FIFA suspends Football Sri Lanka over third-party interferences

The international football governing body FIFA has suspended the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) until further notice due to third party interference and Sri Lankan authorities deviating from the agreed roadmap and complaints.

This was confirmed by an official letter circulated to the all affiliated members of FIFA yesterday.

After a collective decision taken by the Bureau of the FIFA Council, FFSL which has been renamed Football Sri Lanka (FSL) has been suspended until further notice implementing Article 16 of the FIFA statutes.

As a result, FFSL will lose all membership rights, as defined in the article 13 of FIFA status, until the ban is lifted.

One of the reasons behind this suspension was the outstanding issues, in particular amendments to the existing constitution on par with FIFA requirements.

A special delegation assigned by FIFA visited Sri Lanka and met the Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe  and other officials concerned in October. They agreed on the stipulated requirements of FIFA and to conduct the Annual General Meeting on the road map provided by the Sports Ministry.

Subsequently, the Sports Minister made several changes to the agreed road map in conducting the elections while failing to update FIFA on this.

FIFA reminded the Sports Minister on several occasions while imposing a deadline of January 3 for updates on the road map in accordance to the agreed guidelines without any deviation.

However, the Sports Minister failed to comply as per FIFA regulations and conducted the Annual General Meeting with amending the constitution.

In addition, he blocked Jaswar Umar, the immediate Past President of FFSL from contesting for the top position which resulted in him seeking legal redress filing a case in the Court of Appeal where the judgement is due on February 21.

As a result of this suspension, FFSL officials, players and national teams are no longer entitled to participate in any international events until it is lifted. This suspension will also deprive FFSL of all the benefits granted by FIFA/AFC including training programmes. FFSL will also not be eligible to enter into any agreements with other FIFA members until the suspension is over.