By Susil Premalal

Football’s world governing body FIFA is set to inject funds to the tune of US$ 500,000 for the promotion of women’s football in member countries including Sri Lanka under the FIFA Women’s Football Development programme.

In line with FIFA’s Women’s Football Strategy, the FIFA Women’s Development Programme aims to provide all 211 member associations with the opportunity to apply for and access additional resources and specialist expertise to develop women’s football at a national level.

Member associations will be able to apply for support across eight key areas of women’s football development during the 2020-2023 period.

The FIFA Women’s Development Programme includes the following projects: women’s football strategy, women’s football campaign, league development, club licensing, capacity-building for administrators, coach education scholarships, coach mentor-ship and women in football leadership.

In addition to financial assistance to cover the costs in selected programmes, the FIFA Women’s Development Programme will also provide member associations with access to women’s football experts, additional equipment and technical support within FIFA in order to develop women’s football in their country.

“FIFA has informed us to submit our development proposals to become a beneficiary of this programme and we are giving priority to execute this task.

It is mandatory to submit estimates and budgets,” FFSL President, Anura Silva told the ‘Daily Mirror’.

The FFSL plans to propagate women’s football in villages and schools, conduct age group tournaments, distribute football equipment and organize a Super League for women annually in addition to looking after the welfare of the players.

The funds would be disbursed in stages once the FIFA approves of the FFSL proposals.

Meanwhile, the FFSL hopes to kick start the inaugural Super League early next year. It was earlier scheduled to be held in October-November but postponed because of the spike in the number of coronavirus cases.

It has been proposed to include the leading women’s football teams in the country – Army, Air Force, Navy and Police – in the forthcoming Super League.

It is expected to be held at the Sugathadasa Stadium and Racecourse Stadium each year.

Women’s football in Sri Lanka thrived with the participation of a few teams from 1995 to 2000. The Education Ministry later included it as a sport in the school curriculum.

The Sri Lanka women’s national team took part for the first time at international level in 2010. They suffered an 8-1 drubbing at the hands of India in their maiden international clash. They notched a historic 4-0 victory against Bhutan the same year.

In 2015, the Sri Lanka women’s national team suffered a heavy 16-0 against Myanmar.

Sri Lanka has taken part on three occasions since 2010 in the SAFF (South Asian Federation Football) women’s tournament are ranked 140 in the FIFA ranking as of June 26 2020.