Sri Lanka’s junior national footballers who are on tour to India to battle out in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Men’s Under-19 Championship faced humiliating losses at the hands of hosts India in their tournament opener and most recently against Nepal after being eliminated from the competition. Sri Lanka suffered a demoralising heavy 8-0 defeat against India last week. Soon after that in their next outing against Nepal, the Lankans got hammered 5-0 in yet another crushing loss. Yesterday (13) Maldives took on Bhutan and India played Nepal in two crucial games.
What is fascinating in the part of the controlling body of the game in the island nation ‘Football Sri Lanka’ is their silence during heavy losses? During the recent success of the National Men’s team, the official social media handles of the body were on a roll praising the team for many days and sent out posts/flyers on goal scorers with constant updates of games and info. However when the junior national side suffers heavy defeats, the authorities have showcased lackadaisical attitude in their platforms as they have not mentioned about the elimination of the Lankan team or the final scores of the games against India and Nepal. It seems that the controlling body of Sri Lanka’s football, showcase and publicise only the winning moments whilst keeping mum during losses.
It is reported that the team was sent on tour to India with less than a week of training together as a unit. The challenges the Sri Lanka U19 team is experiencing raise significant doubts about our ability to cultivate future international players. It begs the questions: Are we truly laying a strong enough foundation at the grassroots level?, and is the technical department effectively guiding and preparing these young athletes to succeed on the global stage? Do we allow our young guns for further humiliation at the global stage owing to poor planning and management?
This year Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan are taking part in the SAFF U19 Championship race in a bid to stamp their class in the South Asian region prior to taking on the big guns in the top Asian tournaments which set the path for other global events such as the junior world cup. The tournament held at the Golden Jubilee Outdoor Stadium in the Northeast city of Yupia, Arunachal Pradesh kicked off on 9 May and is set to conclude on 18 May with the grand finale at 7 p.m. The two semifinals will be played on Friday (16) at 3.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
The biennial championship was first held in August 2015 in Nepal. The tournament is held before AFC (Asian) Championship qualification matches. India is the most successful team in the tournament’s history winning 3 titles. Bangladesh is the defending champions with their maiden championship title victory coming in 2024 when they beat hosts Nepal 4-1. Meanwhile Pakistan is not taking part in the tournament this year.
Sri Lanka has taken part at the tourney in 2019 (Nepal), 2022 (India), 2024 (Nepal), and this year. However they have failed to go past the group stages in the previous editions and the same fate will continue this time around as well with a dismal performance.
SAFF Under-19 – 2025 – Results (as of 12 May)
Bangladesh 2-2 Maldives
Sri Lanka 0-8 India
Bhutan 0-3 Bangladesh
Sri Lanka 0-5 Nepal
SAFF Under-19 Championship – Past Winners
2015 – Nepal (beat India)
2017 – Nepal (beat Bangladesh)
2019 – India (beat Bangladesh)
2022 – India (beat Bangladesh)
2023 – India (beat Pakistan)
2024 – Bangladesh (beat Nepal)