Sri Lanka plans football ties against Asian teams before SAFF Championship

By Susil Premalal

The Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) is discussing the possibility of playing matches with their counterparts in the Asian region as preparation for the 13th SAFF (South Asian Football Federation) Championship to be held this year.

This tournament postponed from September last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic is scheduled to held from September 7 to 19 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The FFSL is planning to play matches against countries ranked above them and just below in the FIFA world rankings, FFSL president Anura de Silva told the ‘Daily Mirror’ yesterday.

“Sri Lanka could gain match experience by playing attacking football against countries who are ranked above them in the FIFA world rankings such as Bahrain (201), Laos (185), Cambodia (174) and Pakistan (199),” the FFSL president said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka could gain international exposure when they play three matches next month as part of the FIFA World Cup (Asian) qualifiers second round against North Korea, Lebanon and South Korea. The Sri Lanka team will depart for the World Cup qualifiers on June 1 and will focus on preparing for the SAFF Championship immediately after they return. The 23-member national squad will be retained for the SAFF Championship as well.
“Since the national team had not been able to take part in any competition for the past year not much can be expected during the World Cup qualifiers, but head coach Amir Alagic’s main target is the SAFF Championship,” said FFSL president Anura de Silva.

Sri Lanka triumphed in the SAARC Gold Cup when it was held in Colombo in 1991 defeating India 1-0 but have never won the SAFF Championship. Sri Lanka were knocked out in the preliminary round in the last edition of the tournament in 2018.