Ministry of Sports takes the cake to Sri Lanka Football
Local media are awash with reports of the Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena report that was handed over to the Minister of Sports just before he emplaned on a personal travel out of the island. Grandstanding is the order of the day, so even before carefully perusing the report and making a deliberate study of its contents, frivolous snippets of news was released to the media just to entice and justify the absolute ignorance that the Ministry of Sports (MoS) has displayed about football affairs. Having disposed the Director General (DG), the MoS is falling over each other to cast aspersions targeting a particular period 2013-2023, in order to level spurious allegations against the three Presidents who governed that 10 year period.
The report itself underpins the malaise of Football House. In fact one can go back another 10 years and see that it was no different. Even elephants were brought to hotel ballrooms to fete FIFA Chief Joseph Sepp Blatter during his well-orchestrated visits to Sri Lanka. This is not unusual for FIFA bosses who straddle the universe rubbing shoulders with Heads of State and all shades of Royalty, in a rigorous routine that knows no bounds. Hence the scandals that have since been exposed. Sri Lanka is no better. It throws the red carpet when the big chief comes to town and why not? It is FIFA that sustains football and not the MoS. In so doing it leaves room for misdeeds a plenty and that is what the players in the park are griping about.
However, football continued in this era and the local chiefs went about their tasks, albeit without the wisdom of how modern football runs. The Weerawardena commission of enquiry in fact had at least two members familiar with FFSL politics. One served on the FFSL Ex-Co and had close associations with the football administration and the other was a supplier to FFSL over many years.
What independence would they exhibit in a commission, which from day one appears to have made the decision to sentence before examination. What it therefore did was to assemble fancy stories that finally seems to have gone into a mammoth report, without the benefit of supporting evidence or substance. Former President Ranjith Rodrigo, it is known, refused to appear before the commission on legal advice and is on record that he will contest the report, if required in court.
What is tantalizing is the inclusion of tit-bits like the cost of cake to demonstrate the evil nature of football. Information in hand shows that the cake bill of Rs.165, 000 was part of overall charges for a huge banquet that cost Rs.8.5M, duly approved by the FFSL Ex-Co. In an event such as this, perceived extravaganzas may be observed such as the hue and cry made over the functions on National Independence Day.
But as a footballing nation, the FFSL was obliged to receive its international leader in a fitting manner. If that involved a designer cupcake serving, one must stop to consider what the trumpeting is all about. Minutes of an October 2014 Ex-Co meeting sums up a string of activities carried out by that administration and belies the cacophony of deceit that the MoS is trying to create.
Such belligerence from a state organisation only distorts the real issues governing football. Most of these ills have been relayed to the parade of ministers who have adorned this office without a qualm of interest. Now, comes the savior as it may. How does one wash his hands from the mess created by gazette after gazette?
FFSL President J. Sri Ranga, in the short time given to him, single-mindedly went about exposing the decades of corruption that had stifled the progress of the sport. Regrettably, that mandate ran aground and sadly he remains in custody unable to take his mission to the cleaners. If that is the mission that the MoS is pursuing, they must deal in facts, not innuendo.
In the meantime, the Minister has quite correctly appointed a Competent Authority to take charge of Football House until a proper administration can be put in place. The FIFA suspension remains in place with no breakthrough in sight. Unconfirmed reports that H.E. the President is aware of this plight is perhaps submerged in the affairs of state that take precedence over a delinquent sport. FIFA is waiting, but the powers that be and its minions are fighting a lost cause in paradise.
Many knowledgeable football followers on the goal line are of the view that another election will only bring back the deadwood. A popular stratagem they believe is a ‘Normalisation Committee’ that needs to do some major surgery before the infirmed body of this popular sport can be brought back from the cold. But when, when, when, is the damning question?