Sri Lanka national football team

Football was introduced to Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) by the British. There is evidence of it being played in Galle Face, a sandy area near the coast, by British servicemen stationed in Colombo in the 1890s. The game was also played at grounds of the barracks at Echelon Square and the army grounds (presently the Taj Samudra Hotels).

British servicemen of the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery and the Royal Garrison Command began and promoted competitive football in Ceylon. The British administrative service and the planting community enthusiastically took it to the Central, Southern, and Up-Country regions. By early 1900 competitive football was popular with the local youth.

The game became popular and local football clubs were formed. St. Michael's SC, Havelock's Football Club, Java Lane SC, Wekande SC, Moors FC, and CH & FC, the last being a European monopoly, were some of the first clubs in Columbo. Harlequins FC and Saunders SC soon joined. The trophies of the early tournaments were the De Mel Shield and the Times of Ceylon Cup.

Football also became popular in the country's Southern Provence, where the planting and administrative community promoted the game. British planter T R. Brough in Deniyaya heavily promoted football in the south between 1910–1920, and British servicemen from the Navy wireless station in Matara also helped popularise it.[6]

In 1952, Ceylon became a member of FIFA and got the opportunity to play football at the international level. The country's first International friendly was played against India. The Football Federation organised a tournament called Colombo Cup, which helped the national team to improve their skills and compete with other nations. From the 1960s, the under-19 football team competed in the AFC u19 championship.

In 2015 Sri Lanka played for the first time in the Bangabandhu Cup. This tournament was organised by Bangladesh Football Federation. The national U-23 teams of Thailand, Bahrain, Malaysia and Singapore participated in this tournament. The national football teams of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also competed in this tournament.

Sri Lanka was placed in the group with Malaysia and Bangladesh. In the first game Sri Lanka played against the Malaysian team. Malaysia won the match by 2–0. The second match was played against the host Bangladesh. Sri Lanka lost the game 1–0. Sri Lanka failed to score a goal in this tournament. After a six years of poor performance in the international football field Sri Lanka football team managed to qualify for the Semi Final of 2015 SAFF Championship. The poor performance continued in the Solidarity Cup as well. They had another shock defeat this time by the hands of Mongolia the lowest ranked team in Asia. As a result of this defeat Sri Lanka eliminated in the Group Stage of the tournament.[7]

In July 2018, Sri Lanka welcomed a historical encounter when they faced Lithuania, marked for the first time Sri Lanka will face a European team. The Sri Lankans managed a respectable 0–0 draw to the UEFA side but lost 0–2 in the second encounter.[8] During 2022 World Cup campaign however, Sri Lanka suffered another poor performance as the team fell 0–1 in Zhuhai to Macau. Macau was subsequently disqualified, as the team refused to travel to Sri Lanka in the aftermath of 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings,[9] Sri Lanka was awarded a 3–0 win in response, thus qualified to the second round of the World Cup for the first time since 2006 campaign.[10]

In the second round, Sri Lanka was unlucky to be drawn with four 2019 AFC Asian Cup participants, South Korea, North Korea, Lebanon and Turkmenistan. As predicted, Sri Lanka proved too weak for the group, losing all matches without scoring a single goal as for the end of 2019, and was eliminated from World Cup contention. Sri Lanka had improved since then, and participated in the 2020 Bangabandhu Cup, but the team still finished bottom with two defeats and no goal.

In February 2020, the Football Federation of Sri Lanka announced the appointment of Bosnian specialist Amir Alagić as head coach of the national team.[11]

There is no official TV broadcaster for the football matches played by the Sri Lanka team because the Football Federation of Sri Lanka has not sold broadcasting rights. The SAFF Championship was broadcast by several channels, and tournaments in the 1990s and 2000s were broadcast free-to-air by Channel Eye. The 2013 SAFF Championship was broadcast by CSN. Star Sports also broadcast the SAFF Championship on pay TV satellite broadcasters.

The official online broadcaster of Sri Lankan football matches is thepapare.com[12] which streams the games of the Sri Lanka Football Premier League, the finals of the Sri Lanka FA Cup, and the AFC U-19 Championship.[13]

The team uses different kits for home and away games. The kits are currently manufactured by Grand Sport Group.

