armstrongvazblogsfromgoa

Goan football gone, going…….. down the drain By Armstrong Vaz Goan football is heading towards turbulent times. The alarm bells were ringing for long. The intensity has increased and reached its peak. Wilred Leisure has opened the floodgates of what is forecasted to be a tsunami. Wilred’s pulling out from the ten-team Goa Professional League (GPL), which is due to start in August, is one of the first major setback for the new Executive Committee of Goa Football Association (GFA), which took charge on July 27. The club pulled a fast one on GFA.  The company-sponsored club has a past, which no one likes to have against its name – match-fixing.   In 2004, Curtorim Gymkhana, Sangolda Lighting Club, Wilred Leisure and Dona Paula SC brought shame to Indian and Goan football by fixing matches. Two matches played, one in South Goa and the other in North of the state, saw an astonishing 118 goals being scored, in the play-off matches of the second division. The clu

DFB development plan of 2000 - Germany’s path to success in Brazil Germany’s 2014 World Cup success has not come overnight. The national team has been building towards this excellence since 2000, when it could not advance from the group stage in the European tournament. The result of the fall out was a development plan.  A plan, which has had been identifying and training athletic youngsters in 366 districts. The system produced the wave of players in their mid-20’s who excelled in Brazil. The German system is important because there is a direct line from the development plan of the German federation, DFB, and some of the celebrity coaches from Germany plying their trade elsewhere.   Germany rarely needs a renewal not with three world cup won, but that does not mean success will come on a platter, they had to work hard for it. Germany’s surges ahead taking its core from the DFB program. The wealthy national league, the Bundesliga, has kept most national players at home, chall