FSL aims to steal limelight from cricket

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Jubilant Sri Lankan camp celebrate victory after defeating Cambodia 4-2 to qualify for next stage of the competition

By Althaf Nawaz

Incumbent President of Football Sri Lanka (FSL) is hopeful that a new chapter in local football will open up after the national team triumphed over Cambodia on Tuesday on their home grounds. The Golden Lions edged out the hosts 4-2 in a penalty shootout.

Talking to Daily FT over the phone, the jubilant FSL boss Jaswar Umar exclaimed that this win and qualifying for the next stage of the AFC Asia Cup 2027 in Saudi Arabia is a tremendous boost for the game at a juncture where Sri Lanka is rated very low in FIFA rankings.

“Winning the Asian Qualifiers means a lot to Sri Lankan Football. This is a well-planned journey formulated by me and my team along with the assistance of Australian legend Tim Cahill who was instrumental in starting this project under the theme ‘Football Forward-Sri Lanka’, which had the blessing of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Qatar Football Chief His Excellency Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.”

“At the beginning it looked like a herculean task for us, as we are revolving with limited resources due to the suspension. But, we were able to bounce back with the generous support of Tim Cahill, where we went through a number of stages such as finding professional players, making them eligible to play, finding top coaches, overseas training camps, international friendly games and the list goes on. During this passage we had to overcome many obstacles – like political interference, unlawful election, FIFA suspension, country’s economic and political crisis and so on. However, we were determined and restarted football with the National team’s endeavours,” said Jaswar.

It was not long ago that Sri Lankan dribblers played an amateur level football in the world stage without much confidence to win games. Eventually, this new approach completely changed the landscape of Sri Lankan Football and today Sri Lanka is one of the strongest teams in the Asian region.

From here onwards, level of the team and expectations are going to be much higher than what it was. What is most interesting is that Sri Lankan football loving public are now enjoying entertaining European type football dished out by their favourite Lions.

Much has been done behind the scenes by Jaswar Umar and his team, but there is much more to be done to keep this balance and professionalism to march forward in the world stage. Experts reveal that the stance and plan executed by Jaswar Umar and his team is the most appropriate strategy and the way forward to reach the pinnacle.

Sri Lanka is now among the favourites to win the South Asian Championship next year under the vision of Jaswar and his regime. This new approach of attacking football has sparked the interest of youth teams who are trying to adopt a similar approach.

Newly drafted interim Coach Abdullah Almuthairi has once again proved that he is a great reader of the game, deploying a new playing pattern while making the all-important winning habit, which eventually has set his brand as the most aggressive coach in South Asia.

“The Sri Lankan people will rally round our national football team like they do for cricket, and it will not take long before Sri Lanka becomes a football crazy nation,” concluded Jaswar.