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 Barracks 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 and 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-Australian specialist Amir Alagić as head coach of the national team.[11] Sri Lanka then travelled to South Korea to finish their two remaining games against Lebanon and South Korea, losing both, yet optimism rose when Sri Lanka demonstrated an outstanding performance against Lebanon, scoring two goals and only lost by one goal margin, which was also the country's first-ever goals in the qualification.

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 named in the final squad for the 2021 Four Nations Tournament.[15]

Caps and goals correct as of 19 November 2021, after the match against Seychelles.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	1GK	Sujan Perera	(1992-07-18) 18 July 1992	41	1	Up Country Lions
	1GK	Prabath Ruwan Arunasiri	(1993-06-19) 19 June 1993	4	0	Air Force
	1GK	Kaveesh Fernando	(1995-03-25) 25 March 1995	0	0	Colombo FC
	2DF	Harsha Fernando	(1992-11-21) 21 November 1992	21	0	Air Force
	2DF	Asikur Rahuman	(1993-12-31) 31 December 1993	21	1	Defenders
	2DF	Charitha Rathnayake	(1992-12-26) 26 December 1992	21	1	Colombo FC
	2DF	Duckson Puslas	(1990-04-04) 4 April 1990	18	0	T.C. Sports
	2DF	Chamod Dilshan	(1997-03-11) 11 March 1997	5	0	Colombo FC
	3MF	Kavindu Ishan	(1992-10-17) 17 October 1992	35	1	Up Country Lions
	3MF	Chalana Chameera	(1993-01-10) 10 January 1993	21	0	Colombo FC
	3MF	Mohamed Fazal	(1990-04-10) 10 April 1990	21	1	Blue Star
	3MF	Jude Supan	(1998-07-30) 30 July 1998	18	0	Renown
	3MF	Mohamed Rifnas	(1995-01-09) 9 January 1995	14	2	Renown
	3MF	Sasanga Dilhara	(1999-06-10) 10 June 1999	9	0	Renown SC
	3MF	Ahmed Waseem Razeek	(1994-09-13) 13 September 1994	13	9	'Gokulam Kerala
	3MF	Mohamed Aman Faizer	(1999-03-12) 12 March 1999	8	0	Ratnam SC
	3MF	Dillon De Silva	(2002-04-18) 18 April 2002	6	1	Queens Park Rangers
	3MF	Marvin Hamilton	(1988-10-08) 8 October 1988	10	2	Sittingbourne
	3MF	Daniel Magrath		0	0	Blue Star
	3MF	Abdul Basith	(2001-09-20) 20 September 2001	0	0	Colombo FC
	4FW	Mohamed Aakib	(2000-06-26) 26 June 2000	18	3	Colombo FC
	4FW	Mohamed Shifan	(1998-12-19) 19 December 1998	4	0	Up Country Lions
	4FW	Ahamed Shazny	(1993-01-15) 15 January 1993	0	0	Colombo FC

The following players have also been called up to the Sri Lanka squad within the last twelve months.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Danushka Rajapaksha	(1993-05-17) 17 May 1993	0	0	New Youngs	v.  South Korea; 9 June 2021
GK	Mahendran Dinesh	(1998-02-19) 19 February 1998	0	0	Police SC	v.  Lebanon; 5 June 2021 INJ
DF	Sunil Roshan Appuhamy	(1993-07-06) 6 July 1993	4	0	Defenders	2021 SAFF Championship
DF	Reef Peries	(2001-10-30) 30 October 2001	0	0	Woking FC	v.  South Korea; 9 June 2021
DF	Chathuranga Madushan	(1993-08-09) 9 August 1993	2	0	Up Country Lions SC	v.  Lebanon; 5 June 2021 COV
DF	Chikereuba Tochokwu Francis		0	0	Java Lane SC	training camp, March 2022
DF	Tiffan Anthonypillai		0	0	CS Saint-Laurent	training camp, March 2022
DF	Tharindu Danushka		0	0	New Young's SC	v.  Lebanon; 5 June 2021 PRE
DF	Kaio Magno		0	0	CR Vasco da Gama	training camp, March 2022
MF	Edison Figurado	(1990-07-25) 25 July 1990	10	1	Free agent	2021 SAFF Championship
MF	Manimeldura Leon Perera		0	0	MTV Treubund Lüneburg	training camp, March 2022
MF	Kelly Garrett Christopher		0	0	Almyros Gaziou FC	training camp, March 2022
MF	Haneef Mohamed		0	0	FC Engstringen	training camp, March 2022
MF	Johar Mohamed Zarwan	(1996-04-23) 23 April 1996	16	1	Colombo FC	v.  South Korea; 9 June 2021
MF	Rizkhan Faizer		0	0	Java Lane SC	v.  Lebanon; 5 June 2021 PRE
MF	Anthony Pereira Goan		0	0	Boavista F.C.	training camp, March 2022
FW	Rifkhan Mohamed	(1999-10-25) 25 October 1999	2	0	Defenders	2021 SAFF Championship
FW	Mohamed Musthaq	(1998-12-16) 16 December 1998	1	1	Up Country Lions	2021 SAFF Championship
FW	Supun Dananjaya	(1998-05-21) 21 May 1998	0	0	Red Star	2021 SAFF Championship
FW	Nipuna Bandara	(1991-07-17) 17 July 1991	20	2	Air Force SC	v.  South Korea; 9 June 2021
FW	Mohammadu Fasal	(1990-04-30) 30 April 1990	14	1	Colombo FC	v.  South Korea; 9 June 2021
FW	Shabeer Razooniya	(2001-05-21) 21 May 2001	3	0	Colombo FC	v.  Lebanon; 5 June 2021 PRE
FW	Madushan Fernando		0	0	Air Force SC	v.  Lebanon; 5 June 2021 PRE
FW	Claudio Kammerknecht	(1999-07-07) 7 July 1999	0	0	SC Freiburg II	training camp, March 2022
FW	Poopathithasan Nilooshan		0	0	CS Saint-Laurent	2021 SAFF Championship
FW	Canistan Regnize		0	0	FC Montceau	training camp, March 2022
FW	Nishan Velupillay	(2001-05-07) 7 May 2001	0	0	Melbourne Victory	training camp, March 2022
INJ Withdrew due to injury PRE Preliminary/Standby squad RET Retired from the national team SUS Serving suspension WD Withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue COV Tested positive for COVID-19

AFC Challenge Cup										AFC Challenge Cup qualification
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA
2006	Runners-up	2nd	6	4	1	2	7	2		No qualifying 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.
• The AFC Challenge Cup was cancelled by the AFC.