Goa Professional League: Sporting Clube docked points, allege foul play

Panaji: The ethics committee of the Goa Football Association has docked

Sporting Clube de Goa

three points and three goals from their 2019-20 tally when they emerged joint champions with Churchill Brothers FC.

The ethics committee held that there was “grave conflict of interest” for the match between Sporting Clube and Panjim Footballers and “therefore it is presumed that the match was in all probabilities fixed with the sole purpose of enabling Sporting Clube to top the table of

Goa Professional League

for the season 2019-20.”

The panel was investigating match-fixing in Goan football with six matches red-flagged in 2019-20.

While the panel said there were no indications to conclude possibility of match manipulation or match fixing pertaining to five matches due to unavailability of “material evidence”, Sporting’s clash against Panjim Footballers has been highlighted, largely due to Angelo Albuquerque being associated with both the teams as manager and executive committee member.

The panel said in its report that Panjim Footballers “may have underperformed due to undue influence of common management.”

Sporting Clube were incensed with the ethics panel decision announced by the GFA on Saturday.

“Sporting Clube intends to file an appeal or further proceedings to quash and set aside the order as it indirectly unnecessarily casts a shadow on the club and it is passed on surmises, which are termed as presumptions in the order,” club director Diogo Nathan Vaz said in a statement on Saturday. “The club is at a loss to understand why no action was taken in the matter of the other matches which were flagged off for the same reason as match fixing and why only match no 44 was picked up for inquiry.”

Vaz said the club has never indulged or encouraged any form of match fixing and have won three of the last five Goa Pro League titles clearly.

“There was no need for any match-fixing on the part of Sporting Clube. Also, the moment Anthony Vas received a message by Whatsapp requesting him to permit Panjim Footballers to lose by a margin of two or more goals, Anthony Vas lodged a police complaint so that the police could take immediate action and he did so in an attempt to thwart any match fixing,” said the club director.

Meanwhile the ethics panel also ruled that “under no circumstances could the GFA and/or its executive committee declare joint winners of a professional league that was abandoned due to an ongoing pandemic and with 13 matches yet to be played to conclude the tournament.”

Sporting Clube and

Churchill Bros

were declared joint winners of the league in 2020.


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