State of our football
View(s):It is with deep concern that I read the article in the sports page 19 of the Sunday Times of 10th January 2016 under the caption “Sampath keen to review Lankan football skills”
Afghanistan beat Sri Lanka 5-0 in the SAFF Cup tournament held in India recently
In this article Sampath Perera, the present National Football Coach has mentioned, that in the year 2013 when Sri Lanka crashed into a 0-10 defeat at the hands of Maldives, we went down the stairway of football very badly. As a result Sri Lankan suffered defeats in most of the international matches. He further stated that last year Sri Lanka lost to Bhutan who are in the 207th position in the world rankings for the first time in the FIFA World Cup Qualifying Round both at home and away matches, has pushed our football into doldrums for which he blame the foreign coaches.
Now that Sampath has blown the lid, also for the questions raised by the past players and the local fans I thought I must elaborate on this subjects. The way the winds have blown over the fields of our football in the past few decades, must necessary deny us of a fair and settled weather. In fact, there seems to be no winds of change for the better except for a few diversions in the pattern which obviously have had no significant impact in terms of achieving technical excellence on a progressive basis. Of course those who blow their trumpet out of proportion do not view things in the correct perspective.
Losing to Afghanistan 5-0 and giving a lame excuse that we don’t have six footers like the Afghan players cannot be accepted. How is that during the period 1960 to 1970 with short players in the calibre of M.M. Hassimdeen, P.D. Sirisena, Edward Wickremasuriya, T.M. Amidon, S.M Noor, M.A. Ameer, Muslafir and I too had the privilege playing beside them , beat our immediate neighbours and top foreign clubs from Switzerland, Germany, England , USA and Israel who had tall players both here and abroad.
For argument sake, even if you travel all over Sri Lanka can you get talented tall players now like Peter Ranasinghe, Christopher Ranasinghe, Mahinda Aluvihare, T.H. Noor, T.J. Azeez and Karunapala Fernando.Take for example: the small made top stars of the world like Pele, Stanley Mathew, Massi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, to name a few very often beat tall and big made opponents. The secret behind it is using their skill speed and soccer sense which they are blessed with.
Rather than blaming the foreign coaches for our humiliating defeats, blame our Technical Committee and the Selection Committee for providing them with mediocre players to deal with. Further how can we revive the skills and technique of the present national players when they are matured now? These aspects must be taught to the players when they are young. At national level they must be instilled with tactics, individual mandatory responsibilities in the playing field, system and other important aspects such as stamina, strength and speed. Finally nourish them properly and provide them with necessary playing gears. In this way we can certainly win a medal in the upcoming South Asian games.
When we played amateur football during the period 1950-1970 we were on par with most of the Asian countries. It was in the early 1970s countries like Japan, S. Korea, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq took up football seriously as their national sport, drew their own plan and programmes to reach high standards which helped them to play in the World Cup Final Qualifying Rounds. What then, happened to us, we went down the ladder and reached the rock bottom, struggling even to beat the teams in the South Asian region. This unfortunate phenomenon started in the mid nineteen seventies, firstly with the quality of leadership and competence diminishing conspicuously in the Controlling Body. Persons with vested interests, to go on foreign tours and appear in the media through this grace sport go up the social ladder, totally ruined the game gradually to drop to the 194th position in the world ranking out of 209 countries affiliated to FIFA.
Secondly when the so called professional or semi-professional was introduced in our country, the writing was clear on the wall. In fact, I wrote many articles in this regard in the English Dailies predicting the consequence we are going to face. Also re- iterated on number of occasions that our football does not have the required standard, right structure and quality players to play professional football. A Professional means in simple language one who had mastered the skills in his chosen field. He certainly offers a higher degree of excellence that of an amateur. Basically the performance standards of the sport must necessary be an extremely high order with players of quality generally abundance to make the professional circuit work.
Unfortunately in our country it is far from quality in term of technique, skill and tactics. Even in the fundamentals such as speed, strength and stamina of course with ball we have a long way to go. In the circumstances, the changing of amateur football to professional was not only an error in decision makings, but reflected total ignorance of technical perceptions.
A professional club as elsewhere in the world is a sort of a firm or company, where share holders pump in a lot of money to run its affairs. They repay the investors from the gate money. Will our people the pack the stadium or ground regularly to watch the mediocre performance even if million of rupees are thrown into game? Due to poor gate collection and lack the funds to maintain players’ welfare, some of famous clubs in the country in the calibre of Saunders, Ratnam, Victory, Old Bens, Red Diamond, Pelican, Jupiter’s, Java lane, Kalutara Park, Gampola United to name a few either closed shop or playing in a low gear. As a result the Controllers’ Body is conducting the so called professional football with six clubs managed by money men along with Police and the Armed forces. Focusing only on these few clubs and the Armed forces to build up the national squad is another big mistake. There are enough talented youth in the outstation clubs, starving and eagerly waiting for opportunities to get a place in the national squad Unfortunately their drawbacks are either they are poor or lack facilities such as football boats, training kits and nourishment ,further not in a position to travel to Colombo and attend football trials.
We certainly have enough talented young players all over the country including North and East. It is only a matter of scouting for players, who are skillful and technically gifted with creativity to beat any opponents and the odds in the game that is becoming increasingly competitive.
I such a backdrop what good is it to cry from the roof top of the SAARC Head Quarters appealing for more funds from FIFA on behalf of other countries to develop their football, when our soccer is in shambles and reached the last layer of the world ranking .There is no more to full. Hence there is an old saying “charity begins at home”, first do your home work properly.
We are great at the bluff game – be it in politics, sports or in another field. At soccer some have mastered the art of bluff to such perfection, that an unsuspecting nation and its leaders full in the belief that our soccer officials are taking us into World Cup heights.
In our football we need exemplary leaders not self seekers and not those who seek personal glory. They must be men of competence, integrity and technical experience. It is correct leaders that matter. To be frank, in today’s administrative sphere of football, I do not see people with a sound technical knowledge of the game except few who does not have a say. Hence , they cannot control the sport efficiently.
It is unfortunate even the Sport Ministry under successive governments failed to arrest the decline of football since mid nineteen seventies and there seems to be no change for the better even now. Further due to the infighting and lethargic attitude of football officials in the FFSL has dragged the sport into a pathetic situation. On the other hand the officials who are drawing high salaries are warming their chairs without properly channeling the funds for the development of the game. It is high time the Sports Ministry take drastic action on the officials who have failed to produce fruitful results in international competitions. There are enough talented players, grounds, aids and sponsors to promote the game. If there are no vivid changes in the future we humbly request the Hon Minister of Sports to wield the axe and get the right men to do the job.
I conclude, by those few words uttered by the former President of FIFA Sepp Blatter during his last visit to Sri Lanka in 2014- “I am not satisfied with Sri Lanka football”. “Lot of hard work is necessary for football to improve in Sri Lanka and more support will be coming , if you do the job”.