Sri Lanka secure Al Mutairi as Head Coach
Al Mutairi, who replaced former Manchester City’s centre defender turned coach Andy Morrison after the Scot was forced to stay away from action due to medical reasons, has had a successful two-week tenure coming in as a temporary replacement. Al Mutairi, 42, of Kuwait, had previously helped Nepal reach the SAFF Cup final in 2021 as Head Coach, and pledged that he can do the same with Sri Lanka, if an opportunity arises.
With Sri Lanka’s recent success against Cambodia, and the rise to 200 in FIFA global rankings after eight years, Al Mutairi will now be tasked to shape up Sri Lanka in its upcoming double-header against Myanmar in October, and a possible tri-nation or a four-nation tournament in November.
Abdullah Al Mutairi has vowed to make Sri Lanka the top football unit in South Asia
“As much as FSL would like to see our team win more often, with the evolving pattern of play, the coach (Al Mutairi) has added certain extra ingredients into players. This combination has paid dividends in return and the country would surely benefit from his inputs in many ways,” FSL President Jaswar Umar stated.
Al Mutairi’s extended contract, which will go up until end of this year, will see him cover many areas other than the Sri Lanka main team. He is set to oversee the national Under-20 and Under-17 teams that recently participated in the AFC U-20 Asian Cup 2025 Qualifiers and the SAFF U-17 Championship respectively with rather unimpressive records.
“The results of both junior sides may not be a pleasing fact, but these youngsters are part of FSL’s future plans. If they continue and develop their skills with proper training, they can surely reach the main team and then play alongside the professional who have helped immensely to Sri Lanka’s successes in the recent times. To make that happen football would need an expert and that’s where the coach comes in,” Umar revealed.
With the service extension of Al Mutairi up until December, FSL will hand over the task of fine tuning the youngsters with a long range plan, as well as tasking him to train around 15 local coaches continuously during the phase.
“An area we need to develop and change is on updates, latest tools, latest development, planning and coaching with different methodology. The coach will help develop some of the local coaches who are presently in the top range. The coaches would definitely come from the clubs, schools, or academies”.
While providing the local coaches with his expertise, Al Mutairi will focus mainly on the training process of Sri Lanka Men for the upcoming two games against Myanmar, that will be played away on October 10 and 13. During November, Sri Lanka will likely join two or three teams from Nepal, Mauritius, Guam and Brunei in a possible tri-nation or a four-nation that will be hosted by regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia.
Afterwards Sri Lanka will move into the second phase of the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers with guaranteed six games beginning from early next year. Al Mutairi’s role will be to assist local coaches and potential talents to syncronise with the present standards of the Sri Lanka Men, who are currently tagged as the most successful football side from the South Asian region. FSL is in negotiations with Qatar, who is financially funding Sri Lanka with technical and professional requirements, of a possible extension of two further years with Al Mutairi as head coach.