Champs get Rs. 750,000, runners-up Rs. 500,000,losing semi-finals Rs. 100,000:

Big prize money in soccer sponsored by Dialog

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

Big prize money is thrown into soccer with a little bit of foreign flavour is in store for the soccer fans when the 8th version of the Dialog Championship League 2013 organised by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) and sponsored by Dialog gets underway in Colombo and Provincial towns shortly.

A total of 187 matches on a home and away basic will be played by the twenty teams who will enter the fray in this championship.

They will be grouped into two groups with a total of 18 matches played by each team and nine of them will be in their home grounds. Ratnams Sport Club won this championship in 2011 are the defending champions.

At a media briefing held this week it was stated by the organisers that a sum of Rs. 750,000 will be thrown as prize money for the champions in addition to a handsome trophy.

The runners will receive a prize money of Rs. 500,000 and the losing semi-finalists Rs. 100,000 each. At the last championship a total of 12 teams were seen in the fray and this year, another 8 teams from the provincial towns have added to it, with the a view of spreading the sport to the outstations and also bring into focus and they will be included into the national squad when they come into the scrutunity of the national selectors and the coaches.

The newcomers into the DCL big league are Solid SC from Anuradhapura, Pelicans SC, Kurunegala, City SC Matara, Upcountry Lions, Nawalapitiya, Super Sun SC, Beruwala, Surprisingly Kandy being the second biggest town in the country but there is no participation from Kandy with only the Upcountry Lions from the

entire Central Province being the sole participant. This club is new to soccer and is from Nawalapitiya.

This year’s tournament will see foreign players in action and most of the teams have contracted foreign players and they are permitted to have a maximum of three players who will lend a big support to the local players with their skills and power play. Most of these players are from the African countries like Cameroon, Morocco and Nigeria. Pelicans SC, Kurunegala has even contracted a foreign coach to put them through their paces in a big way.

The African style of soccer will offer a big challenge to the Brazilian and English style of soccer adopted traditionally by some of the clubs.

The past winners of this championship are:

2000/01: Saunders SC
2001/02: Saunders SC

2002/03: Negombo Youths SC
2003/04: Blue Stars SC, Kalutara

2004/05: Saunders SC

2005/06: Segment ‘A’ – Negombo Youths SC

2005/06: Segment ‘B’ – Sri Lanka Navy

2006: Segment ‘A’ – Ratnams SC
2006: Segment ‘B’ – New Youngs SC

2007: Ratnams SC
2008: Sri Lanka Army

2009: Renown SC
2010: Don Boscos SC
2011: Ratnams SC.