Champions League Tournament FSL get their act together and resume domestic football

Friday, 3 October 2025 01:42 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

FSL President Jaswar Umar

By Althaf Nawaz

The domestic football season will commence with the kick-off of the prestigious Champions League Tournament from 7 November to be played in three venues in Colombo and Kurunegala.

After a lapse of almost four years, Football Sri Lanka (FSL) finally got their act together to resume domestic football, which came in for heavy criticism. Incumbent President Jaswar Umar and his team of officials were delighted to announce the resumption of local Football at a press briefing held last Wednesday at the Football headquarters.

“We are extremely delighted to announce the resumption of domestic football which was delayed due to various reasons. We finally put our act together to kick-off the Champions League initially which has more teams than the Super League Tournament,” said Jaswar.

Defending champions Matara City Club and runner-up Java Lane SC are slated on top of Group B and A respectively, while twelve more iconic teams in the game will vie for honours in this year’s tournament, where the majority of the games will be at Racecourse Stadium, while City Football League and Public Grounds Kurunegala will be the other two venues which are to host some of the games.

From 7 November, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday matches will take place initially at the Race Course Stadium.

The last two games to decide the league winner will be played next year on 4 and 5 February, with the venue to be notified later based on the teams which qualify.

The top four teams will qualify for the super 8 and the team with the highest points will be adjudged as the winner. The bottom three will confront each other separately, with the teams occupying the one before the last and the last team will be relegated. The champions and runner-up will move to next year’s Super League Tournament.

“The football loving fraternity will now have the opportunity to witness enthralling games of football with commencement of this tournament, which will be followed by the Super League Tournament. We are making arrangements to telecast the matches live via our website on various digital platforms.”

“It is very easy to criticise the FSL activity calendar, but one has to understand that when we took over it was a herculean task for us, especially with regard to funds. But gradually we surged ahead with the support of FIFA and AFC to run our day-to-day activities while focusing on the National junior and senior men and women teams engaging in various tournaments without avoiding them. Nevertheless, we are jubilant to celebrate the completion of two years after being elected to office achieving many milestones,” added Jaswar.

The teams:

nGroup A – Java Lane, Saunders, New Star, Serendib, SLTB, Negombo Youth, Crystal Palace

nGroup B – Matara City, Solid, Moragasmulla, SL Police, Super Sun, Pelicans, St. Mary’s