Fr Agnel Ashram Verna Goa, Youth Champions League winners yet to receive prize money

Youth Champions League winners yet to receive prize money

By Armstrong Vaz

Margao : The Youth Champions League was dubbed as ‘India’s biggest youth tournament’ but it turned out to be contrary. Instead the badly organized show lowered the image of Goan and Indian football in the eyes of the public.

That’s not the end. It has now emerged that some of the schools and clubs teams which took part in the tournament are yet to receive the prize money, almost a year passed after the tournament ended at the Nehru Stadium on October 28.

Fr. Agnel Ashram Higher Secondary School Verna, is one team which participated and won the top honours, who are yet to receive the winner’s purse of Rs.50,000 which is due to them.

“We are yet to receive the prize money. We paid Rs.12,000 as entry fee and we were promised Rs 50,000- as winners which was mentioned in the entry form which was given to us, but sadly we are yet to receive it,” informed Ivan D’Sa Physical Education teacher at the school, a champion athlete from Goa himself during his college days.

Another Goan club Salgaocar Sports Club, who won the Under-15 tournament, had their dues clear after a long gap of five months.

“After some follow up from our side, we were paid for the same,” informed a Salgaocar Sports Club official.

Some of the outstation schools who were charged Rs.15,00 per player also felt the heat of the organizers not clearing the dues in time, one such school was Jain International residential School Bangalore.

“Yes it was eventually paid around 2/3 months after the end of the tournament,” informed Hugh Kim Lewis, the English football coach at the school. The Bangalore school finished third in the under-17 category. “We had to pay around Rs15000 for each player as an appearance fee to participate and we had 12 players in total. I have no problem about paying that but they should be keeping their word. It was clearly written in the tournament document that the third-placed team will get Rs 21000.

The tournament which was contested by school teams from different parts of India saw participation from some of the leading clubs of Goa along with some prominent schools from the state.

The final of the tournament was graced by Portuguese football star Luis Figo and the cultural show which was part of the tournament turned out to be flop event.

The poor turnout of around 5000 people for an exhibition match involving Figo  was much talked about, as the organisers were heavily criticised for failing to publicise the event.

Figo’s appearance marked the finale of the YCL, a seven-a-side youth tournament involving 256 teams from Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Bangalore in three age-groups (U-12, U-14 and U-17) with boys and girls involved, but the poor organisation totally overshadowed the even

In the meantime most of the officials who were with the company and have taken new jobs, Vinit Rughani, head, business development of Red9 Events is one of them.

“First things  first. I no longer hold any position in Red9 events private limited. But as per my knowledge during my time at company itself almost all the winners were paid their due so do not know whom are you talking about. I would still suggest connecting to existing team at YCLl through Facebook or email. They shall surely be of help,” said Vinit.

But the YCL site has since closed it emerged if one clicks on the links provided by Vinit.

Another person who has quit the company is Sagar Dessai. Dessai was paart of the company which organized the show.

Henal Pandya, PR head of the red 9 events which organised the Youth Champions League in Goa did not respond to the emails and phone calls.

The mismanagement of affairs also did not go well with India’s top musician and Goa’s own Remo Fernandes, who performed at the show and who criticized the organisers for the badly slip shod organizing.

The organizers, Red 9 Events, a Mumbai based event management refused to pay Remo the promised sum for performing at the show and the Goan star have since filed a court case against them for bounced cheque.

“That is absolutely true (court case). I have not been paid for the special song I was commissioned to compose for the event. I've taken them to Court, you know how these bounced cheque matters drag out here,” said Remo.