We all have our favorite sports, but which sports are the most popular around? The problem is coming up with a clear defining meaning of popular - by popular do we mean most watched, the most played, or the sport with the most passionate fans! At one time it was football. For those who don’t know the history, in the good old days football was the most popular game in our country. It is not possible today to know exactly, when football was introduced to Sri Lanka. However, there is evidence of the game being played on the Galle Face Green, by bare chested British Servicemen stationed in and around Colombo in the 1890’s.
The British administrative service and the planting community enthusiastically took it to the Central, Southern, and Up-Country regions. By early 1900 competitive football was popular with the local youth. The game became popular and local football clubs were formed. St. Michael’s SC, Havelock Football Club, Java Lane SC, Wekande SC, Moors FC, and CH & FC, the last being a European monopoly, were some of the first clubs in Colombo. Harlequins FC and Saunders SC soon joined. The trophies of the early tournaments were the De Mel Shield and the Times of Ceylon Cup.
Football also became popular in the country’s Southern Provence, where the planting and administrative community promoted the game. British planter T R. Brough in Deniyaya heavily promoted football in the south between 1910–1920, and British servicemen from the Navy wireless station in Matara also helped popularise it.
In 1952, Ceylon became a member of FIFA and got the opportunity to play football at international level. The country’s first International friendly was played against India. The Football Federation organised a tournament called Colombo Cup, which helped the national team to improve their skills and compete with other nations
The service barrack grounds at Echelon Square (where the Galadari Hotel is presently situated) and the Sports Club grounds (presently the Taj Samudra Hotel) were the popular football fields in the game’s formative years.
British service units such as the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery and the Royal Garrison Command were the pioneers who promoted competitive football here. British administrative service and the British planting community took the sport to the Central, Up-country and Southern regions. By early 1900 football as a competitive sport, was popular amongst the local youth. Though playing bare footed, our lads mastered the skills, and in fact, donned the Service jerseys as replacements or reserves in many an exclusively white dominated game.
The first ever attempt to organize and conduct Association Football in Ceylon was when the Colombo Association Football League was formed at a meeting held in the Bristol Hotel, Colombo on the 4th day of April 1911. H. French was elected President with H. K. Crosskey as Secretary. However, as a result of the World War in 1914, this body understandably became inactive and ineffective.
After a lapse of nine years, the Colombo Association Football League was revived and re-constituted in 1920 under the amended name, Colombo Football League, with Herbert Dowbiggin as President and H. French as Chairman and by 1924 Sir John Tarbat, that evergreen sportsman, became the President and contributed immensely to the promotion of the game in the years that followed.
Southern Province
In the Southern Province, the sport had a fair impact on the masses, with the planting and administrative community leading in the promotion of the game in a big way. R. Brough, a British planter in Deniyaya, contributed much to the sport in the South between 1910 and 1920. The British servicemen from the Navy wireless station in Matara, also helped to popularize the sport, particularly in the southern schools. The first football club formed in the south was the Galle Association Football Club in 1910, with obviously a predominantly British membership. R. R. Brough was its first President and the club team was captained by A. C. Blair.
Central Province
Kandy, the hill capital of Sri Lanka, had its baptism in football in the mid-1930s. During the Second World War, British units were stationed in Kandy, with the one-time Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces in the South East Asia, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten having his headquarters in the hill capital. Later on Kandy Amateur Football League was formed with M. S. Jainudeen as the kingpin. It subsequently changed its name to Kandy District Football Association. It served football in Matale, Gampola, Nawalapitiya, Kurunegala and Kegalle, as the years rolled by these towns formed their own associations. Today sad to say that football in Kandy has been allowed to go into limbo.
Northern Province
Almost at the same time the British planters, technocrats and civil servicemen were spreading the gospel of football in the Western, Central and Southern provinces. The North too, came under their spell with a flourish of football activity amongst the local populace. School leavers and young government servants were grouping together to form football clubs, so early as the mid-thirties. In fact, on the 8th of November 1939 to be exact, the Jaffna Football Association was formed with W. G. Spencer, District Judge, as Chairman. This historic meeting took place at the Jaffna YMCA with B. E. Rajanayagam as the elected secretary. Football in the northern peninsula is as old as football in Sri Lanka, and always remained active and vibrant until the outbreak of ethnic violence in 1983.
North Central Province
Rajarata, the place of kings and palaces, and one of scenic beauty and tranquility, is also a province full of recreation and sport. Anuradhapura the ancient capital of Sri Lanka, was a center of activity, both cultural and recreational and football naturally took pride of place. The origins of football in the North Central Province is no different to that of the rest of the country. The influence of the British civil servants had been at the base of its growth. These Britishers, with the assistance of the local youth, played football more as a recreation than in competition, in a ground close to the venerated Ruwanveli Seya.
History will not be complete if appreciation is not recorded of the encouragement and assistance extended to the sport by our Heads of States. The singular contribution to football by R. Premadasa needs no elaboration. The re-development of the Sugathadasa Stadium stands as a living monument to his unremitting devotion and sincere admiration.
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