The Sri Lanka National men’s football team, which had been at the bottom of the world football rankings and was below 200 for a while, recently showed significant progress and rose to 196th place. This was achieved through the consistent performances displayed over several months. 

However, Sri Lankan football is not only the men’s national team but also the combination of men’s, women’s and all age groups. If all other teams except the national men’s team lose, it is a national problem. Mohamed Fairoze Muhiseen, a former tournament manager of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and currently a match commissioner of AFC, spoke to The Daily Morning about the problem and practical solutions to it.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

The last two international football tournaments in which Sri Lanka was represented were the Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers and the South Asian Women’s Under-20 Championship. Sri Lanka suffered crushing defeats in both of these tournaments. What is the reason for this crisis?

The current state of Sri Lankan football is one of stagnation, trapped in a cyclical pattern that fails to foster long-term growth and development. The core issue is a systemic lack of foresight and investment from football administrators over the past two decades. This has created a critical gap in professional development, particularly in coaching and officiating, which are the foundational pillars of the sport.

The stagnant cycle

The established pathway for a Sri Lankan footballer is a rigid and repetitive cycle. A player progresses from the school level to the youth level, then to a sports club, and finally, if they’re exceptional, they reach the national level. After their playing career ends, the expectation is that they transition into a new role as a coach or referee, effectively returning to the beginning of the cycle. 

While this model provides a clear route, it falls apart at the point of transition. For a player to become a competent coach, they must obtain the necessary educational qualifications, such as a Pro Diploma. This is a critical step that ensures coaches are equipped with modern tactical knowledge, sports science principles, and effective training methodologies.

Lack of professionalism, investment

The central problem is that this final, crucial step is not being properly supported. There is currently no one in Sri Lanka who has completed the Pro Diploma. This is a staggering statistic that highlights the profound neglect of coaching education. This lack of top-tier qualification is not due to a lack of talent or dedication among former players; it’s a direct consequence of the football administration’s failure to make the necessary investments.

For over two decades, the administrative bodies have not prioritised:

• Establishing proper coaching education programmes: Offering advanced courses and workshops that are up-to-date with global football standards.
• Funding professional development: Providing scholarships or financial support for aspiring coaches to pursue high-level qualifications, both locally and internationally.
• Inviting foreign expertise: Bringing in experienced coaches and educators from more developed football nations to share their knowledge and elevate local standards.

This chronic underinvestment has created a massive knowledge gap. The strategic, physical, and psychological demands of modern football have evolved dramatically, but the coaching and administrative knowledge base in Sri Lanka has not kept pace. This stagnation perpetuates the cycle of mediocrity, as the next generation of players is being trained by coaches who are themselves operating with outdated information.

Domino effect on SL Football

The repercussions of this systemic failure are widespread and deeply damaging. Without qualified coaches, players are not being developed to their full potential. This impacts their tactical awareness, technical skills, and overall game intelligence. As a result, the national team consistently underperforms on the international stage, unable to compete with nations that have robust and well-funded development pipelines.

The lack of investment in coaching and administration is not just a symptom of the problem; it is the root cause. To break this cycle, a radical shift in administrative priorities is needed. The focus must move from short-term gains to long-term sustainable growth, beginning with a significant and immediate investment in the education and professionalisation of all individuals involved in the sport, from the youth level all the way up to the national team.

Even though the women’s teams are losing, the men’s team continues to win. There is a big difference in these results. Is this because the majority of the national men’s team in this country today are foreign players of Sri Lankan origin?

Yes. Including players from foreign countries who have their own origins in their own country in the team is a tactic used by many countries. But this is used as a short-term method. If we take our team, there are about 14 such players. Sujan Perera is the only player who has come to the national team from the grassroot level in Sri Lanka. The other players are additional players. So this team wins. Because these players play with the knowledge and experience they have gained from playing in the top leagues around the world.

But no development project is implemented in our women’s football from the school level to the top. What is done in Sri Lanka is that when there are a few weeks left for an international tournament, all the players are asked to come on one day for selections held in various cities. Then, it is a lie to say that they train for two or three weeks and then go to international tournaments like ‘broiler chicken’. If that were possible, strong countries like Brazil and Argentina would train for a week and then go to tournaments. Other countries spend a lot of money and prepare for six or seven months of long-term training with plans. Neither the coaches nor the players can be blamed for this.

Even in the grants of FIFA and the AFC, guidelines have been issued on the areas where those funds should be used. One area they point out is women’s football. They provide separate special support for the development of women’s football.

It is also important to maintain the talent of our men’s team. What steps need to be taken for this?

