The story of Panvel Sports Club

Written by Antonio J Botelho

(The writer was secretary of Panvel SC and was at the helm of the club’s affairs from 1969 to 1974 when he became secretary of the Goa Football Association )


A reunion of players and officials of Panvel Sports Club from 1965, when the club was formed, to 1977 when it wound up, is being held next month on the 45th anniversary of its famous Bandodkar Gold Trophy triumph in 1974.

Not many know the story of a club which presented Goan football with several outstanding players. It’s a combination of circumstances that began prior to 1967. That is when referee Bernardino Velho set me on the path of football reporting for a local newspaper. That same season, my favourite team, Academica, were demoted from the Goa First Division and Panvel Sports Club of Sao Pedro were promoted.

Besides providing moral support to Panvel’s then boss, the late Laximikant Bandodkar, and occasionally suggesting that he rope in some of Academica’s players to try and help the team stay in the First Division, I was not involved in the Panvel team matters. The team could not, however, avoid relegation.

The new Academica

Here came the first twist in this tale; relegation was not to the Second Division but to a newly-created First Division, the top league having been re-christened Senior Division. After Academica were relegated, I had expected them to participate in the Second Division, but the team official had decided against it and the season passed.

I was studying at Dhempe College. FX De Souza was football coach of the college and had to go to Bombay (now Mumbai) for refereeing examinations. The Inter-Collegiate tournament loomed ahead. Prof Frank Antao called me to his office and said I should be knowledgeable, considering I was a football journalist and asked that I help field the team.

Dhempe College won the Inter-Collegiate football tournament for the first time. Enthused, several of the players wanted the team should be fielded in the Second Division league. I went to the GFA on the last day for submission of entries. I planned to register the team as Academica.

At the GFA office, I met Laximikant who suggested I field the team as Panvel which would be in the First Division. That is why initially Panvel played in black – the same as Academica. Later, post-1974, a regulation was brought in that the colour black was reserved for referees and Panvel had no choice but change to other colours.

Eventually only one of the Dhempe College team players could join, others being denied NOCs by their clubs or having better prospects with other teams. I had to fall back on quasi-retired veterans and inexperienced players from Ribandar for the first league match which we lost to Calangute Gymkhana 1-2.

Another staunch Academica supporter, Bruno Tavares, then came to my assistance, helping sign Francisco Sardinha, Gabriel D’Silva and Constantino Teles from Curtorim. The late Anacleto D’Silva brought in Vital Rodrigues and Prakash Naik. Former Academica players John Coutinho, Vallabh Sancoalcar, Olavo Pereira and Vassudev Naik also signed and Panvel qualified for the playoffs.

Discovering Brahmanand

We still finished second to Merces Club in the playoff league, but since two teams were promoted, Panvel were back in the upper division. The next season started badly – Panvel lost match after match, until another stroke of luck helped discover 16-year-old Brahmanand Sancoalcar.

On the January 1, 1971, Panvel were to play a friendly against Saligao Sporting, and were short of players including goalkeepers Shankar Verlekar and Ulhas Shetye. When told that the team might not have a goalkeeper for the match, Vallabh Sancoalcar said he would send his younger brother. One of the regulars did turn up at Saligao, so Brahmanand only played the second half, but did not concede a goal.

That is how Brahmanand ended up signing for Panvel. Incredible 6-3 and 6-2 victories against Goa Shipyard and MCC in the league followed, with strikers Ajit Desai, Newton De Souza , Tito D’Cunha and Anthony D’Souza suddenly on fire too. GFA abandoned the league later as the Panvel team were peaking.

Standing up to ABCD

A season later at the Police ground, Panvel won a league match against Vasco which probably set it off on its later feats. With Brahmanand and Mahendra Parekh engaged in an Inter-College match, Gajanan Zingde played with fingers bandaged on both hands and performed heroics to survive the onslaught of Vasco’s ABCD strike force.

Goa’s then chief minister, Dayanand Bandodkar, had become a patron of the team earlier when Panvel came from behind to defeat Parra in the First Division league playoffs, courtesy a hat-trick of volleys by Vallabh. In 1972, he asked us to participate in the Borgaokar Shield in Kolhapur, which the team won.

Next season (1972-73) was one when I quit my journalist job and concentrated on the team. Practice sessions were scheduled. Joao Leite Melo, an Academica stalwart, who had started playing as stopper as he slowed down, was made coach. Costs were also increasing as players from more distant locations were signed.

But results were beginning to show. A Jose Fernandes hat-trick saw Panvel knock holders South Central Railway out of the Bandodkar Trophy. The team began being invited for outstation tournaments. In the Rovers Cup in Bombay (now Mumbai), the team was not provided a hotel and had to sleep rough in a dressing room at the Cooperage.

Nothing succeeds like success

It also turned out to be the first season that Panvel lost players to bigger clubs; Parekh and Francis Rodrigues to Dempo, Babu Arolkar to Salgaocar and Jose to Vasco. But talented players jostled to be selected at trials. Eutequiano Rodrigues, Arnold Rodrigues, Titus Fernandes, Alex Miranda, Francis De Souza and so on.

Another goalkeeper issue also cropped up. Zingde opted out because of final engineering exams. Brahmanand said he wanted to dedicate more time to studies. I had to induce him with captainship to keep him playing, despite having many players senior to him in the team. And this year, Panvel clicked like never before.

Panvel finished third in the league and won the Bandodkar Trophy, after having come close to being eliminated by Bank of India in the first round, a last gasp equaliser fetching a 3-3 draw. The rest of the campaign is history. All from the first eleven except Suhas Amonkar and Dionisio Trindade left as did a few reserves too.

But talent continued turning up for trials. Dilip Bandodkar, Shaikh Salim, Aleixo Simoes, Dilip Mahambrey, Digamber Haldankar, Romeo Remedios were among those who joined. About a week after the Dempo team returned to Goa with the Rovers Cup, they were beaten 2-5 by Panvel in the last league match. The late Shashikant Vadkar, a wing-back, played as goalkeeper until Irineu Gomes could finish pub duties and replace him during the second half.

The story continued much in the same vein for the next two seasons but costs were surging and both I and the late Vishwas Vaigankar just could not cope up with. Panvel still proved to be a platform for Alirio Lobo, Lourdes D’Costa, Bosco Monteiro, Luma Kamat, Irineu Gonsalves, Egipcio Coutinho, Oscar Rebello, Agnelo Fernandes, Bobbi Purke, Arjun Harmalkar and Carlos Gomes to pass through in 1975-76.

The 1976-77 season saw a reduced batch showcase their wares. Casmiro D’Souza, Sanjeev Nagvenkar, Cyril Rodrigues, Jerome Nogueira and Agostinho Dias. The end was appropriately scripted as 1975-76 striker Irineu Gonsalves, playing for Salgaocar, scored against his old team in its last league match at Tilak Maidan, consigning it to relegation and history.