Alberto Colaco

Friday, 19. June 2009 - Sanjay Kumar

After serving for nearly eight and half years as the General Secretary of the All India Football Federation, Alberto Colaco has wished to resign from the post of General Secretary.

The 61 year old for whom football is all about passion hails from Goa has been asked by the acting President Praful Patel to name his successor before resigning completely from the post of General Secretary. He has been involved in a club by the name of Salcete FC in Goa for decades and will be actively working for the development of Indian football even after his resignation. He joined AIFF in December 2000 as an Honorary Secretary before becoming the General Secretary in December 2004 and has been a driving force in the development of the football in India along with the AIFF President Priya Ranjan Das Munshi.


Sanjay: Where do you see our football heading in the coming years?

Colaco: There is tremendous scope for football. According to me popularity wise Football is the second most popular sport in India. Football will get better and better in the coming years.

Sanjay: What do you see as our biggest problems? Is it the lack of infrastructure?

Colaco: Infrastructure isn’t the only problem for us but there are also problems like availability of sufficient amount of money and better human resource at all levels.

Sanjay: How important is our participation in the 2011 Asian Cup for the development of Indian football?

Colaco: it’s not only for the development of the Indian football but it is the most important thing that has happened in Indian Football after so many years. A decent performance in the Asia Cup 2011 will definitely promote the game in India especially for the better media coverage and fan following.

Sanjay: How do you see the state of the I-League?

Colaco: The I-League has become very competitive now. I am glad that this time we will have three new venues in the form of Shillong, Pune and Kerala. The I-League has spread its wings in the different parts of the country as the whole Northeast will come in support of Lajong FC while Viva Kerala will represent South India .There is still lots of thing that need to be bettered in order to have better I-League like availability of the venues and good facilities. Any country that has good league has got a good National Team. If the clubs meet the AFC requirements and the Government supports subsequently the I-League will get bigger and better.

Sanjay: We have an I-League team from Kerala in the form of Viva Kerala but there hasn’t been a Kerala State League over the past two years. How  is the AIFF going to look into this matter?

Colaco: AIFF can’t directly take action in this regard; we can only guide the State Association to work together for the development of football. The Kerala Vision Program is on and they will be formatting the Kerala State League.

Sanjay: You have expressed your wish to retire from the post of the AIFF General Secretary after serving the federation for so many years. What would you call your most memorable achievements as a General Secretary?

Colaco: There is nothing that I have achieved in particular. It’s totally a team effort and in total its AIFF achievement so far. If there are shortcomings in this case the responsibility falls on the President as well as on the General Secretary.

Sanjay: You have been asked by the acting AIFF president Praful Patel to name a suitable successor. Do you have any candidates in your mind and how should the profile of your successor look like?

Colaco: We will be putting the advertisement in the newspapers as well as on the website too. We will be interviewing lots of people and we may find people with better profile than what we are looking for. Apart from General Secretary we are also looking a CEO for the I-League.

Sanjay: Are you looking for an international AIFF solution or are there also 'outsiders' on the list?

Colaco: The field is open for all and we will consider the best option available to us.

Sanjay: What was the reason that you stepped down from the post of General Secretary?

Colaco: It is totally a personal reason to resign from the post of General Secretary. I think 8 years is too much time to work for the development of the football.

Sanjay: Will you completely retire from football? Or will you remain active in another position?

Colaco: I am never going to retire from the active football, football means a lot to me and has given a lot of returns and I will never say that I had to sacrifice anything for football. Football is all about passion to me and I have worked with the AIFF as Honorary Secretary when there was no money involved in the past. I got a club in the Goa namely Salcete Club from where players like Climax Lawrence , Clifford Miranda , Savio Medeira and Alvito D’Cunha has started their football career . We have teams under different age groups from Under-12 to first division teams.

Sanjay: Would you re-consider your decision to resign, if the search for a suitable successor fails?

Colaco: No. I will not. We have got lots of talent in India and hope we will get a good one.

Sanjay: Finally, what do you think about IndianFootball.Com and its work to promote the cause of Indian football over the last eleven years?

Colaco: I think whosoever is working for the promotion of Indian football needs to be appreciated but informatically IndianFootball.Com is very good!
I do check past record from IFC and gets the desired information whenever I have looked for it.

Sanjay: Thank you for the interview!