Favouritism raises ugly head in selection process

Under-17 Football Tournament in Bhutan 

By Althaf Nawaz

The football loving fraternity, including former players, coaches and parents of some players, have expressed their displeasure at the selection of the final 23 players for the upcoming Under-17 tournament to be played for the SAFF Under-17 Championship 2024 in Bhutan early next week.

The National selectors had chosen a pool of 35, which was later pruned down to 23 after consultation with the coaches. However, there had been various allegations on the selection criteria, which highlights that the coaching staff has not given a fair opportunity to some of the players who were in the pool and favoured some others.

As per reliable sources, coaches have sidelined some players and given more opportunity to their favoured players to compete in practice matches, which has been against the normal practice.

The tragedy is that another set of players were requested to nurse their injuries and asked to return to the pool for training. A player from a prominent school in Colombo had returned for practice after four days and was asked to go back by the coaching staff. Moreover, another set of players who were nursing injuries and who are yet to recover have been retained in the current squad, which one of the former players described as sheer favouritism by the coaches. 

Another leading coach pointed out selectors have overlooked a few players who toured with the Sri Lanka Schools Under-17 team which won 5 matches in India. How come they were good enough to tour India but expelled from this squad, which raises a big question mark? 

Considering all these factors, it clearly indicates that something has seriously gone wrong in the selection process which has deprived many skilled players who should have made it to the final 23, where some have parachuted because of favouritism.

It is now left to the Football Sri Lanka administration to look into the selection process and give the players who deserve to be in the squad an opportunity to represent the country.