Is the sordid saga of Sri Lanka Football about to unfold?
View(s):
FFSL President, Anura de Silva, with incumbant General Secretary Jaswar Umar (top left) and former President Ranjith Rodrigo (top right)
The Malaysians took the mickey off our national team and its celebrated coach by clobbering the local lads in a second half deluge 4:1, which once again laid bare the abject fitness long suspect and completely overlooked by the powers that be. The trick now is to stay the course and engage foreign regional teams to continue honing our performances because if nothing else, regular exposure will hopefully correct that lacuna in our football make-up!
Meanwhile the Champions League under-powered by the behemoth Dialog was overtaken by the FA Cup 2017/8 nearing its final stages, by a welcome sponsor in a apparel brand called Vantage, a desperate replacement to what once was the iconic Cargills wrapping which the FFSL unceremoniously lost in its lust for power!
But what Kornerkick stumbled on early this week is a Penalty Shoot-out that overshadows and undermines all the valiant efforts made by the current administration to get the noble game going in its hinterland, before taking on the international teams FFSL claims are eager to visit sunny Sri Lanka. The saga centers on money, money, money, something that knowledgeable football pundits will say Football House was never short of, though the sport is billed the poor man’s game!
The document executed on the 11/27/2017 titled Secretary General’s (SG) Report on matters related to Audit Queries dates (d) 30 April 2015 – Views of FFSL makes exhilarating reading and will tickle the fantasies of football watches beyond the touchlines. It is common knowledge that the President and former CEO (now the SG) were torch bearers of the former President whom they now seek to betray. In a fanciful preamble, the SG exclaims the long awaited recognition that reforms must take place, yet it has failed since the July 2017 election to institute changes to the present constitution that FIFA offered to model for all member associations. To cause this transformation, it claims to have included many experts and intellectuals into its standing committees. It will be very interesting to know who these people are, so that the football public can avoid sleepless nights hereafter!
Under a presumptuous paragraph with the heading Methodology, he extols the virtues of himself and the unanimous election as SG by default! He boasts of the fact that opposition candidates withdrew fearing defeat, as if it were his greatest achievement! He then paints a profile of himself that will make any well-meaning artist shudder. His claim that he has worked for 22 years in blue-chip companies is like an Arabian tale replete with conjecture while his sojourn as a top class referee and all else, runs counter to the technical people who were at the helm over the last several years. That he has inveigled himself into the echelons of high office on the coat tails of an administrator he now defiles sounds like a bad joke. Fortunately, those in football administration know that this ballyhoo is furthest from the truth. The report of a Senior Vice President who oversaw the past FFSL administration, gathering dust in the Ministry of Sports (MOS) is worth a read.
One salient feature of the SG’s report bears merit is the reference to ongoing legal cases that are pending in courts and the colossal funds and valuable time spent on these matters. Solving these cases that have languished for so long is certainly a top priority. And putting them behind forever will release the FFSL from the millstone round its neck. To cut a long story short, read story on Page 24 in the Main Section, so that the football community can draw its own conclusions. It may be too much to expect the MOS or other government agencies (including AGD and COPE) to investigate and put to rest these aberrations that have beset Sri Lanka Football for a long time. FIFA and AFC sadly remain impotent or indifferent and so the caravan moves on!