ANTHONY D’COSTA TO RETIRE
IFRA ORGANIZES 8 A SIDE
FAREWELL TOURNAMENT
They say
‘Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard
work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority’ and this is
exactly how one can define Anthony D’Costa who will be retiring shortly from
Kuwait and returning to his beautiful home in Saligao – Goa after
having spent 34 glorious years in this wonderful country.
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| IFRA members offer a Plaque to Mr. Anthony D'Costa |
The
Indian Football Referees Association (IFRA) last week organized an Eight A Side
tournament at the Digital Grounds in Kuwait city to honour and appreciate Tony
(as he is popularly known) who qualified as a football referee in 1985 with
IFRA and served the Association with distinction and graduated to be a Class 1
referee over the years.
The one
day open tournament which was also officiated by IFRA officials and played from
7:30am till noon featured 16 teams including one Thai team, was eventually won
by DHL Kuwait who edged out Trissur Challengers in the tie
breaker after normal time of seven minutes each half had ended goalless. Skyden Boys, and CRC Chinchinim were the
losing semi-finalist while the other participating teams were Goa Maroons, Real
Betalbatim, Navelim, Saligao, Feni, Thailand, BM Viegas 8, Sparx, Indian
Strikers, Don Bosco Oratory, Indians and Kerala Rising Stars.
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| The glittering trophies |
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| Tony D'Costa being introduced to the finalists |
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| Both the finalists pose for a pic with Tony D'Costa |
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| Tony giving the kick off before the start of the final |
During
the presentation ceremony, an emotional Tony D’Costa was in tears while
speaking about his many years in Kuwait.
He came to Kuwait in 1978 and first played for the famous Goan Sporting
Club that won the first Indian soccer tournament organized in Kuwait, “the
United Goans Trophy”, for two years consecutively. Tony than went on to play for Incredible XI before forming his own team ‘Saligao
Sporting’ and for a few years conducted the popular Ramadan inter-village
tournament as well.
Newly
elected president of IFRA, Francis Fernandes paid glowing tributes to Tony and
appreciated his many years of dedicated service to the Association. He presented Tony with a plaque while senior
members Diago Rebello and Junifer Rodrigues presented him with a gold chain on
behalf of the Federation. Separate mementos
were also presented to Tony D’Costa by Salvador Dias and B.M. Viegas.
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| Referee Michael and Assistants Simon and Jose - officiated the final |
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| Could not hold back the tears |
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| IFRA President Francis Fernandes presents a plaque to Tony |
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| Junifer and Diago presenting Tony with a memento from IFRA |
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| Andy by his father's side as Tony makes an emotional speech |
Besides
the winners, runners up trophies and individual trophies to the finalists, trophies were also given for the best defender
(John of DHL), best midfielder (Barbosa DHL) best forward (Hemant of DHL)and
best goalkeeper ( Sainudeen of Trissur Challengers). IFRA is grateful to Vijay Gonsalves, Ibrahim
Sohafi of Habchi & Chaloub and Talat
El Kaasamani for sponsoring the various trophies and to Nikush, Fr. Franco Pereira sdb, Simon
Anthony, Lloyd D’Souza and all other members and well wishers who helped make
the farewell occasion a very memorable one.
Julio
Cardoso
1 comment:
thanks julio
god bless
fr franco sdb
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