Goa Lusofonia postponed to January
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 23 September 2013 19:43 IST
The third edition of Lusofonia Games has been now postponed to 18 to 29 Janaury, next year.
It was scheduled to be held in November in Goa.
The prime reason for the postponement is believed to be incomplete infrastructure.
However, another reason is the ban on the Indian Olympic Assocation, which has not yet been lifted.
According to reports reaching here from ACOLOP, the oroganising body in Macau in Portugal, the general Assembly felt that a two-month gap is a must once the infrastructure is ready.
The whole infrastructure to host Lusofonia Games in Goa would probably be ready by October end.
The meeting was held in Macau last week.
As a face-saving devise, Goa’s sports minister Ramesh Tawadkar however had made a demand that Indian tricolour flag should be hoisted along with Lusofonia and Portugal flag at the games.
Since the formality to accept and implement the demand takes minimum three months, the state government learnt to have made this ‘nationalist demand’ in order to get the Games postponed.
According to information, the organisers have reportedly agreed to hosit Indian national flag as well as playing national anthem.
The IOA representatives, who attended the meeting, also suggested not to postpone it beyond January since the Lok Sabha election may be declared any time, schedule for next year.
Besides Portugal and India, the participating countries in Lusofonia are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau (China), Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea and Sri Lanka.
