Over the years, Sri Lanka’s football has lost its direction and true potential due to a lack of visionary leadership. Despite having an abundance of talent in the country, the game has witnessed a rapid downfall both locally and internationally.
A true leader, with passion and innovative ideas, must take over the reins of governance and such a leader should be a ‘people’s person’. Jaswar Umar is such a leader.
Umar predicts a confident victory over his opponent with 115 votes against 71 votes in the forthcoming football elections.
“We are a nation that rose back after every difficult time. Our football has fallen far to its worst. It’s time for us to rise again to bring back our old glories. Let’s rise again. It’s time to change,” said Umar, who is on a mission, with a vision, to see football rise again to its once past glory.
His Vision is to see Sri Lanka once again become a nation full of football in South Asia by making the sport a tool for sustainable social development, integrating communities and creating healthy citizens while increasing competitiveness and economic benefits through well-planned development programs and competitions.
His Approach is to attract schools, the youth, adults, women, parents, sponsors, coaches, referees and fans to the game.
He plans to do this by investing in: infrastructure, clubs, youth academies and competitions which would in turn result in developing the youth, players, women’s football, coaches and referees to achieve results, provide social benefits and ensure a legacy. Umar plans to bring in a system of ‘separation of powers. He said: “A clear separation of power between governance, administration and judicial bodies will be established through a new reforms process, thereby bringing accountability and responsibility to all these domains. On segmentation of operations and development, which include international operations, national based development and regional based development, he said, customised development programmes and operations will be carried out based on the needs of each segment in the country.
“Focusing on regional development would be a key aspect of our approach to ensure long term results and benefits.”
Through digitalisation with the support of ‘FIFA Connect’ global registration system, he said: “A nation-wide online registration system of clubs, players, coaches, referees, administrators, media personnel and all stakeholders will be conducted.”
“Every person will get a life-time football passport number that can be recognised from anywhere in the world. This system allows every person to renew their registration annually.”
“This would provide a real-time database of the entire football ecosystem. An online competition management system that is linked to the ‘FIFA Connect’ database will control the competition operations and will keep all match data for analysis and records.”
“This will provide the required data for the development of strategies.”
A new Research and Development Task Force (RDTF) will be set up with the support of universities. All development strategies shall be designed and implemented with the RDTF reports.
“Being a global trend, football administration will be transformed into e-administration including operations, finances, media, marketing and regional operations.”
“All regional members will be connected to the FFSL’s e-portal for efficient and effective operations. This will result in paperless, green operations while keeping records digitally in a secure environment for future archiving.”
“More competitions, more opportunities existing competitions are: Super League, Champions League, Division One, Division Two and FA Cup.”
“New competitions will be added and they are: Super Cup, Division Three, Division Four, Division Five, Schools League One (U-18), Schools League Two (U-15), Women’s Premier League and District Championship (U-20).
“Change through education is the most effective way of transformation. Education provides clear direction, enhancing skills and sustainable development.”
‘Football School Sri Lanka’ is the first of its kind in the history of the Sri Lankan sports sector that provides a range of sports educational services.”
“The Beddegana Football Complex will be transformed into a fully-equipped Football School with foreign and local experts providing world class football educational services.”
“In the long run, this football school will be linked to some of the finest universities in the world with sports curriculums. It will include coach education, referees academy, sports medicine, sports marketing, football administration and a centre of excellence.”
As for the football economy, Umar said: “Football in Sri Lanka will be restructured to move forward in a commercially viable manner.”
“Apart from the grants from international bodies, we will initiate a mechanism to increase revenue through various commercial based activities.”
“Sustainable investments in infrastructure and income generation projects will be managed with more private participation. More revenue means more investments in football and development.”
On plans for a football trust fund, Jaswar said: “A better way of showing our gratitude, to those who served the game, is caring for them when they are in need.”
“A well-structured trust fund will be established to assist our past national players, coaches, referees and other listed persons in medical emergencies.”
“A list of illnesses covered and eligibility criteria will be published in the public domain for all eligible persons to apply. This trust will be governed by an independent panel of trustees.”
“A club assistance programme will be implemented where Super League, Champions League and other clubs will receive a wide range of assistance including finance, equipment, training and capacity building.”
“Every club will be given a road map to rise up the ladder. Our expected outcome and long term goal is for every club to reach a self-sustainable status.”
“Through a league assistance programme, every regional league will receive financial assistance four times more than ever in history.”
“This financial assistance will be invested in the competitions. Additionally, all leagues will receive development programmes tailored exclusively for that region.”
“Through establishing a National Football Policy, Jaswar plans to construct 50 mini-pitches with private participation within five years, covering all parts of the country.
“Annual awards to recognise and reward the best players, coaches, referees and other stakeholder categories will be established at a national level.”
“Those who have excelled at regional and village level will be recognised and rewarded at provincial level. This will bring out talent to the public and pave the way for further progress at national and international levels.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment