Organisers who brought Luis Figo to Goa yet to pay prize money to winning teams

The poor turnout of around 5000 people for an exhibition match involving Luis Figo in Goa in November was much talked about, as the organisers of the Youth Champions League (YCL) were heavily criticised for failing to publicise the event.

Figo’s appearance marked the finale of the YCL, a seven-a-side youth tournament involving 256 teams from Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Bangalore in three age-groups (U-12, U-14 and U-17) with boys and girls involved, but the poor organisation totally overshadowed the event.

The credibility of the event can now be further questioned as none of the prize winners, mostly school teams, are yet to receive their prize money although almost seven weeks have passed since the completion of the tournament.

Hugh Kim Lewis, technical sports consultant of Jain International Residential School in Bangalore, who were one of the participating teams and finished third in the U-17 category, revealed to Sportskeeda, “The tournament finished on November 1st and we are still waiting for our prize money. What annoys me more is that they are not replying to our emails, text messages and not answering our calls also. Probably they are hoping that we will get tired eventually and stop calling.”

The former Royal Wahingdoh coach spoke further about the event and described how the tournament itself was organised in shambolic manner.

“We had to pay around Rs15000 for each player as an appearance fee to participate and we had 12 players in total. I have no problem about paying that but they should be keeping their word. It was clearly written in the tournament document that the third-placed team will get Rs 21000.

“They were supposed to hand us the cheques after the final itself. But the prize distribution ceremony turned out to be a farce as the winners and runners-up received their trophies and nothing else. Even the organisation was poor because I remember the instance when we are asked to report to the ground at 9am for our match only to be informed later that our kick-off is 2:30pm in the afternoon.

“The kids need to have proper meals you know and this kind of mismanagement makes it very difficult for them to grow. I am not someone who has a go at people but this kind of attitude from the organisers pushes back Indian football,” he added.

Henal Pandya, PR head of the YCL and Red9 Events, the company responsible for getting him to Goa, though denied claims that they have not been answering calls of prize winners and stated that the prize money is being gradually sent to the winning teams.

“We are in touch with all winners all the time and are gradually sending the prize money. There was a problem with the transaction that is why there has been a delay but we are taking care of it,” Pandya told Sportskeeda.

She cited inexperience when asked about the lack of publicity the event got, as very few came to watch former World Player of the Year Figo.

“We are based in Mumbai and it was our first event of this kind so we didn’t know exactly whom to approach and how to go about,” she said.

It remains to be seen how long the enthusiastic young footballers have to wait to receive the prize money that they deserve.