BackDempo’s success story
Dempo’s success story
PremiumHead-on: The I-League title stays with a Goan team, Dempo. By Manoj Kumar/Hindustan Times
Around 10 years ago, this writer asked Dempo Group chairman Shrinivas Dempo about the prospects of his then struggling football team, Dempo Sports Club. In a moment of rare candour, he confessed he was planning to shut it down as the money invested was not bringing any tangible benefits to the company.
Dempo clawed their way back into the premier division and over the next eight years, would go on to win the I-League a record five times while also pocketing the Federation, Super and Durand Cups once each in the same period. On 20 April, Dempo won their fifth I-League—they had previously won in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010.
I-League team coaches Subhas Bhowmick (who was with East Bengal when they won the then National Football League, or NFL, in 2003 and 2004) and Subrata Bhattacharya (Mohun Bagan, in 2000 and 2002) have won only two titles each, while Derrick Pereira (Mahindra United, 2006) and Karim Bencherifa (Salgaocar, 2011) have one each. So why has Colaco succeeded while his more illustrious challengers (and bigger names as players) have not been as successful as coaches, other things being equal?
Colaco, who was interim national coach last year, is blessed with tactical nous and planning-execution skills that surpass those of other coaches, whether Indian or foreign, in the subcontinent, say football observers. His success is also a product of the environment he works in—he enjoys the full confidence of his management, which does not interfere in the technical aspects relating to team selection and tactics. This is quite unlike the situation at other high-profile clubs, where the owners too get involved.
There is also no urgent need for short-term results at Dempo, unlike some other clubs where the coach is fired if results are not forthcoming immediately. Last year, for instance, Mohun Bagan hired English coach Steve Darby at the start of the season but after the team exited early from the Federation Cup, Darby lost his job and was replaced by Bhattacharya. In Kolkata, there is additional pressure from volatile fans, overbearing officials and former players.
Colaco also had the foresight to buy back the best Goan talents (like Mahesh Gawli and Climax Lawrence) from other clubs (Mahindra United and East Bengal, respectively, in 2005 and 2006) and then build an-all conquering team with the other budding stars already in his ranks—Clifford Miranda and Anthony Pereira, among others. This was buttressed by key players from other states (goalkeeper Subhashish Roy Chowdhury and left-back Debabrata Roy, for example) and quality foreigners like Ranty Martins and Beto (now with Churchill Brothers). He earned the loyalty of players and ensured they remained at Dempo for a few seasons by offering them generous contracts (Gawli started on a three-year contract, which was unusual then), on a par with, or better than, what other clubs had to offer. With continuity came cohesion.
Dempo had a decent outfit in the 1970s and 1980s but with the launch of the NFL in 1996-97 and the gradual introduction of professionalism—which saw employed players being replaced by contracted players—the team couldn’t keep pace. Dempo were the first Indian club to hire a Brazilian coach (Francisco Gonsalves) in the late 1990s but because of limitations in budget, relegation was around the corner.
It happened in the 1999-2000 season. It took two years for the club to bounce back into the premier division and another two before they won the Federation Cup in 2004 and the NFL at the end of the 2004-05 season, both for the first time. The first NFL triumph is what Colaco cherishes the most.
“The boys played their hearts out and did it for Cristiano Junior (their Brazilian striker who died on the pitch while scripting Dempo’s triumph in the Federation Cup final in Bangalore)," he remembers with emotion.
Colaco lists a few essential ingredients to explain his success: unity in the team, with no hierarchy separating the seniors and juniors; a family-like atmosphere at the club; and treating triumph and disaster with equilibrium. Colaco draws inspiration from his own playing days under Joseph Ratnam (Dempo’s coach in the 1970s). “From Ratnam, I learnt discipline, from Bob Bootland (former Dempo and India coach) I learnt to keep the players happy, while Danny McLennan (former Churchill Brothers’ coach) taught me how to read the game and what to do and when," Colaco says of his coaching formula.
Winning the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) Cup in the next season (Dempo have qualified by virtue of being I-League champions) and extending his legacy in the premier division are the challenges that now confront the conquering coach.
Mario Rodrigues is a senior sports journalist based in Mumbai.
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