panaji while going on his usual evening walk at altinho in the city shrinivas dempo had to rub his eyes in disbelief right before him there was a group of youngsters taking great fun in grabbing wickets and hitting the ball for sixes at some distance there was another group also playing cricket and when he walked a little ahead cricket continued to be the only sport played at the sprawling joggers park i expected at least one group to play football confessed the goa football association president to toi early this week time was when football was the flavour of the season but despite the beautiful game in the words of pele being accorded the state sport status by chief minister manohar parrikar it is cricket that seems to be ruling the roost unless football is popular among the youngsters the sport cannot grow whatever we may try to do it will go waste if you ask my personal opinion i can safely say football is under threat said dempo who is also the chairman of dempo sports club the waning popularity of the game is a paradox that is difficult to understand according to the gfa president the quality of the game in goa has shot up but while that should have increased its popularity in the state it is cricket that is the biggest temptation for youngsters the standard is on the rise with quality foreign players coming in even smaller clubs like goa velha sports club and calangute association in the goa professional league have signed good players they are all spending money but we need to find a way get the youngsters hooked on to the game said dempo the youngsters are surely hooked but on to a different ball game as the younger generation venerates the likes of cristiano ronaldo and lionel messi while being clueless about stars in their own backyard the gfa general body which meets on saturday at clube tennis de gaspar dias in miramar on sunday evening is likely to debate on reasons why football continues to slide down the popularity charts and why there is a gulf of difference in attendances for intervillage tournaments and the professional league the intervillage tournaments are a major draws in while the professional league has struggled to be a magnet for the crowd despite running for more than a decade we need to find the answers there is a need to find if the current level is enough and if not what is needed to take the game to the next level said dempo