We cannot always rely on our foreign-born players. I suggest our football chairperson discusses with our current foreign-born players and make the necessary investment to direct them to the ‘C’ level coaching qualification. Next, we can create national squads at various levels and assign the players from this national team to those squads. They should be given the responsibility to develop the local players in the squads. Their knowledge should be given to our local players through proper investment. Otherwise, when they come, play and go back to their countries of residence, the victory we will achieve will be temporary.

Also, nothing is happening in our top leagues right now. Now the hopes of a player making it to the national team are very limited. To play for the national team, that player needs to play in the country’s top league. 

Next, a special selection programme needs to be held for all local and foreign players to be selected for the national team. Only then can the players have a hope of representing the national team. What we are doing now is abandoning the grassroots level and the young players and building them from the top.

Coaches are also a very important factor in this football recovery programme. Is the knowledge of Sri Lankan coaches sufficient for today?

No matter how many schools are there in Sri Lanka, there are no good coaches in those schools to provide the necessary knowledge and training to the athletes at the right age. So, no matter how much they play, they do not get 100 percent of the knowledge and techniques needed for football today. It is not the fault of the coaches. The reason is that the necessary investment and educational programmes have not been launched in the past several years to develop the knowledge of the coaches. That is a big problem in Sri Lanka. Our coaches currently work from the experiences they have gained.

By now, even our best referees have left the country. Dilan Perera is the best example. He is a talented referee who has refereed age-group world cups, major Asian level matches as well as local tournaments. Many of our knowledgeable coaches are now going to play in leagues in countries like Maldives and Bangladesh. If this continues, there will be big gaps in our football cycle.

Our football organisation issues a licence by conducting ‘D’ level programmes, but it is not a licence approved by FIFA or AFC. Doing so is not successful. It needs to be approved at the FIFA or AFC level. Because only then will we receive accurate knowledge through an approved formality.

We need money to implement those plans. Is the money we currently receive through FIFA sufficient for these plans?

We can use not only the main ones provided by FIFA and the AFC. There are programmes like ‘FIFA Forward’ and the AFC’s improvement programmes. Countries that present good plans and results are also given money through them. But FIFA is now providing funds to Sri Lanka under control. Because over the past few years, some of our audit reports have not been provided to FIFA on time and properly. Because of our lack of transparency, FIFA and the AFC are strictly controlling the provision of funds. Therefore, a situation has risen where even local competitions and other activities cannot be maintained properly.

Also, the football administration knowledge of our football organisation officials and the tournament officials is at a very low level. We do not have an annual calendar. Other football organisations are transparent by publishing their audit reports, information, news, etc. through official websites. But we do not have an official website yet. Although there is a ‘link’ to Sri Lanka football on the FIFA website, it is inactive. These are the basics. Our administration focuses on superficial things without the essential basics. Football is the most commercialised sport in the world. It is a fruitless act for us to hold tournaments without adding commercial value. If we do not add commercial value with a proper plan, we will always have to depend on FIFA funds.

Here are the key pointers that can be put into practice in making the Lankan football dream a reality:

• Lack of long-term development: The primary issue is a failure to implement proper development strategies over the past two decades. The ‘cycle’ of a player’s career – from school to the national team and then into coaching or refereeing – is broken. There’s a significant lack of coaches with high-level qualifications, like the ‘Pro Diploma’.
• Reliance on foreign-born players: The recent success of the men’s national team is largely due to foreign-born players of Sri Lankan origin. While this is a common tactic for short-term gains, it doesn’t solve the fundamental problem of developing local talent.
• Poor women’s football development: The women’s teams are losing because there is no long-term development programme. Teams are assembled just a few weeks before international tournaments and are not given the proper training time, which is referred to as ‘broiler chicken’ training.
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• Coach and referee brain drain: Many experienced and knowledgeable coaches and referees are leaving Sri Lanka to work in other countries, like the Maldives and Bangladesh. This creates a ‘big gap’ in the local football ecosystem.
• Financial and administrative mismanagement: The Sri Lanka Football Federation has faced issues with transparency and accountability, leading to FIFA controlling the release of funds. The lack of proper financial management has stalled local competitions.
• Lack of professionalism and commercialisation: The administration lacks professionalism, with no annual calendar or a functioning official website. The sport is not being properly commercialised, making the organisation overly dependent on external funding from FIFA and the AFC.

In short, the crisis in Sri Lankan football is a systemic issue rooted in a lack of long-term planning, insufficient investment in coaching and player development, administrative failures, and a dependence on short-term fixes rather than building a sustainable and professional football infrastructure from the ground up.