The traditional home kit of the national team has mostly been maroon shirts and maroon shorts, but blue colours have also been used. The colours are derived from the 15th century flag of Kingdom of Kandy.

The away shirt colour has changed several times between a white shirt with white shorts or a black shirt with black shorts. White shirt with white shorts has been the more frequent choice.

Sugathadasa Stadium

Sugathadasa Stadium is the former athletic stadium in Sri Lanka. It was established in 1972 and has a capacity of 28,000.[14] The stadium is mostly used for athletics and football. The 1995 and 2008 SAFF Championship tournaments were held in this stadium.This is the home stadium of Sri Lanka National Football Team.Sri Lanka won their first major football tournament in his stadium. It was defeating India in the Final of 1995 SAFF Championship.

All the FIFA World Cup qualification matches of Sri Lankan team also played in this ground. This ground has become a lucky ground for Sri Lanka team because they have won much of the matches played in here. The draw against Philippines Football team and The Tajikistan Team were well known. In recent times Sri Lanka lost to Bhutan in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualify matches against Bhutan in this Stadium. The 2014–15 FA Cup Final also held in this ground.

Major football tournaments that played in here were the AFC President's Cup and AFC Challenge Cup.

Kalutara Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Kalutara, Sri Lanka. This stadium also known as the Vernon Fernando ground. It is currently used mostly for football matches and hosts the home games of Kalutara Park SC. The stadium holds 15,000 people. This stadium is popularly known as "Kalutara Park Ground".This stadium is located in the heart of Kalutara city.This stadium is mostly use in the Sri Lanka Champions League and Sri Lanka FA Cup tournaments.

The following players were selected for the 2018 SAFF Championship

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Sujan Perera	(1982-07-18)18 July 1982 (aged 36)	19	0	Club Eagles
22	1GK	Danushka Rajapaksha	(1993-05-17)17 May 1993 (aged 25)	0	0	New Young's
30	1GK	Kavish Fernando	(1995-05-25)25 May 1995 (aged 23)	0	0	Colombo FC
2	2DF	Subash Madushan	(1990-05-31)31 May 1990 (aged 28)	13	1	Navy SC
3	2DF	Bandara Warakagoda	(1986-10-13)13 October 1986 (aged 31)	20	0	Army SC
4	2DF	Yogendran Puslas	(1990-04-04)4 April 1990 (aged 28)	0	0	New Young's
12	2DF	Jude Supan	(1998-07-30)30 July 1998 (aged 20)	1	0	Renown
24	2DF	Charitha Mudiyanselage	(1992-12-26)26 December 1992 (aged 25)	1	0	Chennai City FC
28	2DF	Harsha Fernando	(1992-11-21)21 November 1992 (aged 25)	1	0	Air Force SC
7	3MF	Mohamed Rifnas	(1995-01-09)9 January 1995 (aged 23)	13	3	Colombo FC
8	3MF	Asikur Rahuman	(1993-12-31)31 December 1993 (aged 24)	13	1	Army SC
9	3MF	Kavindu Ishan	(1992-10-17)17 October 1992 (aged 25)	19	1	Air Force SC
11	3MF	Dilan De Silva	(1988-09-13)13 September 1988 (aged 29)	1	0	Colombo FC
13	3MF	Mariyathas Nitharshan	(1994-05-14)14 May 1994 (aged 24)	1	0	Renown
17	3MF	Waseem Ahmed Razeek	(1994-09-13)13 September 1994 (aged 23)	3	0	Berliner AK 07
19	3MF	Afeel Mohamed	(1996-07-09)9 July 1996 (aged 22)	2	0	Colombo FC
20	3MF	Chameera Sajith	(1993-01-29)29 January 1993 (aged 25)	17	0	Army SC
10	4FW	Zohar Mohamed Zarwan	(1996-04-23)23 April 1996 (aged 22)	14	1	Colombo FC
14	4FW	Mohamed Fazal	(1990-04-30)30 April 1990 (aged 28)	3	1	Colombo FC
21	4FW	Asela Madushan	(1999-12-09)9 December 1999 (aged 18)	1	0	Renown

