Lusofonia Games medals given not just to players, but also to kit boy and interpreter

The victorious Goa-India football team at the Lusofonia Games

Although the Lusofonia Games medals were one of the most expensive ever bought for a multi-discipline sporting event in the country, they were apparently handed out to all and sundry in a rather careless departure from the norm.

The Goa-India football team, which put in a brilliant performance to win the gold medal in the football event, were given 28 medals even though the team comprised only 20 players. The rest of the gold medals were handed out without reason to team officials, which included a kit boy and even the interpreter!

According to a TOI report, Francisco Miguel Neto (coach), Sanjiv Nagvenkar (manager), Roberto Fernandes (assistant coach), Richard Sanches (goalkeeper’s coach), Lino Pereira (physical trainer), Sandesh Gadekar (physiotherapist), Uday Lingudkar (interpreter) and Andre Menezes (kit boy) all had gold medals around their necks after Goa’s memorable 3-2 victory over Mozambique in the gold medal match at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda.

The practice of handing out medals to the members of the support staff at the Lusofonia Games is in sharp contrast to the regulations at the Olympic Games where nobody except the players are given the pride of wearing the medals around their necks. Even the head coach of the team does not have the luxury of taking home a hallowed medal.

“As far as the Olympic movement is concerned, officials are never given any medals. Only the winning athletes are honoured. There is no norm of giving medals to officials, certainly not to interpreters and kit boys,” said Goa Olympic Association secretary Gurudatta Bhakta.

Lusofonia Games competitions manager (football), Anil Kamat, also expressed bemusement at the long list of officials who were handed gold medals.

“The Lusofonia Games is not held under any organization like the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and FIFA, in football. They had their own rules,” said Kamat, director (competitions) with the All India Football Federation.

Clearly, the ‘own rules’ that the Lusofonia Games organizers followed didn’t have much regard for the money spent on the medals or the value of the pride associated with them.