City Football League's aim to develop the game in Sri Lanka

by Leslie FERNANDO

FOOTBALL: City Football League is the oldest soccer league in the country and was founded in 1922, that's 87 long years ago. It is situated at Kew Point Road, Slave Island, Colombo 2. The City League Grounds belonged to the Colombo Municipal Council and it was earlier known as Newnham Playground. The authorites of the CMC granted permission to the various clubs to use the facilities at this venue. At the begining, there were handful of clubs who had the opportunity of playing football at this ground.

According to M. Premadasa one of the oldest members of the City Football League, the league was formed by earlier stalwarts, who with dedication and hard work were responsible in bringing the league to a good level. Sir Herbert Dowbiggin (Inspector General of Police) was the first president and A. A. Perera (first Honourary Secretary) in whose memory the "The A. A. Perera Cup" tournament was conducted.

60 clubs registered

Premadasa who is the present incharge of the redeveloped City FL grounds, added that the league increased to over20 clubs in the early 1970's and most of the top clubs in the country participated in all major tournaments conducted by the City FL. The City FL is now registered with nearly 60 clubs.

City Football League have conducted top class tournaments and also have produced several famous Sri Lanka players. I could well remember a champion team of 1931 - the line up W. Dharmadasa (Medical), H. Anthonisz, A. G. Ranasinghe (Railway), S. Rasiah (Municipality), P. D. D. Costa, L. Jansz (Postal), S. C. M. Buhary, H. A. Peiris (Harbour Engineers), F. C. A. Speldewinde, A. Rahim (Customs), and R. Rankine (Excise).

Invitation football tournament

After a lapse of two-and-half-years, City FL will conduct the Invitation Football Tournament for division one clubs starting on January 9 at the City League grounds. The matches will commence at 3.30 p.m.

The tournament is sponsored by Phoenix Plastic Ltd and the FFSL has given its blessings.

The teams in the fray: Renown SC, Java Lane SC, Old Bens SC, Ratnam SC, Saunders SC, Young Silver SC, Cooray SC, Blue Star SC, New Youngs SC, Premier SC, Sarasavi SC, Maligawatte Youth SC. The fixtures: January 9 - Young Silver SC v Maligawatte Youth SC (match no. I) January 10-Blue Star SC v Sarasavi SC (2) January 16-Cooray SC v Premier SC (3) January 17-Saunders SC v New Youngs SC. (Y)

The quarter-final matches will be played on January 23,24,30 and 31, semi-finals on February 6 and 7 and the final on February 13.

The champions will receive the Phoenix Cup and Rs. 1,000,000 and runners-up a trophy and Rs. 50,000.

M. Premadasa, the Chairman competition committee city FL thanked Alam Omar, Director Phoenix Plastic Ltd for coming forward with a sponsorship package Rs. 4,50,000.