Sri Lanka pro football league back with 10 teams

By Susil Premalal

Sri Lanka’s top-tier domestic football competition will return today when New Young FC, Wennappuwa take on Blue Eagles SC, Katunayake in the opening match of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) Super League 2025/2026 at 3.30 pm at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo.

All matches of the nine-week professional league will be played at the Sugathadasa Stadium.

The tournament, featuring the country’s leading 10 football clubs, was originally scheduled to commence on July 4. However, the FFSL Competition Committee postponed the kick-off by one week after several participating clubs requested additional time to complete their preparations.

This marks the first staging of the FFSL Super League since the inaugural edition in 2022, reviving Sri Lanka’s premier professional football competition after a three-year break.

The league will run for nine weeks, with five matches scheduled each week until September 15, providing clubs with a highly competitive domestic platform.

Five fixtures have been scheduled during the opening week of the tournament, which will be played between July 11 and July 20.

The ten participating clubs are New Young FC (Wennappuwa), Colombo FC, Blue Star SC (Kalutara), Renown SC (Colombo), Sea Hawks FC (Colombo), Blue Eagles SC (Katunayake), Defenders FC, Up Country Lions SC (Nawalapitiya), Ratnam SC (Colombo) and Red Star SC (Beruwala)

Blue Star of Kalutara are the defending champions, having won the previous edition of the Super League in 2022. The champions on that occasion received Rs. 5 million. The tournament is also expected to serve as an important preparation platform for players ahead of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Cup 2026, scheduled to be held in Bangladesh from November 7 to 17.