Bid to popularise American football in Sri Lanka

by Ranjan ANANDAPPA

American Football an extremely popular sport in the United States of America is set to take root in Sri Lanka with a launch to popularise the game being held at the Cinnamon Grand Lakeside Hotel on Friday.

The game which is already popular in South Asia via the efforts of the EFLI ( Elite Football League In India) with countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka being the latest addition to take up the sport in a big way.

Sri Lanka will be the ninth nation to join the first season of EFLI which will be held at the Custom Fit Stadium in Pune, India.

Ms Sunday Zeller the founder of EFLI said at the launch that " After the successful launch in India with the support of the Indian government, the forming of EFLI in Sri Lanka is a momentous occasion for us indeed for the game. American Football is an inherent part of the American way of life. With a history of over 100 years, the game has acquired cult status in US, which can be mapped alongside its history.

With our entry in South Asian countries, we aim to create American Football as the most lucrative sports league in the South Asian region." Sunday Zeller, the master mind behind the project said.

Manohar Bangera the COO, EFLI said that they have been covering all the major metros and the metros in India, and each city had about 45 players and five coaches, which means there were about 500 players to take the game forward. At the same time we are spreading the game in the South Asian Region and we are now launching this magnificent sport in this very soil of Sri Lanka. " We have had tremendous response from the press fraternity in India.

They have been very eagerly following us on the progress of this sport in India. It is very new, but has a meaning. American Football in India is not only promoting sport, it gives something back to mankind, we are paving a career to the deserving sportsmen of the country. Let it be India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or Nepal, We want sportsmen to realise, if they deserve a career in sports they must have it.

And our organisation is one which wants to take care of such deserving sportsmen to make a career. Because I've seen in this region, I myself being a sportsman, may be you win medals for your country, but thereafter you may end up in no man's land. You may be excellent in sports, but not in other fields. Which means a sportsman has to develop himself academically and if he doesn't do that it's a disaster.

But here, we are going to take care of such disastrous cases and create a career with wide options for an athlete to be a player or a coach, administrator, technical official etc.

This has been widely accepted in India by the government as probably the first sporting organization in the country which is actually taking care of the athletes in India." said Manohar Bangera.

Former Sri Lanka rugby player and a reputed rugby referee Dilroy Fernando who was instrumental in forming the Sri Lankan wing of the EFLI and who is also the COO of the organization said that he is confident that that the way rugby football became a popular and favourite sport in the Island, American Football too will surely win the hearts of the Sri Lankans.

“Sports as a culture is well-celebrated in Sri Lanka and we see a great demand of such a league in our country. We are excited to be part of the inaugural season of the EFLI and hope to see a powerful performance from Colombo Lions who will participate in the tournament”.