• Sponsorship dilemma for FSL due to high costs 

Football Sri Lanka (FSL) has planned to recommence the major domestic football competitions which have remained dormant since 2022 over a multitude of reasons, from January next year, The Daily Morning Sports learns.

According to FSL sources, the game’s local controlling body has decided to kick off the main local competitions with the Champions Trophy Tournament which is expected to be played in 2025.

Reportedly the President of the FSL Jaswar Umar has already held discussions with most of the local club officials and heads of leagues in this connection.

Following those talks held by the FSL head, with local club officials, the latter have reportedly expressed their willingness to kick off the Champions League Tournament from next January, these sources added.

However, as most of the clubs engaged in discussions with Umar had sought time to prepare for the Super League Tournament, they had informed him that the said Tournament’s kick off should be deferred till at least March 2025.

It is said that Umar too had supported the majority consensus expressed by clubs, to delay the start of the Super League Tournament till the aforementioned month.

Meanwhile, the FSL authorities are also determined to revive the popular FA Cup Tournament from the start of next year.

A brainchild of the incumbent head of FSL-the Inter-Provincial Football Tournament was started for the first time three years ago, with the Northern Province team clinching the title by beating the Southern Province team in the final, staged at the Duraiappah Stadium in Jaffna.

But, according to FSL sources, so far no final decision has been reached yet regarding the recommencement of the said tournament, with the Ex-Co of the controlling body, expressing their reluctance to do so, due to high costs involved.

The Matara City team won the last Champions League Tournament, which was held in October two years ago and they were rewarded with a cash prize of Rs. 1 million for their efforts.

In the meantime, Kalutara Blue Stars were the winners of the last Super League Tournament, that was also held 24-months ago and they were provided with a winners cheque for Rs. 5 million.

Furthermore, it was Police Sports Club who were the last winners of the coveted FA Cup, held in 2020 and which has been modelled on the lines of the annual knockout football competition in domestic English football.

At the time it was reported in the local press, that some 950 teams had applied to for the aforementioned tournament, but since 2019 the country’s local football competitions, had been forced to stare into the abyss due to a slew of reasons.

Most prominent were the internal conflicts within the FSL, the global Covid-19 pandemic, the suspension of Sri Lanka’s membership by FIFA and the resultant financial constraints, dealing a hammer blow to the sustenance of the domestic tournaments.

FIFA also imposed an international ban on the island-nation’s football team, from 21 January to 28 August last year, citing the internal power struggles of Football Sri Lanka and the invariable political interference that comes with it.

According to FSL sources, the sport’s local governing body needs a sum in excess of Rs. 300 million to conduct the major local football competitions in this country.

It is also no secret that the FSL is under enormous financial strain, to organise the main tournaments due to the difficulty in roping in sponsors for its main competitions, since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Due to the suspension imposed on the FSL, the annual football funds deposited to Sri Lanka by the FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), were also temporarily frozen leading to the FSL’s financial predicament.

But, after the reelection of the current FSL President, the local body had managed to hold talks with FIFA and get its much-needed funds released.