SOCCER: Sri Lanka to get Vision Asia Status [November 26 2008]

Asian Football confederation (AFC) has shown green signal to Sri Lanka to join the Vision Asia project, official sources said. The official website of AFC reported that the green light was given at the Vision Asia Bureau meeting in Shanghai for Sri Lanka's application.

Maldives inclusion in the vision Asia project was also ratified at the meeting. The two Indian Ocean countries join India and Bangladesh as part of the current South Asian Vision Asia portfolio. The addition of Sri Lanka and Maldives takes the number of Member Associations benefiting from the program to 14.

Sri Lanka's best performance at international level was when they won the 1995 South Asian Football Federation Cup on home soil, beating India in the final. They also reached the 1993 final in Lahore, Pakistan where India came out on top. In 2006, the Lankans reached the final of the 2006 AFC Challenge Cup in Bangladesh, losing to Tajikistan.