Sri Lanka will lose Rupees one Billion per year in revenue with the suspension of Football Sri Lanka (FSL) with effect from January 21 after the Sports Ministry allegedly conducted the Election of office bearers for FSL in an undemocratic manner.
This was revealed by immediate past President Jaswar Umar who was not allowed to contest the top post at the eleventh hour due to reasons known only to the Sports Ministry officials who conducted the elections, said Jaswar Umar at the media briefing held yesterday.
Moreover, the world body for Football, FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has indicated that it will not recognize the newly elected officials of FSL.
Besides, in a letter sent to Upali Hewage, General Secretary of FSL states that a joint FIFA and AFC mission was deployed to Colombo in order to initiate a review on the SLF statutes. The mission had also met with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of Sri Lanka to explain the overall process to the Minister, including the requirements of both FIFA and AFC in terms of statutory revision.
They have also indicated that an election be held no later than June 2021 for a one year term based on the existing FSL statutes. The ministry specified that it world work closely with FIFA and AFC to review the FSL statutes to align with their requirements prior to conducting the next elections for a four-year team.
The suspension will affect the players very badly and would leave them with no chance to go ahead with the game. They will be deprived from participating in international tournaments, players will be banned from going for further training overseas and even the referees and judges will not be able to officiate at international level.
Jaswar requested all stake holders to join hands with him and with the support of the head of state to overcome this situation and get this ban lifted as soon as possible leaving aside all petty differences.
“FSL will go back 20 years with all these restrictions levelled against FSL,” said Jaswar.
“I love football so much and no matter who is at the helm of FSL I will work with them and fight to get this suspension revoked,” added Jaswar.
“There is a mafia working behind football. I don’t know who it is but some people are giving false information to the Sports Minister about the manner football was administered here,” noted Jaswar.
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