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.

Dialog Telecom are the main sponsor of this tournament and they are powering the tournament for the 10th consecutive year.

Sri Lanka Air Force and Colombo Football Club will clash in the curtain-raiser of the Super-8 Round at the Sugathadasa Stadium today.

The match will be followed by the Renown vs Java Lane clash at the same venue.

In this tournament, 22 teams participated under A and B categories while 55 matches were played under A category and 45 matches played under B category.

Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Air Force, Crystal Palace and Renown Sports Club have qualified for Super-8 Round from the A category.

Under B category Colombo Football Club, Blue Star Soccer Club, Java Lane Soccer Club and Sri Lanka Navy have qualified for Super 8 Round.

Sri Lanka Army and Colombo Football Club are heading the points table under A and B categories respectively and they earn three bonus points each.

THIS WEEK-END’S GAMES AT SUGATHADASA STADIUM

Today:

Air Force vs Colombo FC at 3.00 pm
Renown vs Java Lane at 5.00 pm

Tomorrow:

Crystal Palace FC vs Navy at 3.00pm
Army vs Blue Stars at 5.00pm