• Insists door not shut for locals to represent country
• Argues he cannot make players from office training
• Lanka stride out against Bhutan at 15th Tecno SAFF C’ship

In a riposte to lingering criticism of the dependence on origin players in the national side, Sri Lanka Football Team Head Coach Abdullah Almutairi maintained that the side managed by him had “true Sri Lankan blood”.

He made this retort during a pre-tournament press conference held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Wednesday (4), ahead of the 15th Tecno South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship which kicked off on Friday (6), with Sri Lanka set to face Bhutan in their first match at 7.30 p.m. Sri Lanka Standard Time on Sunday (8). 

The SAFF held its joint presser for all six Head Coaches and Captains in the run-up to the event, which is being staged from 5 to 17 November at the National Stadium in the Bangladeshi capital city.

Almutairi, a Kuwaiti national who took charge in August 2024, responded in his unflappable manner to persistent flak in Sri Lankan mainstream and social media platforms that the island nation had relied too heavily on origin players for its resurgence at the expense of unearthing local talent.

“Every player in this squad has Sri Lankan blood,” he told reporters. “Father Sri Lankan, mother Sri Lankan, grandfather Sri Lankan. They have a Sri Lankan passport. This is not a foreign team. This is a Sri Lankan team.”

The former Head Coach of the Nepal Football Team emphasised that Sri Lanka, currently placed 184th in the FIFA Men’s World Ranking, had remained faithful to strict FIFA eligibility rules throughout, while noting that his charges’ passports and bloodlines had also been verified.

He then rejected the term ‘foreigners’ used to identify such players, while preferring the terms ‘origin players’ or ‘brothers living abroad’ instead.

Almutairi also explained why it was necessary to traverse the path of the origin route, with the national team having won only four international fixtures during a 10-year span before he joined the ranks 24 months ago.

He pointed to the success rate of his side in the recent past since taking helm of Sujan Perera’s outfit and questioned the media as to how he could have depended on locals alone with neither a domestic super league nor a champions league being in existence since 2022.

“How can I select a local if [there is] no league?” he asked. “I cannot make players from office training.” 

He added: “These origin players bring a professional environment, besides them playing in third and fourth divisions in Germany, England, and Australia, [in addition to] daily training, gym work, diet, and tactical video sessions, which the local setup doesn’t have.”

He added that criticism directed at the team during the 2025 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifier that around 9–10 starters were origin players was “because they are better at that moment”. 

However, the Head Coach was quick to stress that the door would never be shut for locals to represent the country as long as he remained in charge. Yet it came with a caveat, with Almutairi highlighting the need for them to display the requisite level of performance in order to book their place in the starting XI.

Sri Lanka will be out to lift its first SAFF title since 1995, when Sampath Perera’s team beat India 1-0 in the final at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, and on current form with five wins on the trot, football analysts note that they will be one of the serious challengers for the silverware.

Sri Lanka are set to conclude their group stage engagements with the fixture against Bangladesh on Wednesday (11) at 7.30 p.m. The two semi-finals have been fixed for Saturday (14) and the final has been scheduled three days later.