Football, one time most popular sport is not so today in Kandy, over here in Kandy football had a rich history when men who mattered and ran the game did a splendid job that teams out of Kandy came to fear. The game of football in Kandy has received step motherly treatment and is out of the big picture today, virtually dead and now some people will want to pass the buck.The game of football in Kandy is over 100 years. Football lovers who served as officials and players now bitterly regret that football is at the grave at present. The game over here in Kandy is as bad as dead at club level, schools are managing to play. Kandy had one of biggest leagues with over 40 teams. At present, the people who are involved in administrating Kandy football don’t know its history. What is worse is that the FFSL has not taken any action to stop the rotten set-up.
Football in Kandy can be traced back to over 150 years. The KAFL was formed in 1925 and is one of the founder members of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) earlier known as Ceylon Football Association. The FFSL made a big show a few years back in Kandy saying Kandy will get a modern football stadium at Dangolla. The world body FIFA laid the foundation stone and also funded it. Now nearly many years have lapsed but nothing has happened and only the foundation stone stands. What was inexplicable was how the FFSL wanted to build a stadium on this dwarf-sized ground. How they plan to put up an international stadium brings doubts to the minds of football lovers. Football is in the doldrums over here in Kandy mainly due to mismanagement of affairs by the controlling body which alarmingly has little or no interest in promoting football in the hill country.
A look back into Kandy football reveals that the sport had its origins in the mid-1920s.
This was during the Second World War when the British units were stationed in Kandy. One time Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces in South East Asia, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten had his headquarters in the hill capital and played the game. As a result of the World War in 1914, football became inactive. After a lapse of nine years, the CAFL was revived and re-constituted in 1920 under the amended name, Colombo Football League.
Herbert Dowbiggin was elected as president and H. French as Chairman. In 1924 Sir John Tarbet, that evergreen sportsman, became its president and contributed immensely to the promotion of the game. Some years later Manilal Fernando took on the mantle of administration and did what others did.
Years back, the controlling body’s president apparently kicked the game out of Kandy when in a surprise move he dissolved the hard working Committee and appointed a new Committee. From that day on they failed to complete a single tournament in a proper manner. Kandy won the All-Island Senior and Junior League championship for the first time under the presidency of BM Liyanage. When they won he was overseas and the acting president was Hafiz Marikar. With this win Kandy toured Nepal. It was the first ever Kandy team to go on an overseas tour and that was in the early 1990s.
If football in Kandy is to be resurrected, the controlling body must put the Leagues on the correct path. Kandy’s love for football and the role that Kandy has played to make the game popular in Sri Lanka can be traced back to the enthusiasm for the game of these servicemen who were stationed in Kandy during World War II. Football flourished in Kandy during that time because the local football enthusiasts joined hands with the servicemen to play and support the game.
Whether some like it or not, it has to be said that under the former football boss Manilal Fernando, Kandy’s football was not dead and maintained a high standard thanks to people like Bodi Liyanage, H Marikar, S. Nadaraja, Kumala Mohamed, and IMA Wahab. Today the majority of Kandy’s sporting fraternity has not seen a football tournament in years.
The post Kandy’s football needs revival appeared first on DailyNews.