Saif Yusuf
Football is back to life once again after a lapse of two years as Saif Yusuf the president of Mercantile Football Association and the Managing Director of Expo Lanka Limited is organizing a knock-out tournament with eight teams in the fray.
“Football must continue to run without a shortage of games to keep the players in a high standard. The time is right to stimulate the growth of the game now that Sri Lanka Football (SLF) is active once again.
“The game must also reach professional level soon to allow the players to gain financially as well,” said Yusuf.
The tournament is called the Lanka Football Cup.
This knock-out football tournament will be played among eight city teams and will begin on May 4 and played over the weekends to finish in one month. The final will be played on May 18 or 25.
All matches will be played at the City Football League Complex in Colombo 2 and will be managed by Lanka Sports Group.
The eight teams are Colombo Football Club, Jaffna FC, Kalutara FC, Central FC, Eastern FC, Negombo FC, Galle FC and Kandy FC.
The draw was held at the City Football League Complex on Friday (26) along with a media briefing.
The winning team will be presented with a handsome trophy plus Rs 1 million while the runners-up will be presented with Rs. 500,000 according to the organisers.
The duration of a match is 90 minutes and in case there is a tie the winners will be decided on 5-kick penalty shootout. In case there is no result even after the shootout the penalty will continue until a sudden death winner is found.
Each team can register 16 players and four officials. Each team will be allowed to register four overseas players as well but only three can take the field at a time.
The first round fixtures are as follows:
Group A: Jaffna FC vs Kalutara FC, Negombo FC vs Kandy FC
Group B: Eastern FC vs Colombo FC, Central FC vs Galle FC
Winners from Group A will meet in the semi-final while the winners from Group B will meet in the other semi-final.
