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History of the game in Sri Lanka dates back to the 1880 s when the country was under the colonial rule of the English. Both rural and urban folks took to the game in a big way and within a short span of time football became one of the most popular sports, besides cricket.
However, for some reason or other, Sri Lankan football has never quite made an impact internationally. Recently though, the game is growing from strength to strength, largely due to the FIFA goal project and the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL)'s untiring emphasis on the development of grassroots development.
Sri Lanka which started playing in the World Cup qualifiers in 1994, managed to qualify for the final qualifying round of the 2004 Asian Cup, where they lost out to the likes of Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Syria.
However they managed to emphatically defeat Laos 3-0 in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, carrying on from their performance in 2002 world cup qualifying campaign where they finished third in their group behind Thailand and Lebanon.
Under the GOAL project, FFSL has also been able to have their Football House and the National Training Centre at Baddegana. In addition, FFSL has begun to work with the Ministry of Education and the Office for School Football launching a development programme incorporating 428 schools across the nation. This should provide the base for the country to find and nurture its future talents.
It all looks bright for the football faithful. Their first step hopefully to regain the South Asian Federation cup they last won in 1995.
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