Akshay Tandon moved to Goa to build sustainable communities, for a new type of real estate that integrates co-living rather than just private villas and pools. That was a future dream which he hoped to fulfil three years ago. But his last six years have been consumed by FC Goa, the football club he co-owns that competes in the Indian Super League (ISL).

“We built out a professional team, structure and leadership across commercial, football, technical—all sides,” he said over three years ago. “It’s my job now to allow these leaders to find their own in the next few years. My time will go into seeing how we can diversify our skill sets, nurturing talent, running a club. We think there will be a huge amount of investment in developing athletes.”

Tandon has bridged his various ideas, of sustainable communities, football and diversification with a new venture. Also the founder and non-executive chairman of the not-for-profit Forca Goa Foundation, Tandon has put some of those thoughts from three years ago into action. Earlier this week, Forca and Delta Corp., under their CSR (corporate social responsibility) project Fields of Dreams, opened up another of their revamped football grounds in Goa. The idea behind reviving existing football fields is to develop local infrastructure, allow children access to better facilities and give them frequent exposure to competitions.

The St Anthony’s ground at Monte de Guirim, once a stony, dirt field—the remnants of which are still visible on the pitch’s edges—has been turned into a lush carpet of grass under the Fields of Dreams project. This will allow St Anthony’s roughly 1,400 students and children from the neighbouring villages to play on grass rather than risk injuries on uneven surfaces.

Tandon said Forca had, six years ago, done a survey of the state and found approximately 200 grounds, but only about 6 percent of them were fit for play, which is when Fields of Dreams was conceptualised. The grounds that they develop under the project will also be used by the Little Gaurs League, a children’s league that has categories of under-6, under-8, under-10 and under-12, running over a period of three months, skirting around the monsoons, summer holidays and exams.

“The idea was to create something on existing grounds and open to all communities, providing a platform for the entire ecosystem. This is the start of how a child goes from under-5 to under-18 through good competition, which is possible only on good facilities,” Tandon said at the picturesque Guirim ground flanked on one side by a mined hill.

There are already two fields developed by the project in Salvador Do Mundo, one of which is used by FC Goa’s first team that plays in the ISL. There is one project each planned in Bogmallo and Dabolim further south, and depending on the success of these grounds, the plan is to encourage more investments from Delta and other big companies, Tandon added. He said their calculations call for 10-15 such grounds in the state for a suitable number of children to get enough games through the year.

“Sustainability in running a football club has been a lot more elusive than we thought,” he added. “We started this with a 10-year target. Now we are looking at a 15-year target. That goalpost might keep moving. True sustainability will come when an Indian player is being valued at millions of dollars by a European club. That will not happen till the 5-year-olds of today start playing 35 games a season in a good organised competition.”

Forca Goa will manage the grounds for the foreseeable future, while figuring out through competitions, support of local businesses, how to create a more manageable way of running it. “Most people don’t realise that getting a CSR-wedded contract and an okay for the foundation, the amount of due diligence it takes—whether from a church as in this case or from the Panchayat,” Tandon said. The event to inaugurate the Guirim ground was attended by Mauvin Godinho, Goa’s minister for transport, panchayats and housing, who is the member of legislative assembly from Dabolim.

The pandemic of 2022-21 allowed Forca an opportunity to pitch this new CSR opportunity to Delta Corp. Delta, whose chairman Jaydev Mody is Tandon’s father-in-law and one of the co-owners of FC Goa, could not do CSR the way it did pre-pandemic and the Fields of Dreams project came “at the right time and place”.

The development of local centres into public spaces of access with functional playing infrastructure lends itself well to reviving Goa’s football culture, slightly diluted by cricket’s popularity, and activating community participation. Father Kennedy Menezes of St Anthony Capuchin Province, Goa, remembered how every child who's played on the school grounds before had scars to prove it, given the uneven, rocky surface. “These are not just fields to play, but hope for a better future,” he said at the event to inaugurate the Guirim ground.

Tandon added, “To complete the ecosystem of grassroots, we need someone to fund the competitions. Whether its coaches’ development or some league or just lighting and basic supply of drinking water for hundreds of children, it’s a cost.”

“Hopefully, we will have budgets every year.”