Anura de Silva leads FFSL
View(s):Former football Chief Executive Officer and former national captain Anura de Silva was elected President of Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) with a majority of 38 votes at the Annual General Meeting held at the Ministry of Sports Auditorium in Colombo yesterday.
The FFSL AGM, which was held after nearly two decades under peaceful environment with de Silva securing 88 votes while his contender Nizam Packeer Ali, received 50 votes from a total of 138 votes.
Balendra Anthony was elected the General Secretary with a margin of 31 votes after securing a total of 84 votes. His opponent Clement de Silva received 53 votes. Mohamed Fazlan with 98 votes won the Treasurer’s post while his challenger U.M. Perera was able to gather 37 votes. Five were elected as Vice Presidents. They are Soosaipillai Anthonypillai (97), Retired Senior D.I.G of Police, K.P.P Pathirana (96), Brig. Dhammika Kariyawasam (86), Nalin Silva (83) and Robert Pieres (82).
“The proceedings commenced with the National Anthem and the outgoing President Ranjith Rodrigo conducted the proceedings as to the agenda. The minutes of the March AGM and Accounts for 2014 were passed unanimously. The agenda was amended with the removal of Presidents remarks,” an official statement issued by the FFSL Media Unit stated.
After an official withdrawal for the three positions, the Assistant Treasurer, Deputy Secretary – Administration and Deputy Secretary – Technical were elected uncontested. Accordingly Sagara C. Piyathilaka, U.L Jaswar and M.S.M. Faiz were elected to the three positions respectively.
De Silva, the newly elected President of FFSL will hold office for a period of two years. He is an experienced individual with a sound track record in football that dates back to 1976.
A product of St. Benedict’s College Colombo, de Silva represented his school and went on to lead the college side before representing Old Bens SC. He also captained the Old Bens and went on to lead Sri Lanka for two years. Since 1995 de Silva switched gears into football administration and held several positions at club, league and national levels before taking the helm of FFSL.