The executive committee meeting of the South Asian Football Federation will be held on January 2 at Thrivandram and Sri Lanka will hand over a letter to the officials of SAFF.

Football Federation of Sri Lanka Anura de Silva and its immediate past president and Financial Committee Chairman Ranjith Rodrigo will attend the meeting on behalf of Sri Lanka. Meanwhile defending champions Afghanistan beat Bangladesh by four goals to nil while Maldives outplayed Bhutan 3-1 in the games played on Thursday.

Afghanistan dominated the game from the beginning and led 3-0 at halftime. It is significant that Afghanistan has scored the highest number of goals in this tournament.

Maldives scored two goals in their match against Bhutan and Ali Afshaq, who is due to quit football after this championship scored the third goal in the 70th minute.

The tournament will see seven best teams of the country taking part, while an eighth team, made of the cream of talented players from the rest of the teams, will make this one of the most competitive events in the country’s football calendar.

The tournament is organized by the Colombo Municipal Council with necessary backing from the Football Federation of Sri Lanka.

“We expect that there will be a festive atmosphere at the Sugathadasa Stadium and a full house for all the matches. We are spending nearly four million rupees to make this a grand success and the winners and runners up will bag a lump sum of money while all the other teams will be presented with a cash awards,” said Colombo Mayor A.J.M. Muzammil at a press briefing held at the Mayor’s official residence yesterday.

“The winning team members will be awarded a silver medal each while the most valuable player of the tournament will be presented a special trophy,” he said.

“Most of the games will be played under floodlights. We know that football players are millionaires in other parts of the world but here it is a different story. We need to take this sport to the next level.

“These kinds of tournaments will surely lift the standard of the game while popularizing the sport among the Sri Lankans and we can say that a new era is on the way for football,” added the Mayor.

Football Federation of Sri Lanka president Anura de Silva said that they need a steady plan to take Sri Lankan football to higher standards. “We know that we are currently very poor at international level, but we are working on a plan which will take the country’s football to be more competitive at the international level within the next five to ten years,” he said.

The teams:

Mayor’s team, Java Lane SC, Saunders SC, Blue Star SC, Colombo Football Club, Super Sun SC, Renown SC and Crystal Palace SC.

Old Bens over 40’s Soccer Wing will hold a special felicitation ceremony for Anura De Silva, the newly elected president of the Football Association of Sri Lanka, at the Kingsberry Hotel Colombo today from 7.00pm. Anura represented St.Benedict’s College, Old Bens Sports Club and finally captained Sri Lanka.

Old Bens are proud to have initiated the over 40’s soccer in this part of the world in the 70’s with players such as Amalraj Miranda, Donald Bastianpillai, Neville Casiechetty, Sunil Seneviratne, Dr.Collin Fernandopulle, Martin De Porres, Wijesinghe,Laxman Caldera,Turin Perera and many more.

It all started with the annual fixtures between Old Bens and Old Joes in the 70’s. Now the veterans soccer sector is vastly spreading with many clubs enthusiastically playing competitive soccer all over the country.

Thilak Peiris, President of the Soccer Masters Association of Sri Lanka will be the guest of honour. Eric Mahesan, Randolph Perera and Athula Perera have been backing this ceremony.