Goa Football Association ( GFA; pt, Associação de Futebol de Goa) is the state governing body of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

within the jurisdiction of the Republic of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is affiliated with the

All India Football Federation The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the national governing body of football in India. It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to Asian Football Confederation. It is affiliated to Ministry o ...

, the national governing body. Caitano Fernandes heads GFA as its current President. The GFA's premier competition is the

Goa Professional League The Goa Professional League (abbreviated as GPL, also known as the Selvel Goa Pro League for sponsorship reasons) is the premier state-level football league in Goa, India. It is organised by the Goa Football Association. History The official l ...

History

The Goa Football Association ( pt, Associação de Futebol de Goa) was founded in 1959. The federation conducted its first Goan State League in 1959 also under the name of ''Goa First Division'' with Clube Independente de Margao becoming the champions. The GFA then started the Goa Senior League in 1969, which was supposed to be the new first division of Goa, but later disbanded the league. Then for the 1970-71 season they turned the league into a two division First Division, North Division and South Division. They then introduced the a Second Division and Third Division from 1971-72. The GFA then started the Goa Super Division in 1977 with Salgaocar S.C. being the champions. With football, globally, continuing to develop at a fast pace, the Goa Football Association, decided it was time to push the game onto a higher platform. Goa emerged as the first State ever in India to go professional. Yt The GFA then revamped the National State League by forming the

in 1997 with Salgaocar coming out as champions. The Professional League was expanded to six teams from the 2000-01 season, after the GFA thought it wise to increase the number and increase the competitiveness factor, and since 2002 the league was played as an eight team league with home-and-away fixtures making it 14 matches for each club. The GFA then announced that the 2011 season would be played with 10 teams under a new format.

Goan football pyramid

The Goan football pyramid consists of the

as highest level, followed by the lower divisions.

References

External links

*
Goa Football Association
at the

AIFF Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File ...

{{Authority control Football governing bodies in India 1959 establishments in Portuguese India Sports organizations established in 1959 Organisations based in Panaji