Tags:
Journalism of Courage
It8217;s two months since that tragic Sunday but it8217;s inevitable that when Dempo take on Mohun Bagan in their National Football League match tomorrow, football will be on the sidelines. Though the teams try to focus on the game, they are aware 8212; as are the fans, club officials, media and police 8212; that it8217;s all about Cristiano Junior.
From SMS to bar-room conversation to even the jersey Dempo will wear tomorrow see box, Junior looms larger than life. Sosegad, the famously laid-back atmosphere, has been replaced by an edge that eats into the sea air.
Junior died after a collision with Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Subrata Paul during the Federation Cup final in Bangalore on December 5 last year.
Though Paul was tried and convicted by the public and the media, the All-India Football Federation handed him a ban that keeps him out of tomorrow8217;s match.
That punishment hasn8217;t appeased too many down these parts and there is a threat of some kind of violence. Consider this SMS doing the rounds among Dempo fans: 8216;8216;Dear friend, please come on February 1 to cheer Goan football club and condemn the act of Subrata Paul and Mohun Bagan. We will prove that we are united 8212; today, tomorrow and always.8217;8217;
In any case, the stadium should be packed by fans still grieving for Junior. 8216;8216;We knew of his on-field brilliance8217;8217;, says Stanley Gomes 56, a regular at every Dempo home match. 8216;8216;We were hoping to see more of him at home. We8217;ve been deprived and gives me enough reason to be at the match.8217;8217;
Aware of the potential for trouble, the Goa Football Association GFA has been working on defusing the situation. 8216;8216;Anything is possible8217;8217;, says GFA secretary Savio Messias. 8216;8216;We don8217;t foresee any problems for Mohun Bagan in Goa but we have to be on guard.8217;8217; The GFA 8212; which has placed the visitors under 24-hour security 8212; called an executive committee meeting last night and asked Dempo to appeal to its supporters not to create any confusion or problem during the match.
Dempo had already swung into action, placing ads in local papers over the weekend appealing to fans to forget the incident at Bangalore. Says Dempo secretary-cum-coach Armando Colaco, 8216;8216;We are doing everything in our capacity to see the match through. If appeals help, so be it.8217;8217;
Colaco prefers to talk football. 8216;8216;No tension and no pressure,8221; he says at the club8217;s training ground in Taleigao. 8216;8216;We will play Bagan in the spirit of the game and seek victory.8217;8217;
For team captain Stanley Colaco, forgetting is hard. 8216;8216;It will obviously haunt us for a long time.8217;8217; Then adds, philosophically, 8216;8216;Perhaps it8217;s time for us to learn to face the truth.8217;8217;
That would help Mohun Bagan, who have been trying to pretend this is all about football. Coach Subroto Bhattacharya said: 8216;8216;There is no enmity. All this enmity has been created by a section of the Kolkata press. In fact we are not giving our Goa matches any special treatment. It is just like any other match.8217;8217;
One has to get on with the game, he says. 8216;8216;There is no sense in harping on issues that do not concern us Bagan directly. Junior8217;s death was accidental, it was proved, and there should be no doubts about that during the match.8217;8217;
If he really believes that, Bhattacharya is in for a rude shock tomorrow.
