Officials must take blame for system failing
17 September 2016
There was a story of a former Sri Lankan star footballer taking up employment as a grave digger and an ex-President of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) getting excited over the story. Destiny came to the rescue of the star footballer to make him a grave digger, professional or not. Here the story is not one of destiny. Whether the man was a moron or not, had the FFSL had a programme made to make ex-professionals live decent lives after their careers, the story might not have come into existence.
Any sportsman after they retire should be able to live comfortably and that is a duty by us, to them. Excuses are not warranted; there should have been an immediate remedy available with the FFSL in the case of this grave digging ex- footballer before he was in trouble, instead of waiting to be offered help. This is not the first such case in the world of sport – in USA a one time Olympic champ Jesse Owens, with four gold medals in 1936, had to go through much hardship to make a living; at the time segregation and not having a system caused this.
These situations occur and the easiest way out of responsibility is to blame the troubled man and not the system. Men may come and men may go but, especially, when they go they should be able to go with dignity. This does not take place when the system has failed. If there is a thing called failure or success it is men that have control over it, and that little push by the system may help one to become somebody.
Leaving alone making one to become somebody aside, the FFSL has been unable to move Sri Lanka's game to be at least recognized in the region. Football has been played in Sri Lanka for over a century, and they have been with FIFA since 1952 and in 1965 under M.M. Hasimdeen won their first international against Pakistan. The game has not progressed enough taking into consideration the football talent in the country that is ready made to take it further in the international. It is not the players alone who can move the game to higher levels, that is the task of responsible and knowledgeable officials not the ones who take over the FFSL to run their own agendas.
There is football played in every nook and corner in the country at a fairly competitive level with tens of thousands of footballers getting involved. There certainly is no dearth of players on football fields. In addition there is football played around the island in schools where many more youngsters come into the game. Over the years, that may be the biggest progress made. Then what is the problem facing the progress of the sport?
When we beat Pakistan in 1965 the national coach was Neville Abeygunawardena who had come back to Sri Lanka after a coaching stint in Germany and had big plans for Sri Lankan football. But meddling officials did not allow him to go ahead and the Abeygunawardena programme could not be implemented. Thereafter, there were many more like Lawrence Fernando, V. Nadarajah and Edward Wickramasuriya who served Sri Lankan football with dedication and Edward Wickramasuriya fought the ugly side of the system that he had full knowledge of and died in a motor accident.
The ones spoken of as coming forward to uplift the football game to another level were people who had played the game of football successfully and had undergone studies in coaching the game. And they were dedicated to their country and the game alike. All their valiant efforts to uplift the game here in Sri Lanka were lost with officials who ran the sport struggling for positions and connections with international figures.
With the recent happenings at FIFA and what those big shots as Blatter and Platini with lots of power had been up to: Today we know much more than we did then, of what made FFSL officials to be more interested in getting connected internationally than in the progress of the game, here. If they did something for the game it was just an eyewash promoting infrastructure but there was nothing done to at least have the game played at a level sustained for so long. It is a pity that we could not play this game and be at least a top Asian team.
Any sportsman after they retire should be able to live comfortably and that is a duty by us, to them. Excuses are not warranted; there should have been an immediate remedy available with the FFSL in the case of this grave digging ex- footballer before he was in trouble, instead of waiting to be offered help. This is not the first such case in the world of sport – in USA a one time Olympic champ Jesse Owens, with four gold medals in 1936, had to go through much hardship to make a living; at the time segregation and not having a system caused this.
These situations occur and the easiest way out of responsibility is to blame the troubled man and not the system. Men may come and men may go but, especially, when they go they should be able to go with dignity. This does not take place when the system has failed. If there is a thing called failure or success it is men that have control over it, and that little push by the system may help one to become somebody.
Leaving alone making one to become somebody aside, the FFSL has been unable to move Sri Lanka's game to be at least recognized in the region. Football has been played in Sri Lanka for over a century, and they have been with FIFA since 1952 and in 1965 under M.M. Hasimdeen won their first international against Pakistan. The game has not progressed enough taking into consideration the football talent in the country that is ready made to take it further in the international. It is not the players alone who can move the game to higher levels, that is the task of responsible and knowledgeable officials not the ones who take over the FFSL to run their own agendas.
There is football played in every nook and corner in the country at a fairly competitive level with tens of thousands of footballers getting involved. There certainly is no dearth of players on football fields. In addition there is football played around the island in schools where many more youngsters come into the game. Over the years, that may be the biggest progress made. Then what is the problem facing the progress of the sport?
When we beat Pakistan in 1965 the national coach was Neville Abeygunawardena who had come back to Sri Lanka after a coaching stint in Germany and had big plans for Sri Lankan football. But meddling officials did not allow him to go ahead and the Abeygunawardena programme could not be implemented. Thereafter, there were many more like Lawrence Fernando, V. Nadarajah and Edward Wickramasuriya who served Sri Lankan football with dedication and Edward Wickramasuriya fought the ugly side of the system that he had full knowledge of and died in a motor accident.
The ones spoken of as coming forward to uplift the football game to another level were people who had played the game of football successfully and had undergone studies in coaching the game. And they were dedicated to their country and the game alike. All their valiant efforts to uplift the game here in Sri Lanka were lost with officials who ran the sport struggling for positions and connections with international figures.
With the recent happenings at FIFA and what those big shots as Blatter and Platini with lots of power had been up to: Today we know much more than we did then, of what made FFSL officials to be more interested in getting connected internationally than in the progress of the game, here. If they did something for the game it was just an eyewash promoting infrastructure but there was nothing done to at least have the game played at a level sustained for so long. It is a pity that we could not play this game and be at least a top Asian team.
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