Travel across the length and breadth of Sri Lanka and you are sure to find several large football fields hosting keenly-contested games between passionate and skilled locals. However, the game has never earned the status enjoyed by other sports such as cricket and rugby. The Sunday Times set out to discover the reason behind this lack [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Is football a second citizen’s sport

Pics by Amila Gamage
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Travel across the length and breadth of Sri Lanka and you are sure to find several large football fields hosting keenly-contested games between passionate and skilled locals. However, the game has never earned the status enjoyed by other sports such as cricket and rugby. The Sunday Times set out to discover the reason behind this lack of interest in the Beautiful Game.

The main thing is people don’t know about matches. If you look at rugby games, their results are always in the papers and you get people covering the match, but this is not the case for football. Those days matches like Saunders against Victory used to pull in big crowds so the game was popular here, and there are good coaches and coaching programmes. The thing is there needs to be proper publicity given. - Hisham Abdeen - (Leading rugby coach and former national rugby player)

Football should be promoted in schools along with cricket. We can recognize talented players at the school level. They should have special coaches and groom students from a small age. - Ahmad Hassan - (Shop employee)

There are good football players in the country but they are not recognized. The sport should be promoted by local sports authorities and at the school level. They should also identify talented players. - Chamini Dhananjika - (Student)

Cricket gets a lot of publicity and international coverage so it draws a big crowd. But there is no such publicity for football. Volleyball is the national game in this country, but it also gets step-motherly treatment. - Gayan Ranga - (Tourism industry worker)

All top coaches and sponsorship are for cricket and rugby but for football there is less attention given both by authorities and sponsors. - Lakmal Nambuhewage - (Driver)

People in our country love cricket because of the media coverage and publicity. We rarely see local football matches live on television - Maheshika Rukshani - (Student)

There is little or no sponsorship for football. The government has not even given football the slightest consideration. They are building an international rugby ground but football is easier to play than rugby. - Malith Ishantha - (Student)

There is no corporate sponsorship for football teams, players and matches. The government should initiate promotion for this sport. - Mohammed Janees - (Businessman)

Though it’s an internationally acclaimed game, football is not at all given prominence when it comes to school sport. Everyone wants to play cricket and that is the only way to be popular in the field of sports. - Nirwantha Thikshila - (School cricketer)

I love to watch football but they show only international matches. We know of only European players. Sports authorities should bring sponsorships to local football matches and should telecast them. - Pradeep Nishantha - (Tourism industry worker)

Though there is a lot of investment in cricket, football does not get enough funds, even in schools. There is a belief in this country that there is no future in playing football. - Sarath Vidanagamage - (Groundskeeper)

 

 

According to the views of general public football as always seems to be carrying on with its famous tag - the poor man’s sport. - File Pic



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