Old Bens Veterans SC won the Sri Lanka Soccer Masters’ Association 15th Annual 7-a-side over 40 soccer tournament in a penalty shootout as the final between Old Bens Veterans SC and Badulla District Veterans SC match could not be played due to bad light at Cooray Park over the weekend.
After lengthy discussion amongst the organizers, the SLSMA and the two clubs it was decided to go for the tie breaker and the Old Bens Veterans SC won 3-2 on penalties.
A.B. Nathar of Old Bens Veterans won the Most Valuable Player award of the tournament and S.M. Anees of Badulla Veterans won the Most Valuable Goalkeeper of the tournament award. Both received a cash prices of Rs.7,500 each.
The champions Old Bens Veterans were presented with the Trophy, Medals and a cash prize of Rs.75,000 while runner-up Badulla Veterans received a trophy, medals and a cash prize of Rs.50,000.
33 Teams participated from Colombo, Badulla, Trincomalee, Ampara, Negombo, Puttalam, Kegalle and Vavuniya. The first round matches were played on a league basis with 8 groups and the group champions qualified to play in the quarter finals.
Three of the quarter finals were decided on penalties and only one match was decided by a goal scored during the match with Princess Veterans beating Java Lane Veterans by one goal to nil.
Both semi-finals too were decided on penalties after both matches ended in goalless draws.
Old Bens Veterans beat Princess Veterans and Badulla Veterans beat Maligawatte Veterans with identical margin of 3 to 2 on penalties.
The Champions Old Bens Veterans SC
Sampath Perera (Captain), A.B. Nathar, A. R. C. Wallace, Sisira Perera, T. M. C. R. Rameez, T. Johnson, Jude Perera, Dinesh Manjula, S. Priyantha, W. D. M. K. Fernando, W. D. S. D. Fernando, X. C. Fernando, S. Balendran, Ravi Alphonso, Pradeep Nishantha.
Runner-up Badulla Veterans SC
S. M. Anees (Captain), V. A. G. Ebert Silva, S. A. Weerasinghe, S. U. Weerasinghe, S. M. Razaak, A. G. N. Hanif, L. J. Liyanage, M. Kaleel, Anil Ratnayaka, Nalaka Samarasinghe.
