Sri Lanka is running out of time and could even end up being blacklisted by football’s world governing body FIFA for its failure to initiate a professional League in the island.
An investigation by the Sunday Observer has shown that the Football Federation of Sri Lanka received an advance payment of 50,000 USD (Rs.7.8 million) to kick start the professional League.
But nothing has commenced to indicate such an event is in the making raising questions over the existence of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL). The money was received two months ago after FIFA granted the initial payment following a proposal made by the FFSL.
“The time frame for this proposal to become a reality and bear fruit was two years. We have only 10 months left from the two years”, said an FFSL official. He charged that the FFSL failed in such a crucial endeavour as no concrete proposal was made to convince FIFA to pay the full grant of 500,000 USD (Rs.78 million).
“We did not state our work plan and how the League will be run.
FIFA decided to release only 10 percent of the money to commence pre-works which we have not done in order to receive the balance payment”, he said.
Asked to comment of the lapse, FFSL president Anura de Silva said nothing has been abandoned and that the professional League was on course to start “as soon as possible”.
“Yes we received this ten percent (Rs.7.8 million) grant as an advance payment and the Committee is working on it.
Our main concern is the South Asian Games”, said de Silva. He claimed that all affiliated clubs were in agreement with the FFSL on the professional League which he said will start after the Champions League.