Rumble in football jungle

FSL President Jaswar Umar (right)  and two Vice Presidents 

Dr. Manil Fernando (left) and Ranjith Rodrigo 

• Majority of leagues urge President to dissolve incumbent committee

By Althaf Nawaz

The majority of the 66 leagues affiliated with Football Sri Lanka (FSL) has urged President Jaswar Umar to dissolve the incumbent committee and go for a re-election to overcome the current internal crisis, which has reached its pinnacle and is disrupting the restart of the world’s most popular game in Sri Lanka.

They have requested Umar to make an urgent decision to dissolve the existing committee and go for fresh elections, as failure to do so will see the game end up in the doldrums.

All this cropped up after a senior member of the incumbent ExCo disclosed decisions taken by the committee to various media organisations, thus violating the protocols of FSL guidelines. The said member further accused the top Chair and made many allegations against the present regime – which he serves – which resulted in various factions slinging mud in an attempt to disrupt the progress of the FSL management.

The incumbent regime took office after FSL was banned for a long period by FIFA due to third party interference, including the then Sports Minister who was one of the accused. However, in order to save football, all factions agreed to join hands on a common platform, including one time Presidential contender Dr. Manil Fernando and Ranjith Rodrigo who were in Jaswar’s rival camp, who agreed to support Jaswar to be their candidate for Presidency against newcomer Dakshitha Sumathipala, who managed to secure 20 votes against the 45 obtained by Jaswar’s camp with the support of a majority of the leagues last September. 

Since then, FSL had a torrid time in restructuring their management which was in a state of disarray. They also had to answer several audit queries made by the world governing body to obtain financial support to restart football in Sri Lanka. 

A member of a league from down south speaking to Daily FT said: “We [all leagues] unanimously got together thrashing our differences to restart football in the country, which was heading towards a natural death. But it is very unfortunate to see the present regime breaking into various factions which puts the game in a spot of bother. Therefore, the only option to overcome this situation is to dissolve the incumbent committee and go for fresh elections to elect a new set of office bearers.”

“Some of the office bearers of the present regime assume that these league members are idiots and are unable to perform a job. We would like to tell these guys that they are sadly mistaken, and we will show our power to safeguard the game of football while supporting the people who are service-oriented to boost the game.”