The Mumbai Football Association held a peaceful protest at Neville D’Souza Football Ground on Sunday evening

Mumbai: On Sunday evening, the city’s football fraternity gathered for a peaceful protest at Neville D’Souza Football Ground at Bandra Reclamation to oppose the proposed change in the plot’s reservation from a playground to an exhibition-and-convention centre.The Mumbai Football Association’s (MFA) writ petition before the Chief Justice’s bench of the Bombay high court challenging the proposed change in reservation is likely to come up for a hearing on Monday, even as the controversial proposal — already cleared by BMC’s improvements committee in June — is scheduled to be placed before the civic house of corporators for a sanction this week.The MFA has maintained and used the ground for organised football for more than 15 years under periodically renewed permissions from Mhada. Its application, dated July 31, 2025, seeking continuation of the permission, is still pending, the writ petition stated.“We are doing everything we can to stop this change in reservation,” said Ryan Menezes, vice president of MFA which organised the peaceful protest. “Sunday evening was an attempt to gather different stakeholders like our club members, team owners, former players, and coaches and create awareness on what is likely to happen if this reservation changes. We will fight till the last moment for this ground that means so much to everyone in the football community. We can’t allow the reservation to be changed just like that.”The controversy centres around the Mhada-owned plot, which is currently reserved as a playground/sports ground under the Development Plan (DP) 2034. Mhada has sought restoration of the site’s earlier reservation as a convention complex, prompting the BMC to initiate the process for modifying the existing reservation.Named after Neville D’Souza, the first Indian footballer to score a hat-trick at the Olympic Games, the ground has long been a hub for grassroots coaching, school tournaments, local leagues and competitive football.