Dale D’Souza

 

Dale: My name is Dale D’souza, I am a qualified Human Resource Trainer and I run a Management Consulting firm called H.R. Options - We Specialize in Executive Search and Training Management.

I have been passionate about football right from my school days in the early 80’s and I’ve followed ‘Club Football’ at the domestic and International level for the last decade.

In 2004 we set up ‘HR OPTIONS’ and decided that part of our profits would be utilized for sports promotion and youth development in our locality.

The objective to promote sports was to get the Youth to engage themselves in healthy activities as well as facilitate growth through a variety of Human Resource techniques like Team Building, Leadership, Organising Social Events and Tournaments.

 

Harmit: What was the purpose behind choosing football specifically and sports in general as an area that you wanted to focus upon?

 

Dale: As part of our ‘CSR  plan’ – i.e. Corporate Social Responsibility plan we felt that Football was the best option to begin our ‘Sports Initiative’  as I am very passionate about football.

 

A Brief Background on Sporting Options F.C: We started the club with just two members (a young student called Salil K Pereira and myself) Salil Pereira a keen sportsman  had just completed his schooling (S.S.C.)  in March 2005.

Our roles were very clearly defined (Salil would rope in his friends to come together and play for the Team and my firm HR OPTIONS would sponsor and manage the side).

Sporting Options was officially launched on the 30th March 2005, by May 2005 we got a few players to come and practice at our local ground & on the 13th June 2005 – we played our first rink football tournament (in the 5 + 3 format) wearing the HR OPTIONS Jerseys – it was a memorable day for all of us – as the entire group of eight boys was very exited to play their first match as a newly formed team led by ‘Salil K. Pereira’.

Harmit: What kind of players are members of the Sporting Options team? What was the journey like from being a small team that starts from playing rink football to playing in the third division in the Mumbai District FA?

 

Dale: We have 22 players registered with the club – 60% of them are students in Junior and Degree College, the rest of the players are working youth.

Currently the youngest player of our team is a 16 year old Grade Eleven Student and the oldest player in our team is our goalkeeper who is 28 years old and professionally works with a Multinational firm.

 

Today we have a Committee comprising of players of our team i.e. Pranay Gohil (Team Secretary and Sports Co-Ordinator), Vivian D’souza – Team Captain, Zinho Carvalho (Goalkeeper), Selvin Dias, Roger Pereira, Elvis D’souza – the team is currently managed by the undersigned.

 

Our Journey from a ‘Rink Football side to playing  at the MDFA (Mumbai District Football Association)  over a period of time – we got more players to register with our club and we put up our first (4th Division) MDFA Side (snap enclosed – our team wearing white Jerseys).

 

Our first Season 2006/07 – The  entire team comprised of college students only and coached by Nikhil Fonseca (who was a student pursuing his Management studies and is currently based in Australia), none of our players played including the Coach played for any other MDFA side in the past – so there was an element of awe, nervousness and of course excitement to do well, we won our first 3 games on the trot… we missed qualifying for the playoffs but were happy to win 5 games out of 8 games.

 

The Second Season 2007/08 – we did very well in the League Games – topping our Pool (we won 7 games and drew 1 game) and lost in the 4th division playoffs, but got promoted to the 3rd division.

 

In the 08/09 (3rd) season this year (MDFA 3rd division league) we evaluated our past performances and worked hard towards improving our overall approach our efforts paid good dividends - we were tipped to win the 3rd division league this season – even the officials at the MDFA were very impressed with the way the players beat the opposition in the league - we  missed the finals  by a ‘whisker’ going out to the eventual winners on Penalties (we lost the game in the sudden death) final score 5-4… the team was disappointed – but Winning the 3rd place – was definitely a ‘consolation’ which again we won on Penalties.

 

Our Current performance in the 3rd division has helped us attract a lot of local talent for our forthcoming season at the MDFA as we are now promoted to the 2nd division – we do plan to have ‘trials’ this year to ensure that we get the best 22 players (the emphasis would also be on attendance for practices, discipline and the willingness to learn).