Country	Matches	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Win/Draw %
Afghanistan	8	1	1	6	6	17	−11	25.00
Bahrain	2	0	0	2	0	4	−4	00.00
Bangladesh	18	4	2	12	12	27	−15	22.22
Bhutan	7	5	0	2	18	5	+13	71.43
Brunei	2	2	0	0	6	1	+5	100.00
Cambodia	3	1	0	2	2	10	−8	33.33
China PR	2	0	0	2	2	4	−2	00.00
Chinese Taipei	4	3	1	0	9	4	+5	100.00
Guam	1	1	0	0	5	1	+4	100.00
Hong Kong	1	0	0	1	0	5	−5	00.00
India	18	2	4	12	13	32	−19	11.11
Indonesia	3	0	1	2	2	11	−9	33.33
Iran	2	0	0	2	0	11	−11	00.00
Japan	3	0	0	3	0	16	−16	00.00
Kyrgyzstan	1	0	0	1	1	4	−3	00.00
Laos	7	2	2	3	11	10	+1	28.57
Lebanon	4	1	0	3	4	15	−11	25.00
Lithuania	2	0	1	1	0	2	−2	00.00
Macau	3	1	1	1	4	2	+2	66.66
Malaysia	10	1	0	9	7	36	−29	10.00
Maldives	17	2	8	7	12	32	−20	11.76
Mongolia	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	50.00
Myanmar	7	2	0	5	10	18	−8	28.57
North Korea	3	0	0	3	0	8	−8	00.00
Nepal	16	6	7	3	23	16	+7	37.50
Oman	3	0	1	2	1	14	−13	00.00
Pakistan	19	8	4	7	36	21	+15	75.00
Philippines	4	1	1	2	5	9	−4	50.00
Qatar	3	0	0	3	0	9	−9	00.00
Saudi Arabia	3	0	0	3	0	9	−9	00.00
Singapore	5	1	0	4	6	15	−9	20.00
South Korea	2	0	0	2	0	14	−14	00.00
Seychelles	2	1	0	1	2	4	−2	50.00
Sudan	1	0	0	1	0	1	−1	00.00
Syria	3	0	0	3	0	17	−17	00.00
Tajikistan	4	0	1	3	3	11	−8	00.00
Thailand	6	0	0	6	2	20	−18	00.00
Timor-Leste	1	1	0	0	3	2	+1	100.00
Turkmenistan	5	0	1	4	2	10	−8	00.00
United Arab Emirates	8	0	0	8	3	35	−32	00.00
Uzbekistan	1	0	0	1	0	6	−6	00.00
Vietnam	4	0	3	1	6	7	−1	00.00

• Last Updated on 19 January 2020.[15]

1972 to 1984 was competef in Qualification

AFC Asian Cup										AFC Asian Cup qualification
Hosts/Year	Result	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA		GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1956 to 1992	Did not enter and qualify									Did not enter and qualify
1996	Did not qualify									6	2	0	4	5	25
2000										4	0	0	4	2	18
2004										8	2	0	6	6	26
2007	Did not enter									Did not enter
2011	Did not Qualify									AFC Challenge Cup
2015
2019										2	0	0	2	1	3
2023	TBD
Total	0/17	—								31	7	1	23	25	102

AFC Challenge Cup finals										AFC Challenge Cup qualifications
Hosts/Year	Result	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA		GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
2006	Runners-up	2nd	6	4	1	2	7	2		No Qualify Round
2008	Group Stage	7th	3	0	0	3	1	9		3	2	1	0	14	4
2010	Group Stage	5th	3	1	0	2	4	7		3	2	1	0	9	4
2012	Did not Qualify									3	0	1	2	0	5
2014										3	1	0	2	5	5
Total	3/5	Runners-up	12	5	1	7	12	18		12	5	3	4	28	18

• In 2011 and 2015 The AFC Challenge Cup acted as the qualification for the Asian Cup.
• AFC Challenge Cup has been cancelled by AFC.