Former President of Football Sri Lanka Jaswar Umar yesterday said that he was able to bring down the Asian Football Confederation imposed USD 20,000 fine against Sri Lanka for its failure to attend the Under 17-Asian Football Championship to USD 5,000.
He said that he appealed to the AFC in his capacity as an executive committee member of the confederation and the AFC’s disciplinary committee in response to the appeal decided to reduce the amount of the fine. The AFC has also decided to suspend the balance USD 15,000 which would act as a surety for the next two years. If Sri Lanka commits the same offence of failing to participate in international tournaments during the next two years, the country would have to pay the full amount, Umar said.
Sri Lankan Under-17 team was scheduled to participate in the Asian Cup tournament in Uzbekistan but at the eleventh hour the tour had been cancelled owing to bureaucratic bungling. The AFC conducted an investigation into the matter and imposed a fine of USD 20,000 on Sri Lanka. The fine, if implemented as dictated by the AFC, cash-strapped Sri Lanka would have been in a further difficulty, the stakeholders of the football and sports had stated. “In that situation I intervened and presented the prevailing situation in the country and appealed to the AFC to review their standpoint,” Umar said.
A conflict between FSL and the sports Ministry resulted in loss of Lankan teenagers to represent Sri Lanka, Umar said. The crisis started aftermath the cancellation of special gazette which had stated two additional months for the sports bodies. Following this incident, the FSL too suffered a lot.
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