Football Sri Lanka (FSL) headed by its new president Jaswar Umar conducted their inaugural office bearers and executive committee meeting last Thursday in a professional atmosphere in Colombo.
Jaswar who has already got down to serious business, explained and emphasized his vision to rejuvenate the game under his election slogan “Restart-Football”.
At this meeting, he went on to emphasize the importance of operational and administrative procedures while elaborating his plans ahead to the executive committee members in achieving their goals and moving the game to the next level.
Jaswar, was of high praise for appointing the smallest Executive Committee in the history of football in the country that is limited to 12 members unlike the recent past when 28 officials jumped on board and did nothing or very little.
During their discussion the strategic approaches to change the current status of football was discussed to take it to the villages to attract a targetted two million players dribbling the ball over the next three years.
“We have decided to keep the composition of the Executive Committee small, consisting of only ten elected members. We have co-opted school representatives and legal officials to the Committee.
“Additionally, we have appointed Task Forces and Expert Panels to carry out our activities in specific regions and areas. As per our initiative to take football to the villages, there will be more Task Forces appointed for various regions with more members who will have opportunities to work under the guidance of our administration,” said Jaswar who is pretty optimistic in transforming the football culture while boosting the game to the required heights.
The Executive Committee: T. Varatharasan, Deputy Secretary- Admin, E. Arnold, Vice President, Ranjith Rodrigo, Vice President, A.F. Seller, Treasurer, Jaswar Umar, President, Upali Hewage, General Secretary, K.P.P. Pathirana, Vice President, Dulshan Nagahawatte, Vice President, Abdul Munaff, Deputy Secretary-Technical and A. Nagarajan, Assistant Treasurer
Acting Chairman of Standing Committees- Commander EMR Silva (Navy)-Competition Committee, Olivia Gamage-Women’s Committee, V.G. Anura de Silva-Referees Committee, Samantha J. Peiris-Media Committee, M.V. Jagath Kumara de Silva (Nawalapitiya)-Youth and Junior Projects, K. D. Chandrapala (Polonnaruwa)-Player Status and Dr. L. Buddhika (Navy)- Medical Committee
TASK FORCES (Chairman’s District Development) – Batticaloa-M. Uthayakumar, President Batticaloa) Matara-Brig. KAU Kodithuwakku (Army), Mullaitivu-T. Jeyababu (President- Mullativu), Jaffna -R. Yugaraj (President – Vallikamam), Community & Schools Football -S/DIG Nandana Munasinghe (Police), National Team Support- Maj. Gen. Upali Gunasekara (Army), Covid-19 Prevention Protocol- Dr. M. Mathuranayagam (President Madhumanthai West)