Sri Lankan Footballers out to end 26-year long wait

Sri Lankan team’s arrival in Maldives

By Susil Premalal

Sri Lanka will look to end a 26-year-old hoodoo when they compete in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship in the Maldives from October 1 to 16.

Sri Lanka last won the SAFF Championship in 1995 in Colombo but Football Sri Lanka (FSL) President Umar Jaswar expressed his confidence that this year’s team has the potential to last the full distance.

The Sri Lanka Football Team had their final preparations under the supervision of a foreign coach in addition to two other Sri Lankan coaches with overseas experience.

The team arrived in the Maldives yesterday in preparation for their opening fixture on October 1 after having successfully completed their training camp in Saudi Arabia. 

  
The Sri Lanka Football Team will be led by goal-keeper Sujan Perera, who is a professional player with a great amount of experience behind him.   

 
FSL President further said that their main goal is to improve the FIFA Rankings to 199 from 205 and to perform well at the AFC Under-23 qualifying round tournament in Qatar from October 23.

All other competing teams in the FSL Tournament are higher than Sri Lanka in the FIFA Rankings with India (107) in front followed by the Maldives (158), Nepal (168) and Bangladesh (189).