By Susil Premalal

Football Sri Lanka (FSL) will allocate Rs 64 million to Football Leagues for administrative purposes for 2022 on the concept of FSL President Jaswar Umar’s “Restart Football”.
Accordingly all 64 football leagues will receive Rs 1 million from the development funds.

To begin with Rs 250,000 was given to the 53 leagues which took part in the FSL Council meeting held in Jaffna.The balance Rs 750,000 will be given before the end of the year, FSL President said at a press conference after the Council meeting.

The President went on to say that Laptops will also be provided to each of the 64 leagues for administrative purposes.

Meanwhile, the 53 members present at the meeting in Jaffna voted to ask the Sports ministry to extend the term of FSL president Umar and office-bearers for four years.
Umar and other officials were elected for a one-year term last year but are seeking approval to extend the term to four years, in accordance to a Sports Regulation amendment made in 2017. 

“The 2017 election was conducted for a four-year term, according to the amendment to the Sports Law made that year. However when we conducted the election last year, we were informed by the Department of Sports Development that there were some discrepancies over that amendment and therefore we were instructed to revert to an older regulation, that was printed 23 years ago, that we should contest for one-year terms,” Umar told the Daily Mirror. 

“We have found the relevant documents that will clear up the discrepancy and the football leagues have now voted for my term and that of the office bearers to be extended to four years as per that 2017 amendment. Now we have put it forward to the Sports Minister,” he added. 

Meanwhile, the drafting of FSL constitutional amendments to bring it in line with the FIFA constitution are continuing at a pace, he added.