I bow down my head with respect and admiration in front of United Goans Center for initiating competitive soccer for Indians 34 years back. It was in 1979 the first ever competitive inaugural soccer tournament was organised by UG then called as United Goans Football Center and it was played on League-Cum-Knock-Out basis and this system lasted till the invasion of Kuwait. The venue for these soccer activities was the popular Sour Grounds in Kuwait city and in the beginning games were played in the afternoons. There were two grounds, one was next to the new Masjid where the inaugural match was played between the then mighty team Goan Sporting and Salmiya Youth of Peter D;Souza; the latter was captained by me and we defeated the former by two goals without reply. Incidentally, Goan Sporting later on reached to the final and won it by defeating the then mighty UG.
With a break of one year because of invasion of Kuwait in 1990-1991 season, UG restarted their tournament after the liberation of Kuwait on Knock-Out-Basis discarding the old League system. During those early days UG in its rank had gigantic players many of them were senior divisioners in Goa. Also in its committee there were well known soccer crazy members headed by Antonio Lawrence Fernandes as its president from Siolim Bardez, Goa, who once was an ace player of Goa representing the then mighty Goan outfit “Lube Football Club” a first divisioner during the glorious soccer era of Goa under Portuguese rule when top teams were dotted with highly talented Portuguese footballers of which type we don’t see now anywhere in India.
The president of UG Antonio Lawrence Fernandes was associated as gigantic members in UG Committee by Tony Gonsalves from Divar, F.X. Joe D’Souza from Assagao Bardez, late Diogo Gomes from Bastora, late Custodio Fernandes from Navelim, late Joe Fernandes from Colva and others. All these committee members have played an excellent role in the promotion of UG soccer activities in particular and football promotion in general among Goans in particular and Indians and expatriates in general. To achieve their goals they faced gruelling time spending their precious hours after their work, depriving many facilities for them and for their loving families. Also they spent their personal money for this cause. At that moment it looked for many that they are doing foolish thing but later on and now it came to be realised that it was something extraordinary what they did which had impressive effect.
To do what they did especially in the beginning they faced lot of obstacles and problems and rightly or wrongly faced lot of criticism for either doing things rightly or maliciously. While embarking on this job many times they were not flawless yet their flaws were all forgotten because of the good this work contained. It is not only football that has benefited from UG’s initiative but in the name of soccer also other aspects of the community especially of Goan community benefited. Because of this soccer lot of boys got jobs and made their future strong; lot of boys got Visas for them and for their dependents and many more received financial benefits. But above all because of this soccer innumerable boys got identity in society with their social status reaching high. Because of this soccer unknown persons isolated from society became sociable creatures by becoming office bearers of their Clubs and Teams. Within a night so to say they became heroes otherwise they were first class zeroes confined to their work areas only where many of them were only the Monarchs of what they surveyed within the four walls of the work areas and work jurisdiction.
The final of the first edition (also of 2nd edition) in 1979 was played at Ahmadi KOC ground between UG and Goan Sporting. It was attended by a huge crowd mainly Goans dotted with other Indians who came from all parts of Kuwait. It was a sea of spectators attending a huge occasion organised by Goans under the Goan organisation The United Goans Football Center popularly known as UG.
In the inaugural tournament there were around 10 participating teams out of which five were really strong namely UG, Goan Sporting, Starlite Goans, Salmiya Youth and Friends Club of Salmiya. All these five teams in their ranks had at least one highly talented stalwart worth admiring. For example in UG it was Alcantro Barreto ex Salgaocar, in Goan Sporting it was Cajetan Godinho, in Starlite Goans it was Charlie ex Mahindra Bombay, in Salmiya Youth it was me an ex Sesa Goa and in Friends Club Salmiya it was Julio Cardos under their bar.
It is nice to see the legacy of UG is still maintained by different clubs by organising their own tournaments under the auspices of Kuwait Indian Foot-ball Federation which came into existence much later. KIFF came into being on fertile soil created by UG. It was UG’s initiative that helped other tournament organisers to come forward to give further push to UG’s initiative. We can forget anything and everything but never the good work UG did in initiating our soccer activities in this part of the world where life for us is not easy and cosy.
According to my observation since our soccer activities are shifted from Sour grounds the interest in foot-ball is become less. In fact earlier there was lot of interest in footballers as well as spectators but now not much. Now organising a tournament is become very expensive because everybody is charging his fees, namely for Ground, for Referees and others. Besides Sour ground was very accessible for everyone while the present venue is too far from Kuwait city. Taking all aspects into consideration I can say our soccer will not die a slow death but survive lame footedly because it lacks former enthusiasm shown by earlier people involved in its promotion.
While concluding I wish UG and all its members who worked so hard to finish this season's edition on last Friday 25.01.13 so successfully, all the best.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
