FSL to acquire services of 13 overseas players

By Althaf Nawaz 

Football Sri Lanka (FSL) is to acquire the services of 13 overseas players to the National Football pool by next year. Speaking to Daily FT, this was confirmed by Senior Vice President Dr. Manil Fernando yesterday.

Dr. Fernando has been entrusted to look after the National team’s affairs and confirmed that by next March, the Lankan camp will have 13 players eligible to represent Sri Lanka based on the criteria where their respective parents were born in Sri Lanka.

“We will be delighted to see around 13 players who will be eligible to don the National jersey by next March. We have already finalised seven players who can play for the National team. Our aim is to have around 20 overseas players in our ranks to mix with our local players,” said Manil Fernando.

Dr. Manil was emphasising the value of drafting these players from overseas to bridge the vast gap between our football compared to teams in our region. Due to various factors the game has deteriorated in Sri Lanka. One of the ways to give a punch to lift the standard is to introduce these players.

“The standard of the game in the country is at a low ebb due to various reasons. Rather than conducting post-mortems, it is better to find ways and means to gear up the game. The best option in hand is to get the services of the foreign players who are eligible to represent the country. Accordingly, we have managed to finalise around seven players’ documents who can now play for the country,” he further added.

FSL is looking at having 20 players of this calibre, and by infusing them to the National pool, will definitely enable local players to develop their skills. This system is practiced by most of the countries. As most of these players are actively involved playing in their leagues in the country of domicile, they will share their experience here with the locals.

Sri Lanka is likely to have a busy schedule with the dawn of the New year, where they are due to play two international tournaments at home, and this will no doubt give a big boost for the game.

“We can see many countries in the world are using this facility which has given them a big boost to their game. Hence, we too are making all endeavours to obtain the services of those who are eligible to play for Sri Lanka. According to our calendar of events, we have a busy schedule and the foreign players contribution is going to play a pivotal role,” concluded Dr. Manil Fernando.