the teams patronised by the corrupt Goan politicians should refrain from associating with such teams because there will be cursed on such teams since they are financed by the cursed money looted from the Goans by the corrupt Goan politicians.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
