Tribute to a great servant of Lankan football
I met this soft spoken, quiet, deeply religious, down-to-earth Football personality at his Kirulapona residence, to make this brief write-up about one of Sri Lanka’s best known Football players. He had numerous pictures and paper cuttings to show me without an iota of pride in him, his innumerable achievements in Sri Lanka Football.
SUBHANI HASSIMDEEN, undeterred and undefeated, now in his 70s, still looks tough and smart behind his smiling face. Ma’asha Allah. I have read many of his articles in the Sunday Times, trying to revive Sri Lankan Football from its depths. His articles create immense interest, apart from their historical value, particularly, to those of an older vintage. The numerous instances and incidents involving top officials of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL), competitions, matches, tours, selections, Leagues and a host of personalities vividly narrated, made his articles exciting, interesting and absorbing.
When talking about Malays’ contributions to Sri Lanka Football, we cannot overlook the ‘Hassimdeen brothers’, as, to my knowledge, the achievement of these foursome is unparalleled in our nation’s sporting history.
Third in the illustrious line of Hassimdeen brothers, Subhani showed glimpses of excellence from a very young age, when he represented Newnham Playground at age 8, played for Zahira College, Colombo at age 14, and soon started playing for 1st Division Clubs such as Eleven Youngsters FC, Black Square FC and Victory FC.
In 1974, he was voted Best Footballer at the ‘Ran Pandu’ Football Festival. Subhani joined the Royal Ceylon Air Force in 1965 and helped it win the Inter-Services Championship for the first time. He later joined Wellawatta Spinning & Weaving Mills and was its skipper in 1970, 1971 when they were unbeaten in the League and Knockout Champions Tournament conducted by the Mercantile League. His outstanding performance made him an automatic choice for the National Team from 1965 to 1975.
Subhani played a vital role in International victories over Burma, India, and Pakistan, away and at home. Tournaments such as the Aga Khan Gold Cup final, unbeaten champions for the first time at the Southern Quadrangular Cup final 1970, Vittal Trophy final in India 1975 to name a few. Agha Khan Gold Cup tournament was the first trophy won by Sri Lanka Football in a top drawer competition.
He was on that famous European tour to Israel, Iran, England and West Germany, with his brother Muzzamil. Apart from making several other tours to Asian and Middle East countries. Subhani Captained the National team in 1972.
His touch of class reflected in many matches played against a variety of European and Asian teams. He matched his talents and wits with some of the best players from foreign clubs such as Nurenburg FC, Essen SC, Pallenburg FC and Wacker of Germany, Macabl of Israel, Dallas Tornado of USA, Zalgaris & Moscow Dynamos of Russia, Manchester City and Southampton of England, something present day players wouldn’t dream of.
In 1971 Subhani played Rugger for Havelocks Bambaras, shone in Mercantile Athletics for many years and represented Newnham playground at Basketball, proving his varied talent as one of the greatest sportsmen our tiny community has produced for Sri Lanka.
He started his coaching career in 1980 with St Peters College, Bambalapitiya, and to date, has served the game for over 36 years. Subhani continued to remain in the Sri Lanka Football scene even after quitting playing Football, becoming a National Selector, Coach for the National Youth teams, the Olympic Squad and the Senior National team from 1995 to 2000.
He became a Director of Youth Football Development of the FFSL and introduced a project involving 600 schools islandwide in 2000, for boys under 12, with the aim of developing Football from grass-root level. He has coached top local clubs such as Ratnams, Red Stars, Eleven Youngsters, Pettah United, Java Lane, Maligawatte Youth, Sri Lanka Army, Colombo FC and schools such as St. Peters College, Bambalapitiya, Prince of Wales, Moratuwa, and St Thomas Prep, Kollupitiya.
Subhani is a qualified and a very knowledgeable coach who has followed many coaching courses here and abroad, conducted by the AFC and FIFA. He was a member of the England Coaches Association from 2001 to 2004.
He hails from a family of Footballers, the 4 brothers (Tuan Naheem, Muzammil, Subhani and Farook) who represented Sri Lanka continuously for 35 long years from 1951 to 1986, a record worthy of the Guinness Book of Records, and certainly in the History of Sri Lanka Malays!
Subhani recalls his best record in coaching
Sri Lanka’s U-19 team playing the Asian Youth Championship since 1960 and the match in 1998 when the team beat Bangladesh 2-1, drew with Tajikistan and narrowly lost to Kazakhstan 0-1. From this Youth team coached by him, 18 members played for the National team. “When I handled the National team in 1999, we held the strong Maldives National team to a 1-1 draw at the SAARC Cup held in Goa, India.”
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“Now, in my 70, I could easily play 60 minutes of Football with veterans, and coach teams at any level for long hours. I thank Almighty Allah, my hard training and disciplined lifestyle has kept me up.”
Any such records set by a sportsman in any other country is usually acknowledged by the State with coveted national awards such as Padma Shri, Padma Vibushan etc. in neighbouring India, or a Pride of Sports Award in UK. In my view, our government should have awarded Subhani Hassimdeen something similar or above the Deshamanya or Pride of the Nation award for his extraordinary and highly meritorious service to Sri Lanka Football, perhaps no other person had done. Though Subhani is not bothered, I have every reason to believe that such awards, together with monetary rewards, house etc. are, by design, not considered for anyone from the minority community, especially to a tiny one like the Malays! It further substantiates why our community badly needs a true representative in the country’s Parliament.
Subhani has reasonably advised his children to ‘stay away’ from sports in this country and to concentrate on their studies. His sons did take his advice and having the “Malay” blood in them, could not stop Subhani’s grandsons from taking up Rugger, and now play for St. Peter’s College.
“Presently in Sri Lanka, our community is being neglected and excluded, even if they display outstanding talent, unlike in my days when real talent was recognised. I advise our Malay youth to study hard, pass OLs, ALs and go to University, as that is the only way our community can have a better future, not to bother too much about sports.”
“Footballers in my days were mostly well employed, many in the armed services or Police and some in mercantile establishments in good positions, but today, the game is played by mostly unemployed persons or Three-Wheel drivers, which is sad to mention,” he said.
He continued, “Malaysia and Indonesia should come forward to take in our Malay sportsmen who wish to go back to their countries of origin, with good jobs and places to settle down, like how Burghers are being given citizenship in Australia,” he was honest to lament, as a father who had seen his sports life had not done much to his community in Sri Lanka, other than a pride of place among his immediate family circle, but nothing beyond!