Dear Sports Minister, we are suffering, Please pass the ball back to FIFA without further delay
How many moons must show its face before the Minister of Sports (MoS) wakes up and plays the ball back to FIFA. As long back as January 2023, FIFA wrote to the FFSL conveying its suspension and imposing conditions under which they would consider lifting the ban and allowing Sri Lanka football to get back on its feet again.But there has been a resounding silence from the MoS and instead a Commission of Enquiry was instituted against the establishment, whose report no doubt is gathering dust in the corridors of government bureaucracy. Corruption is an often bandied word when you wish to cast spurious allegations. If it must investigate wrongdoings, a good place to start maybe at its own doorsteps. Even a through pass, (as they say in football parlance), to the President’s Office has not put the ball back in play. Sri Lanka has thus lost its rightful place in the forthcoming SAFF tournament and as it stands today, will remain debarred from all foreign competition and allied activities for the foreseeable future.
FIFA is not without blemish here. From what is reported, having imposed the suspension and made it public, it has stringently refused to acknowledge the responsibility of the MoS which is the governmental body responsible for all sports in Sri Lanka. FIFA knows pretty well that while Sri Lanka may have contravened their global statutes, the MoS also has its obligations by the people of Sri Lanka, to ensure that sports in the island is played according to country rules and laws. FIFA maintains that the MoS renegaded on an understanding reached to amend or at least release football from the archaic framework of the local Sports Law. The MoS disdains that claim and asserts that no finality was reached in this regard. FFSL has no document to establish what actually took place. The MoS was thus compelled to proceed with FFSL elections under the existing constitution and was constrained to refuse nomination to the incumbent President at that time on a complaint made by an affiliated member. FIFA may have construed that this was a covert act, a slap in the face and thus the penalty.
It thus refused to accept the validity of the election, nor the newly elected President, who sadly is languishing in remand over a criminal case. The MoS, in the meantime, has had no choice but take over the affairs of FFSL and appoint a competent authority to manage day-to-day affairs until a new administration could take office. FIFA should thus have engaged the MoS instead of continuing to recognise the disposed President and his sidekicks. But to add insult to injury, it continues to extend recognition to the old guard and includes the former President as an observer in most of its programmes for member countries. How cute can that get? So the venerable administrator shows the ‘kokka’ (hiccup as they say in Sri Lanka) and struts the FIFA forums, all but showing the middle finger to the MoS and acting in vainglorious arrogance, not so befitting of the national status one should expect of an official in that enviable position.
Meanwhile, court actions continue, never mind who is paying? Both parties are unwilling to reconcile their differences and put the sport on its rightful fitting. Even when a lifetime ban on our football supremo was imposed some years ago, Sri Lanka football was not affected and continued to enjoy the favours of FIFA. Therefore, one fails to understand why FIFA must twist the knife into the belly of a friendly nation instead of leaving room for negotiation and resolution. Letters from the MoS to FIFA, it is understood, are not acknowledged and instead passed on to the dormant offices of the former Secretary or President of the Football Federation or the FFSL. Sri Lanka is a sovereign state, in spite of its recent tribulations. It has always respected and honoured its obligations to FIFA and AFC as it does to IOC and NOC. The latter international organisations have not shown any interest in this pitiful situation when one of its members is facing torment at the hands of big daddy, nor have they any truck with MoS in seeking a solution to this prolonged nightmare.
Unfortunately, the big guns of Sri Lanka football have failed to fire. Those who so vociferously condemned the former President and accused him of many a fraudulent activity have gone silent. Perhaps all are playing safe not wanting to antagonise FIFA or the MoS. Under the watchful eyes of coaches and park superintendents, it is a delight to see that the sport flourishes in football centres. It is true we need a new regime; of that there is no doubt. The FIFA Normalization Programme, it is felt, can provide the hope that thousands of young footballers are looking for. True, we have faltered down the long road, our prima donnas have let us down, our guardians have had decadent designs, but we have never given up on the sport we love and the future of Sri Lanka football that we must safeguard at any cost.