FIFA General Secretary Jermoe Valcke strengthened the bond between Sri Lanka Football and FIFA after a difficult 12 months in his visit for a two day seminar to the country.
FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke together with AFC General Secretary Dato Alex Soosay, Mr.Thierry Regenass – Director Member Associations & development- FIFA with Mr. Ranjith Rodrigo the President FFSL spoke to the media about their purpose of the recent visit to Sri Lanka.
Speaking at the media conference Jermoe Valcke mentioned that this was part of FIFA’s initiative to visit all associate member nations to build up relationship as well as to discuss development of football in each country. Jerome Valcke FIFA General Secretary said FIFA and AFC is monitoring the development paths of Member Association and also has designed many development programmes to suit different levels of Football standards
“As you all know Sri Lanka football had a difficult time in the past year or two. Now there have recovered from it and is now in the correct path. We as FIFA and Mr. Rodrigo for the FFSL agreed on what needs to be done in the future for the development of football. What Sri Lanka needs to look into is the grassroots level, the U15’s and U17’s. That is the future of football in every country. We have the U17 World Cup in India in 2017. So Sri Lanka should aim for that.”
“Furthermore we discussed about audit and compliance as FIFA has been plagued by corruption in the recent past and also doping and match fixing which is not good for the future of football around the world. We as FIFA and the Football Federation of Sri Lanka should implement these necessary actions against corruption at the same level, if not it wouldn’t be fruitful,” emphasized Jerome Valcke.
When questioned about by the media about the international exposure for Sri Lanka Alex Dato Soosay, AFC General Secretary had this to say.
“AFC is conducting regional tournaments which allow member nations to bid in order to host the tournament. Every Asian region gets this opportunity. As you will see at the end of the month the AFC President’s Cup will be played here in Sri Lanka. That is the third main competition conducted by the AFC.”
Also speaking at the media conference President of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka, Ranjith Rodrigo thanked FIFA headed by Joseph Sepp Blatter for all the development and infrastructure funding made to Sri Lanka. FIFA has also made a pledge of USD 500,000 for the laying of the artificial turf at the Henry Pedris Stadium.
