On a Sunday evening in early August, instead of kicking a football around for 90 minutes, the young children of Govandi United Football Club found themselves chanting slogans and holding up signs declaring: “Every goal begins on a ground like this”.
It was a last-ditch attempt at saving their sanctuary, the Neville D'Souza Football Turf in Bandra. But their cries fell on deaf ears, a recurring theme in the city’s political landscape.
On 18 August, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) general body approved a proposal to convert the space from a playground to a convention centre.
The peaceful gathering, organised by the Mumbai Football Association (MFA), failed to save one of the few, full-sized football pitches in Mumbai.
The Lost Open Spaces of Mumbai
Municipal bodies are systematically carving up the city’s scarce open spaces to build unrequested infrastructure projects. Over the last couple of years, Mumbai’s public spaces have been falling like dominoes. A petrol pump is replacing a sports complex in Mulund, garden plots in Malabar Hill are being converted to residential spaces, and a telegraph office is coming up in place of a recreation ground in Oshiwara.
Mumbai has always had a dearth of open spaces, alarming given its status as the financial capital of the country. Visit Oval Maidan on a Sunday, where dozens of cricket matches are taking place in parallel while senior citizens use the circumference of the ground as a walking track.
Gully cricket is played with pride while dodging cars and throwing half-hearted apologies at pedestrians. Badminton matches take place on broken footpaths. The few parks and gardens are overcrowded and ill-maintained. As a child, I would play football with building friends on the concrete roof above a garage.
It’s a reality most Mumbaikars had quietly accepted. The jibes about our city lacking space were either ignored or brushed off as inter-city banter. The latest and most high-profile loss—the Neville D'Souza ground—sits right at the cosmopolitan heart of the city: Bandra. Perhaps that’s why Mumbaikars found their collective voice of outrage.
That isn’t to underplay the significance of the ground. The FIFA-standard turf—large enough for 11-a-side games—has witnessed over 900 official matches every season, giving tens of thousands of footballers the chance to recreate goal celebrations performed by their professional idols.
But viewing the ground from just a football lens ignores the lived reality of thousands of young children from underserved communities across the city, many of whom use sport and open spaces as a pressure valve. Grassroots programmes run by local NGOs often champion getting kids outside their cramped chawls and informal housing—a chance to sharpen leadership skills, critical thinking and community building.
The Next Page Community Foundation works in Govandi, one of the city’s poorest and least-developed wards. The Govandi United Football Club is an extension of their project, and now the team will have to find another ground to play on.
A Lonely City
With Neville D'Souza on the brink of disappearing, there will be more convention centres than open public spaces in Bandra. The area is already home to the Jio World Convention Centre and MMRDA Grounds. How many convention centres is enough for corporate India to show off its economic muscle?
The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), which leased the ground to the MFA in 2011, said the proposed convention centre would channel income into affordable housing projects. At face value, some may see this as a measured approach to help tackle the city’s housing crisis.
But taking away public spaces is not the answer. Mumbai has only 1.2 square meters of open public space per capita, well below the recommended norm of 4 square meters set by the BMC in their own Development Plan 2034 (a master plan for the city), which itself is below the World Health Organisation’s standard of 9 square meters.
Mumbai’s elite, who have the opportunity and privilege to exert some political pressure to drive change, have long since checked out of the fight. They’ve retreated to their country clubs—the Willingdon Sports Club, Breach Candy Club, and Cricket Club of India—where they can work a sweat at the badminton and tennis courts, golf courses or swimming pools.
The ones who don’t have the coveted club membership are prime targets for the city’s private developers.
An array of amenities is advertised on upcoming project brochures—padel courts, walking tracks, pristine gardens. The brochures encourage you to stay within the walls of your gated community, the world outside isn’t worth it.
Cafes, restaurants, and cinemas are places of limited interaction for closed social circles. And most of Mumbai’s residents are priced out of whatever private sporting spaces have opened—padel and pickleball courts are the latest flavours of the season. What the city is left with is communities operating in silos.
Public playgrounds, gardens and parks are spaces where communities across the socio-economic spectrum can interact. And football is one of the greatest equalisers—all you need are a pair of shoes and a ball. But the residents of Bandra (and Mumbai) shouldn’t mourn the loss of another public space just yet.
The Bombay High Court has temporarily prevented the conversion of the Neville D’Souza ground for now, noting that “otherwise the next generation would forget outdoor sports and grounds”. While the courts seem to be the last bastions of hope, citizens of Mumbai should wait with bated breath until the next hearing on 18 September.
And entirely relying on an overburdened judiciary isn’t the right approach. Just last year, residents and activists came together to pushback against the BMC’s plans to build an underground carpark beneath Patwardhan Park, a refuge for jogging and yoga enthusiasts. The BMC scrapped its plans and proposed a Rs 5.28 crore revamp instead.
Strong, local support for public spaces is what is critical—it’s the only way left in showing the BMC how valued and treasured these places are. Mumbai’s chalta hai apolitical attitude needs to be replaced with a more politically aware, active participation in local governance. Citizens need to attend ward-level meetings, question local corporators and demand transparency from municipal bodies.
As the old proverb goes: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. The Neville D'Souza ground needs our attention, not because it represents a football ground in Bandra that our tired legs may never run across. But because it represents the stripping away of public spaces in our city, and we need to stop the dominoes from falling.
(The author is a columnist, lawyer and founder of Authentic Kahaniyan. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint does not endorse or is responsible for them.)