Action Plan for FFSL to develop Football
Football needs to be nurtured safely if the sport is to survive in Sri Lanka
Knowing the present Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) administration very well, and the patchwork they have done during the last three-and-a-half years, there is no doubt in my mind that anything and everything would be done to cover up and camouflage the technical nakedness of Football, simply for their survival. To be honest, our Football has hit a new low and, unless a concerted effect is made immediately by all, the game is sure to deteriorate further and die like a cancer patient. To point fingers at those responsible for this pitiful plight is an exercise in futility. The need of the hour is to identify the main drawbacks and take remedial action.
In the last three years, the game has suffered immensely at the hands of officials blissfully ignorant of the game. Two things determine this peculiar attitude of the officials. Firstly, being none-technical men, their depths of understanding is extremely shallow. Secondly, the glamour and glitter– the pomp and publicity, appearing on TV programmes and at Cup finals, is the greater allure. TV debates with professional liars, drawing media attention to the least important aspects like writing voluminous articles about E.B. Channa. A rare occurrence of a top-class player gone astray, and tom-tom beating from the roof top, will not take us anywhere in Football. Rather, it will fall into an abyss from which there may be no return.
As usual, the giants of the FFSL have revealed their future plans, mixing the School, Football Academy and Skills Training Centres (STC), without context and substance, which makes one wonder what exactly are their precise plans and intentions.
Make no mistake, School Football is under the purview of the Ministry of Education, directly handled by the School Football Association (SFA) affiliated to the FFSL. It is not a secret that, during the last decade or so the SFA did not work cordially with the controlling body, to promote and develop the game. This caused tremendous damage to Football and its immediate future at.
The SFA on which the Controlling Body relies heavily for a Football promotional drive in schools, is woefully weak and ineffective. It has been so for quite a long time. For this body to be effective, it should be guided and directed by top officials of the Ministry of Education, with technical assistance from the FFSL. It is only after that, the skills development process should be implemented in various STCs around SL. If this programme is to make any significant headway, we have to prepare a structure to improve Football via schools, which is the only way to achieve our goals. It must and should receive the support of the vibrant SFA – not of opportunists and tour maniacs.
The service and support to the sport should be exerted by the School Principals. I have written volumes of reports and articles during the last two decades, covering the three concepts namely, Schools Football, STCs and Academy. Firstly, school is where Football should begin. The successful culmination of all human endeavours begins in school. They are nurseries which necessarily produce doctors, engineers, lawyers, religious and social leaders, politicians, scientists, sportsmen and almost everyone in the whole gamut of human activity. If any such nursery is non-existent, it follows that, there shall be no growth or development to reach national or international standards in the respective branch of activity.
One need not be a Socrates to understand the logic behind this argument, yet the FFSL has laid the least emphasis on this aspect. Since 1970, each successive administration in the FFSL failed to appreciate the importance of promoting School Football. The schools which played Football did so on a low key, without any assistance– technical or otherwise- from the FFSL. This actually paved the way for a few opportunists– a bunch of mere teachers and masters-in-charge to think they are bigger than the FFSL. They started working independently, according to their whims and fancies, without adequate technical and administration knowledge on Football.
Today, there is an upsurge of interest among them only when a foreign tour is round the corner. Trials are announced, new coaches appointed, sponsors found and they do their own selections of the team. Players of well-to-do parents and schools who could afford to pay their children’s air fare, are selected, thereby, depriving talented players of poor parents and schools of making the tour. It is disappointing to note that, in the past, those teams that participated in international schools tournaments, returned home after disgraceful and humiliating defeats. There are instances of our school teams conceding 55 goals in 5 matches and 32 goals in 4 matches.
The authorities gave approvals continuously, without any supervision or study. These arrangements go on unabated, and shall go on until the Minister of Education takes necessary steps. We should, with all our resources, skills and expertise, offer a meaningful programme for the promotion of Football in our schools, with support and assistance from Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam. Nothing in life has grown nor shall grow in the absence of nurseries. Schools are our nurseries and the seed necessarily, must be sown there. It is relevant, at this juncture, to note with pride, the gigantic strides made by our Cricketers in their march towards world standards.
They were not produced as a result of waving a magic wand o,r from under the hat of a magician. Their high standards were achieved as a result of a meaningful and methodical promotional programme in our schools. It is over to you, Minister of Education and Minister of Sports, to put things in order and get the right men to handle its affairs, for the sake of Mother Lanka, to improve the common man’s glamour sport, Football which is seriously played islandwide. Football Academy is a special centre which will have to be set up by the FFSL, not by any Tom, Dick, or Harry.
Talented young players aged 16 to 18 years, will be coached and trained by qualified and experience coaches, with the aim of producing quality players to represent our country and end up professional stars. The Football Academy should have highly qualified, specialist coaches, support by other professional staff including physiotherapists, doctors and teachers. Hence, the Football Academy is really about excellence in everything they do, in addition to sport and education. As I mentioned earlier, the Football Academy will have a Director in charge of its overall activities.
He will be an experienced Footballer- may be a former national player himself- with technical knowledge and managerial skills to develop young players. The big question is, “Do we have the right men in the FFSL, with the necessary criteria, to manage an Academy? Or, will it be another white elephant”? In fact, the incumbent President of the FFSL has stated that, some countries in the South Asian region who introduced Football Academies funded by FIFA, failed miserably to reach its objectives, and dropped in world Football rankings.
We are afraid, we too, will meet the same fate, if we don’t get the right men who are technically qualified and competent with managerial skills, put in charge to serve this important institute. Trying to introduce STCs islandwide is indeed, a good move. However, it must be implemented after the kids are taught basic skills in the school nurseries. Things become difficult when they are mature, to teach advanced skills at the STCs you intend to start. Why did the so-called Football pundits give false hopes to the Football-loving public? Why don’t you actually tell what is wrong with our Football? Certainty an overall, complete approach to all aspects of the game is essential.