Eight new clubs with foreign players will brighten up Dialog Rugby League Tourney

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr.

A new look Dialog Champions League Rugby Football with eight new clubs with foreign players being permitted to play, will kick-off soon with 187 matches to be played country-wide.

Among the new clubs which will enter the fray will be Upcountry Lions from Nawalapitiya which made a big impact in the Dialog Premier Rugby League last season defeating some of the top clubs in the country in their first year. They also entered the semi-finals of the Clifford Cup knock out tournament.

The other new clubs that will be in the fray in the Dialog Champions League are Solid SC, Anuradhapura, Pelicans SC, Kurunegala, Super Sun SC, Beruwala, Matara City SC, Matara, Blue Stars SC, Kalutara, Park SC, Kalutara, Negombo Youths SC, Don Bosco SC, Negombo and New Youngs SC, Wennappuwa.

Thus top level soccer will spread to all parts of the country and they will join the existing clubs in the Dialog Champions League Saunders SC, Renown SC, Ratnams SC, Colombo PC, Java Lane SC, all from Colombo along with Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Air Force, Police SC. A notable feature in this year's championship is that foreign players will be permitted to play for the clubs except for the Civil Security and forces teams. A maximum number of three foreign players could play for a club. Clubs have already contracted for foreign players and they are mostly from Nigeria and Cameroon Islands.

It must be recalled that when club rugby was slowly on a natural death course, in the upcountry it was given a new lease of life by Kandy Sports Club with the inclusion of foreign players in their team in 1992.

This saw a dramatic turn in the spectators and the crowds once again began to flock in. What was achieved in rugby, could be achieved in soccer too, and this will augur well for the future of the game.

Standard of football to be raised

Football is popularly dubbed as the poor man's game and it could be revived to its pristine glory when even a club match drew large crowds and the Football Federation of Sri Lanka under the leadership of Ranjith Rodrigo and in collaboration with the Dialog appears to be in the right course to achieve these objectives.

This has been quite rightly done through the expansion of the participation of clubs from 12 to 20 and giving the outstation teams to show their prowess and the outstation players will also have the opportunity of being selected to the national pool as the National Selectors will go islandwide to witness matches and scout for untapped talent.

This will no doubt increase the soccer spectator base and the game will spread from cities to outstations. This could be Sri Lanka's answer to the European Premier League or Germany's Bundesliga. This will no doubt be a transformation and the focus of attention from Club oriented football to community oriented football and this should attract the spectators and bring back the crowds.

Dialog Champions League could be ranked as one of the top tournaments in the country with a good following and this could made even bigger with the present format of increasing the number of participating clubs and adding more spice with a foreign flavour. The presence of foreign players will also sharpen the skills of the local players who will not like to end up as second best and instead will give out their best. This will in turn raise the standard of soccer and will be reflected in the regional tournaments.

Thus this partnership between FFSL and Dialog augurs well for the future of the game and the soccer fans will eagerly wait for the DCL tournament to kick-off soon.