“I know what needs to be done; I didn’t get to where I am being stupid. But we are asking for professional standards, on peanut investments” says Manilal Fernando, Chairman Management Committee of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka. “You can train footballers in skills and conditioning, but you cannot expect big results when amateurs compete against professionals.”

Manilal added “The current state of Football in the island is much better now” he says. “We have development happenings, stadiums being built and we have many training centers with grounds and residential facilities to house people and train them. We pick players from junior tournaments and set them up for weekend training and there is a Federation Headquarters now, the nucleus we never had. We have an organized league tournament with trained referees, coaches.”

Manilal Fernando

Then he went on to question, “But what about the national team? The pinnacle of the pyramid. There we have had sporadic successes, lacking in consistency. We win on and off, Silver medals here, Bronze medals there; we won Gold at the SAG games. We have tried coaches from Brazil, Korea, and Germany. We get a new coach we start performing better, win a couple of matches and lose the rest.”

And when asked why? he thought we haven’t reached the standards expected, he stated: “The answer is very simple, it is because we don’t have a professional club structure for Football in Sri Lanka. What we have are ‘Mudalali Clubs’ where a club is funded by an individual or family, which really doesn’t work.

What we are trying to bring about is where the big companies start to back a club, where they will be in charge of the sponsorship and they help to market the club so that the standards of Football improves and the club starts to generate its own income, which is what happens in the better leagues.

We are in the initial planning stage of this, but starting up is the hardest part of any enterprise.” He also said, “Our country’s economy is such that companies can’t afford to take on sponsorships, and to add to that we have all other restrictions. No sponsorships from the Liquor, Tobacco or Gambling industries, which usually sponsor team sports. At times like this we have to be bold as a nation and be willing to help boost and promote ourselves and trust in our people to do the right thing.”

“The players cannot be blamed.” He pointed out, “Take a footballer who puts in an honest day’s work, survives on lousy nutrition and sometimes can’t even get on the pitch as his employers won’t grant him leave. Most of our players play for the love of the game.”So is it an impossible dream? “Definitely not” he said, “We cannot afford to give up after coming so far. With the war having finished and the country’s economy expected to boom there is reason for hope. We must strive on and hold out until we start to get the proper backing and there is no reason for Sri Lanka not to be a strong contender in the Asian Football circuit. I think at least by 2012 we should be in that top ten.”

But then he added with a smile on his face, “As the old saying goes, the return you get is on the investment you make.”