Steinwall appointed national Football coach
Dudley Steinwall
Sri Lanka has appointed a football coach for the South Asian Football Championships (SAFF) to be held in Bangladesh in December 2017. The main target of the Sri Lanka Football Federation (SLFF) is to win this championship or be amongst the finalists.
The football coach in question is Dudley Steinwall, a former national player and captain and currently, assistant coach of the Sri Lanka team.
Sampath Perera, the present coach, has indicated that he is at the end of his tether and wants a break. The SLFF has decided to give Sampath Perera the much needed rest and in his place Dudley Steinwall has been appointed.
Sampath Perera was an outstanding player in the 1990s. It was under his captaincy that Sri Lanka was able to win the South Asian Football Championship – the SAF Gold Cup – at the competition held in Colombo in 1995.
In this historic final Sri Lanka beat India 1-0 to win the competition to bring glory to the island nation.
After that Sri Lanka has never won a trophy nor have they been able to win a competition to date. Sampath has been the national coach on four occasions – from 2004 to 2016.
Anura Silva, President of the Sri Lanka Football Federation when we inquired told the Sunday Times what plans had been drawn for the 2017 SAFF championship.
“Sampath Perera is a valuable coach. We have decided to give him the much needed rest from the game. To fill this void Sampath Perera’s assistant Dudley Steinwall has been brought in.
“We have given the new coach Dudley a challenge of 19 months to uplift the standard of football in the country. He has to bring the Sri Lanka team to the final of the SAFF championship. He has to present his plans and commence work by May 1. Dudley is also a national player and former skipper and a reliable coach. I think Dudley is capable of accepting this challenge.
“We have given the national football team a rest after the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) but currently we have 20 – under 23 players and over 23 years – 10 players. Presently they have been released for the FA Cup which is currently in progress.
“Meanwhile Deva Sagayam has been appointed as assistant coach on a request made by Dudley Steinwall. Also Mahinda Galagedera will continue as the goal-keeping coach. We are not hoping to get a foreign coach this year. For that matter we did not get a foreign coach last year either. Our coaches are of a certain standard now. We are happy about it. Even though they have been unable to win a championship they have been improving gradually. They are also good on the technical side.
“We have received calls from Eastern countries whether we would like to have their coaches, but we are not hoping to give them the long term opportunity to coach our teams. If needed, we will get them on a short term basis mainly to train our coaches.
“We have no international competitions this year. The full strength will go into SAFF training. Because foreign experience is needed, we are trying to get a few teams to play in Sri Lanka other than South Asian countries.
“We have written to countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia. Our aim is to play several practice matches against such countries on home land.
“The women’s team, meanwhile, will have the SAFF women’s championship to be held in India. Currently we have launched a talent search to spot players. This is another of our ideas for the year. The women’s championship commenced in 2010 and has been conducted on three years – in 2010, 2012 and 2014. We reached the semi-finals in the 2012 and 2014,” concluded Anura Silva.
Anura is a former Sri Lankan player. In 2015 he was elected President of the Sri Lanka Football Federation. Earlier he functioned as the Chief Executive Officer of the SLFF. He is an old boy of St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena.
In the history of Sri Lanka football we have won the championship was in 1995 SAF Gold Cup and in 2000 the Maldivian Freedom Cup. In both contests George Ferreira and Marcos Ferreira (the father and son combination) from Brazil, functioned as coaches.