By Mark Baber
March 14 – The Indian State of Goa is holding a football conference on March 15-16 to further develop the coastal state as the ‘gateway to football’ in India.
Last March the Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar announced in his budget speech that football would be the official state sport for the Indian State of Goa and Dr Rufino Monteiro appointed as Chair of the Goa Football Development Council [http://gfdc.in/gift/ ]
Last month India’s first professional Beach Soccer Championship was held in Goa and this week the ‘Goa International Football Table’ (GIFT) has been announced.
At the conference, Goa’s draft ‘Football Policy’ will be unveiled by Parrikar.
Topics to be covered in conference sessions include how to improve infrastructure at grassroots level, building on Goa’s footballing culture to develop talent, the role of football in human development, marketing and sponsorship and how to develop talent able to participate in the world’s top leagues.
An impressive array of speakers have been lined up including Kushal Das, General Secretary, All India Football Federation, Wim Koevermans, Coach, Indian Football Team, Shrinivas Dempo, Chairman, Dempo Sports Club, Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan, Sports Editor/Senior Presenter, Neo Sports, Sundeep Misra, Head, Sports Initiatives, Network 1, Dr. Robin Petersen, CEO, South African Football Association, Joan Cusco, Executive Vice-President, FIFA Beach Soccer World Wide, Mohamed Basir, Coach Education Department, R Sasikumar, Group MD, Red Card Group, Agnello Dias, Chairman & Co-Founder, Taproot, Hass Aminian, Director of New Business Development for Asia Pacific, Sportfive International, Arunava Chaudhuri, Chief Editor rs1.tv/ Sports Commentator, Raj Gomes of Salgaocar Sports Club, Joshua Lewis, CEO, Kenkre Football Academy, Peter Vaz, President, Sporting clube de Goa, Porush Jain, CEO Sportskeeda, Valanka Alemao, CEO Churchill Bros SC, PK Mukherjee, MD, Vedanta SESA FA, Mr Mariano Barretto, UEFA Pro License Coach, Sioulas Anastasios – Coach, SESA GOA FC and Vinod Parkott, President, Vasco SC.
Other features of the conference include awards for those Goans who have contributed to football, a football parade which will include celebrity players like Sunil Chhetri, Inder Singh, Magan Singh, Syed Naeemuddin, Suneil Shetty and well-known football freestylist, Jestes Antony who will be showing off his ‘tekkers’.
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