• In conversation with Dakshitha Sumathipala, candidate for the upcoming FFSL presidential election

The much-anticipated election of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) is all set to be held on 29 September. While former President Umar Jaswar has teamed up with Dr. Manil Fernando and Ranjith Rodrigo, the other presidential candidate is newcomer and President of the Anuradhapura League Dakshitha Sumathipala. The Daily Morning Sports met with Sumathipala to speak about his plans. 

Below is an excerpt from the interview 

The FIFA ban was lifted a month back. What are your plans to revive football in the country if you are elected as president?

We will be announcing our plans by the end of this week, the election is on 29 September. This week we will be producing it for the leagues and the media.  It’s mostly for the leagues that we have to communicate our annual plans and the four-year plans for football in the country. 

Our main philosophy is to distribute the power and the funds with all the leagues. That is the core of our plans. The funds that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and FIFA grant us will be shared with them. And apart from that, the league-wise development should be handled by the league itself. We will fund the leagues to conduct their operations. 

They need to hold tournaments and develop facilities within their leagues, so that as the federation we can concentrate on broader projects, and we wouldn’t even have time to look into each and every league with the workload we have. 

We want to utilise our force around the country. We have about six leagues around the country, so we want to utilise the maximum from them to reach the development we desire equally from all parts of the country. 

We will give them the authorisation to conduct the matches and request the federation to do things rather. We will also direct them to do certain things and also provide funding but they will also have the liberty to give us proposals, which suit their areas. 

The World Cup qualifiers are coming up very soon. What are your plans to revive the national football team?

Already the tri-party appointed by FIFA as well as the ministry has started that operation. 

They have called the committee, players designated, managers, and coaches to conduct the preparation so, we don’t need to interfere technically. We just have to support it. I was told that the budget of Rs. 65 million was allocated by the federation. Rs. 2 million is allocated for each player.

The temporary president, temporary secretary, and temporary treasurer in charge have submitted a proposal proposal for Rs. 65 million. The preparations are going and the players are training well. We will encourage it rather than disrupt the process which is already happening. 

Most of the team members you nominated were rejected by the election committee. Will you be changing the members or are you willing to fight against the decision?

We have written to FIFA and AFC and they have advised us to go ahead with our remedies as per the constitution of the football federation. The Constitution, which we uphold, has clear instructions on what we can do and what we can’t do. Tomorrow the Appeals Committee will be conducting their reviews. We had five rejections initially and then it came to four. 

But again, our constitution is manipulated by the Electoral Committee. We are agreeable to what they have said. Anybody can interpret the agreement, and they have misinterpreted it to the benefit of the other party. There are so many fraudulent documents submitted by the other party and there is also a CID case going on.  Also, the Sports Ministry is conducting another investigation with regard to fraudulent documents. There are more than four individuals who have submitted fraudulent documents from the counterparty. 

There is a good Sinhala phrase which translates to “Same type of birds flock together”. The most corrupt football authorities are together now. Ranjith Rodrigo, Dr. Manil, Manilal Fernando, and Jaswar Umar. Other ex-co members and the vice presidents are also of the same calibre. So you will get more news after a few days about their intentions and how they actually forged documents certificates, etc.

We would like to know your stand on having international players of Sri Lankan origin on the national side. 

There are two approaches to it. One is that actually there could be very good Sri Lankans residing overseas. On the other hand, just because you’re playing in Germany or in another country doesn’t mean that you’re fit for it. So we need to screen them. Just because they are playing abroad doesn’t mean they should be allowed to play on the national side. We have to make a proper selection and give them the opportunity. The opportunity should not be denied. Opportunities have to be given to everyone. But it is only after screening we can select them. Then the legal process that we have to do to make sure they are dual citizens, etc., is not an easy process, but it is something we have to definitely look into and do it really fast. 

Once we become the ruling body we will work with the Government to sort out dual citizenship for these players swiftly. However, just because they play abroad doesn’t mean that they should be eligible. They have to undergo a serious selection process to make sure they are more competitive than the locals.

What do you think is the reason behind FIFA temporarily banning Sri Lanka? 

The previous President has certainly misled the FIFA. Whatever he communicates will be taken seriously by FIFA and AFC. This ban is not a new thing; it has been roaming since 2014. They have been communicating that we should adhere to their constitution and product roadmaps since 2014. In 2021, also this was roaming around. We can share the letters sent by FIFA regarding these matters. 

They have given instruction that this could lead to a ban even in 2023. It is not something that happened in 2023. It was cooking for some time. The final icing on the cake was the misinterpretations given by the past Presidents. But he manipulated the electoral outcome for his views. 

This is not something that suddenly happened. The FIFA has not been comfortable with how we have conducted operations in the country. 

You are a new face to the football fraternity. People may have some doubts about your intentions. What do you have to say about that?

It’s like this. We are new when we compare ourselves with other people. But it’s like this. You can own a hospital but you don’t have to be a doctor to own a hospital. So we only need the correct people, suitable people, highly skilled people who love the country and who love the game to take up the position.

It’s not a one-man game. It’s a team effort. I might be very new to the administration. It’s not rocket science so I just need to find the suitable people for suitable jobs, especially the CEO role. Then the financial controller and third is the ex-co, who will have different tasks. If you consider our team, all of them have played at the national level – junior or senior. 

They at least know how to play the game and the suffering the players undergo. Our core aim will be to develop Sri Lankan schools. But at the moment, the Education Ministry is going one way and the Sports Ministry is doing their own thing while the federation is doing something else. 

School is part of the supply chain of players and we will be focusing on the development of Sri Lanka schools. There are over 600 schools actively playing football and almost 50,000-plus players registered. So we need to focus on them and give them the necessary financial support and resources. 

We have given one ex-co position to the secretary of the school federation. We have 39 votes confirmed, and we’ve improved from 36 to 39 in the last few days. So we don’t need to give a seat to any leagues to get more votes.  

The other part is submitting fraudulent documents but we are confident in winning.

This constitution has two teams, not positions. When the captain is not there, the vice-captain will temporarily look after the match. As per the constitution, within six months, we can have another election or Special General Meeting (SGM) to appoint ourselves to the committee for the remaining period of the tenure.

Your opponents claim they have two-thirds of the votes. What are your comments in this regard? 

They are saying that based on the meeting we had at Beddagana. Even my ex-co was there. So, even if you invite me for dinner or a party, I will also be going, if time permits. But only 26 voters were there, including my own ex-co members. Others were vice presidents, treasurers, and secretaries. You need to consider the number of voters who were there, not just everyone who came on that day. So although there were 58 or 56 people, there were only 26 voters. We are confident in winning this and we are confident that the rejections will be rectified soon