Kolkata: With 22 points from 15 matches Gokulam Kerala FC was all set to finish second in the I-League this season with East Bengal just a point ahead, having played one game more. But it wasn’t meant to be as the league had to be called off due to COVID-19 scare with Mohun Bagan declared as winners.
However, the heartbreaking finish to the league hasn’t dented the hopes and aspirations of the Gokulam Kerala FC top management as their President VC Praveen says they would want to win the I-League soon and then maybe think of taking the big leap into the Indian Super League (ISL).
When asked about the speculations surrounding Gokulam playing ISL, Praveen said in an exclusive interview to Sportslightmedia,” No, these I believe are rumours. Only because picking up everything and entering ISL doesn’t make any sense at all. Because be it ISL or I-League, they all are making losses only. We all are here for the passion of football, we will rather wait for a year or two and win the I- League and then come into ISL. Rather than investing so much of money and playing franchise football. It is not really worth it. Because all the ISL teams doing that are ending up badly so we don’t want to fall into that category.”
Gokulam presently are focusing on revamping their squad for the upcoming season, and for that they need a core team of strong individual Indian players. The Gokulam President threw light on some of these recent signings.
“Right now we have done our Indian signings. Definitely we had a good Indian side last season. We are trying to retain the Indian side of last season. This year only, we have signed Ronald Singh who had a good season with Neroca. We have also signed Zodingliana Ralte, Roshan Singh and Sayan Roy from TRAU. We have signed three Malayalis for this season one of them being Mohammad Asif. We have also roped in two players from Kerala Premier League Rishad Roshan and Faisal Rahman. So a total of six signings we have made. Our Indian signings are complete. We have shortlisted and prioritized foreigners. We are waiting to see when the season is starting because without that we cannot make a commitment with the foreigners. “
Until recently India have seen a surge and more focus on women’s football, speaking about Gokulam FC’s team, Praveen said,” Recently we had 2-3 months pre-season because of
I- league, also we prepared like that just before the league starts. We will have two months of pre-season. But this year we have plans to start a football academy across all districts of Kerala. We have become so popular that there had been requests from all the districts of Kerala to start an academy, plus a full-time academy for women in Cochin.
“We already have a tie-up with a college also, we should start soon once we are done with the agreement. Even girls who are from outside Kerala, who have missed education we have given them scope for that also. We said you can have education and coaching also, you don’t have to miss anything, you can go with both.“
Praveen was also questioned on what the game would be like, post the COVID-19 break. Replying to it, the veteran sports administrator added that he believed like other countries FIFA would advice AIFF to have the I-League matches inside closed doors with it being beamed live on television.
“This season we cannot predict what and when it will happen. Because I think this season, we will also be following the other countries, having closed-door football. Once they come up with the telecast, there wouldn’t be a problem, the fans can follow it because already everybody is enthusiastic, particularly due to lockdown. People are waiting for sports activity to start be it cricket or football,” he added.
