FFSL chief has wide plans to uplift game

by Ranjan ANANDAPPA

FOOTBALL: The newly elected football chief parliamentarian Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera has elaborate plans to uplift the standard of football in the country which has been sagging for sometime. He has a short and a long term plan firmly embedded in his mind which he believes will help the country's soccer to reach reasonable proportions.

Weerasekera hopes to revive the poor man's game, which is the most popular game in the world by a talent hunt between six to eight months with the aid of a Technical Committee sent Islandwide to every nook and corner.

"We are also planning to have a friendly international tournament among the SAARC Countries where we could asses the progress of our players." said the former youth player Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera.

In the long term plan, Weerasekera hopes to reach the South Asian standards within five years. To do that, Under 19 and Under 21 tournaments should be conducted, and from there we should build a formidable Under 23 side for the future SAF Games. This has been the concept of our former President Manilal Fernando who has formed the infrastructure and laid the foundation some time back.

Sarath Weerasekera also emphasised of the players who fall on the way side after representing their respective schools. "After leaving school, there is no regular process of monitoring or finding the whereabouts of most of the talented players. An Under 21 tournament will be conducted to encourage the players and we are also planning to have a Football Academy." he said.