Sri Lankan Football’s most awaited extravaganza and the long standing dream the-“Super League” Soccer Tournament conducted by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) is set to kick off in November this year, subject to health authorities’ clearances in Colombo.
The Super League, which is a key tournament all around the football playing nations accredited to FIFA, in their annual calendars, has never been played in Sri Lanka or never had a professional outfit competition for the last 75 years. Hence, this will be their inaugural competition of this nature.
The competition was initiated and designed in 2018 by Jaswer Umar, General Secretary, FFSL, with the assistance and guidance of World Football governing body, FIFA. It almost took over 18 months to make the preparation and start up the grass root level process. The initial plan was to take off the tournament in last April, but due to the of Covid-19 pandemic, it came to a standstill.
The playing ten teams had a long selection process and were selected through a “Club Licensing Criteria” in association with Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Defenders SC (Former Army), Sea Hawks SC (Former Navy) , Blue Eagles (Former Air Force), Colombo FC, Renown SC, Ratnam SC, Red Star SC, Blue Star SC, Up Country Lions SC, and New Youngs FC were the teams that have finally met the stipulated requirements and criteria to participate in this tournament.
“Professional League is not just another competition; it is totally a new football industry with a professional employment contract for over 300 players, coaches, and other officials. It also provides new business opportunities to many local entrepreneurs in this new football business.” said Jaswar Umar, General Secretary of FFSL who is one of the main stakeholders of this initiative.
He further stated that “Many people are criticising that Super League is getting delayed. One need to understand that it is not an easy task to begin a professional League set up from the base. Before selections some minimum requirements were to be fulfilled. We have many challenges like venue preparation, medical aspects, televising, branding and other logistics. As the governing body our vision is to create a real football atmosphere for the fans and the Football loving public. We have done a lot of spade work preparation behind the screen which spectators are yet to witness.”
FFSL is assuring a different football atmosphere to its spectators with the launch of the Super League. Like the old days ‘Back to Football’- the Sugathadasa Stadium which has been chosen as the venue to stage this six-month long tournament, which no doubt is to catch the lost glory of the game.
The organisers believe that this will change the perception of the game and attract many investments into football from the private sector.
Improving and enhancing the skill levels of the national team, new talent identifications, transformation of clubs to a vibrant entity are some of the benefits of this Super League. Moreover, this is also set to become another entertainment sector as the organisers are embarking on a new concept for families and women to come and witness the games at an entertaining atmosphere.
Add new comment