 

Harmit: You also have interest in promoting other sports other than football? How realistic is that given the poor infrastructure in India?

 

Dale: In Mumbai – most sports suffer due to lack of space and proper training opportunities – but thanks to the keen interest of the players all across our city that we optimally utilise all the open spaces we have – be it a small private parks/municipal parks or church/school grounds that youngsters play a variety of sports – from ‘gully Cricket/Hockey//Football etc.

We do have a keen interest in promoting other sports as well – but for the moment we plan to focus on ‘football’, our key focus this year is to get promoted to the 1st division in the 2010/11 MDFA Season.

At the same time we’ve begun our efforts in promoting sports related to Athletics and Badminton at the grass root level. We have already started a dialogue with a few people involved with these sports and should make forays into these two disciplines in the near future.

 

 

Harmit: Have the local children shown interest in football? Do you see real demand for learning football among children in the city?

 

Dale: The local children and the youth of our locality have shown a lot of interest especially at ‘local football  tournaments’ –  its difficult to sustain their interest on a long term basis as most of them like to play only competitive matches (they aren’t keen on coming to regular practices).

At Sporting Options – we insist on Team Practices – regardless of the talent the player possesses – if he doesn’t come for regular practice – we don’t register the player in the team – we’ve lost a lot of good players in the process, but for every few players we loose – we also gain a few committed players – who want learn and train hard in order to do well in the sport.

There surely is a demand for Learning the game – but like I’ve stated earlier – it’s very difficult to sustain their interest as many of them take up the sport as a form of recreation and are not keen to pursue sports as a career.

 

Harmit: What are some of the biggest challenges that you think are holding back children from learning football properly in a city like Mumbai?

 

Dale: The budding players and their parents do not see sports as a full time career – most of the players priorities change – by and large children prefer pursuing Academics and then moving on to studying for their Graduation/Business Management/Engineering/Architecture/Medicine/Chartered Accountancy etc.

 

Harmit: What more can official bodies do to promote the game both within the masses (especially children) and at the corporate level and within the media?

 

Dale: Its very important to have ‘strong and committed’ leadership who not only have a passion for Promoting Football, but they should have a ‘systematic plan’ to spread the awareness sports across all levels especially in the rural areas of India – there is a lot of talent available in India and that talent needs to be tapped through consistent efforts and proper utility of ‘Grants/Funds available from International Sports Federations/NGO’s etc.

Corporate Firms and the Media should cohesively work together and devise ways and means to promote the sport in an ‘organized’ manner… In the past few years there has been considerable improvement – but we still are at the ‘tip of the iceberg’… we should have several ‘Football Academies/Football nurseries’ across different parts of India’.

Corporate Firms and the Media should insist that the Overall Sports Administration needs to be ‘transparent’ on all ‘financial transactions – each and every football federation should be in able to justify their expenses incurred on promotion of the game in Metros/Urban and Rural Areas… on all the grants/sponsorship they receive from the Government/International Federations/Corporate Firms/Individual Sponsors etc.

It is very important that All Federations should have a proper plan in place on what are the funds required to promote the sport further, ensure that the Government gives them the funds and they in turn should effectively allocate these ‘resources’ for development of the Sport… the more clarity we have on our objectives – the easier it is to promote the sport.

 

Harmit: Were you aware of IndianFootball.Com prior to this interview? What are your thoughts on this initiative?

 

Dale: I am aware of IndianFootball.Com and I am proud of the efforts you have put in to reach out to football fans across the world… Kudos to the founding members of this initiative and the tireless work all of you have put in to promote ‘Indian Football’.

We at Sporting Options F.C. are honoured to be interviewed by your esteemed website… God Bless all of U… Do keep in touch,

 

P.S. – For any information on our firm – pls. log on to www.hroptions.biz

 

Harmit: Thank you for talking to us!