Many football fans and players are of the opinion that no matter who wins the election for Football Sri Lanka (FSL) today (29), football will lose as a sport.
Though the Sports Minister tried to show that he wants to drive out the corrupt officials from the administration of sports, they alleged that he is helping to bring FSL ex-president Jaswar Umar, who was found guilty in an investigation, to power again.
They said that it is an open secret that he helped Sri Ranga, a former politician who knows nothing about football, to win the previous FSL election.
If Jaswar is elected, they said that they will go to court against his appointment.
They accused Jaswar of blatantly embezzling the funds received by FIFA.
The Sports Minister has called for a forensic audit for a tour undertaken by Sri Lanka Cricket officials, but he could have been able to expose misappropriation of funds worth millions had he called for a forensic audit for FSL.
Earlier, an investigation conducted by the Corruption Investigation Police Unit at the Sports Ministry found that Jaswar was guilty of misappropriating funds and told that he could not run for FSL elections. However, the Sports Minister has allowed Jaswar to contest the elections.
Currently, Sri Lankan football is in the 207th place out of 211 countries in the FIFA world rankings.
The women’s team is ranked 153rd.
Jaswar was previously the FSL President and Secretary for many years, but the fans and players said the poor level of football in Sri Lanka is a good example of his commitment to football despite receiving funds from FIFA.
