Ceylon Today Editorial

Climbing mountains, to develop football

18 March 2017

There was the case of an Ex-national football player who was faced with a critical financial situation and circumstances arising from it had turned him into a grave digger to feed his family. At the time this man was severely criticized by the financial manager who was an ex- president of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL), for publicizing his story in newspapers, blaming him for his situation, dug out by none other than himself. According to what was said by the FFSL financial manager at the time it indicated that the national player in question had been given enough chances by the association. The financial manager was the earlier president and backed the present president to occupy that seat, according to some veterans. We can come to the judgment as to how this national player might have been treated, by the story that came out at a recent discussion on football conducted by a TV channel. Four veterans were at the discussion table and it was said that there are 74 leagues involved in the game in Sri Lanka. Then the question about the federation taking care of them arose and it was said that the FFSL was giving them Rs 25, 000 each per annum for running their affairs. It might not be enough to buy each of the players in the league a pair of laces for his boots for a year. This conduct of these types of leagues and their actions need more transparency.

According to the veterans gathered at the discussion they were bewildered as to what happens to all the monies sent by the FIFA for the development of the game. Instead of development Sri Lanka has been damned in the world rankings and is just five places short of being the last. In 1993 they were 125 and within a span of 12 years managed to climb down to 195. These are signs of no proper care being given to the game whereas others in Asia are doing their best to improve in the world rankings.

According to the veterans who were lined up they were certain that Indians who have done so much to improve their game will be in the Olympics soon. Even Pakistan has had a visit by Brazilian legend Ronaldinho who is being brought in by a UK based company who are there to expand football in the country. Ronaldinho will be there to promote the game both women's and men's, and although Pakistan is below Sri Lanka placed 198th, there is more interest to get the game promoted there in the bigger Cities. While, when Sri Lanka next plays in a top Asian circuit is a question, no one seems to care to look into.

The FIFA is giving out monies to countries to develop their game. During Sepp Blatter's visit to the country he gave money to develop football grounds especially in the North. Before that monies were given for developing the women's game. Not enough seems to happen in these areas and although there were tremendous performances by Jaffna footballers not much has taken place developing the women's football in the country or the grounds.

Now, there have been suggestions of getting sports to the top level in Sri Lanka starting with schools' sports taking top priority in the school curriculum. If the Sports Minister takes a look around the football leagues and formulates a programme, he will be able to make a real impact not only with the football promotions but getting people much required work in the football circuit of the country. The reason for the failure of getting football to the required levels has been the shortage of grounds. There was a time when Colombo Municipality had those parks of theirs that housed many football clubs in Colombo; those have been lost to the developing that took place around the city and the game went sliding down due to lack of places to get the game going in proper prospect.

With such a lot of leagues (74) operating real worthy tournaments that could be held around the nation, provided there are proper football grounds around the country, could begin. There was a suggestion to build a thousand stadiums around the country by a former Sports Minister. That is something that could give zest to begin building these facilities that could start football rolling and creating work for tens of thousands of people and also the much needed entertainment for the people. The nine provinces and 25 districts have the potential to get the necessary money pumped in from FFSL and from sponsors for the operation of clubs in their hometowns. And also having a schools tournament that would be around the nation there will be at least 5,000 schools involved. At a rate of a team needing at least fifteen players, the schools will have 75,000 playing football. Apart from the school programme the twenty five districts having three club teams in each should be quite enough to develop football in Sri Lanka if the government plans to find work for people run on the correct track.