The election committee of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) has rejected the nomination of Dakshitha Sumathipala as well as 04 other nominations of his camp.

Sumathipala, the President of the Anuradhapura District Football Association, had submitted his nomination to contest for the Presidency of the FFSL.

Only 08 nominations from Sumathipala’s camp have been accepted and critics say that this would raise the odds in the favour of his contender – Jaswar Umar.

The FFSL election committee has given rejected candidates time to submit their appeals until Sep. 03.

The candidates whose nominations were rejected are : Dakshitha Sumathipala who intended to contest for the Presidency, T.L. Uduwara (Wattala League) who intended to contest for the Vice Presidency, and Nalaka Dissanayake (Sri Lanka Schools), Nihal Perera (Wattala League) and Heshini Ariyaratne (Deniyaya League) who intended to contest for positions of Ex-Co members.

If Mr. Sumathipala’s appeals are rejected, former chairman Mr. Umar will be become the FFSL President uncontested while the remaining 04 main positions will also be filled uncontested.

However, the fact that all 13 nominations of the Umar camp were accepted, is also being talked about in Football circles.

This is mainly because the Sports Ministry had declared him as ineligible to contest at the last FFSL election. Therefore, the acceptance of a nomination by an individual once declared as ‘ineligible’, by the sports ministry itself, has raised eyebrows.

In addition, a Special Investigation Unit of the Sports Ministry had also recommended Mr. Umar was not deemed fit to hold a post in any sports federation.  It was also recommended to take disciplinary action against him on a ministry level.

However, it is also singular that this year’s election committee consists of officials who were present last time as well.

The committed is chaired by retired judge U.L Abdul Majid and includes retired Judge Bandula K. Athapattu and Major General (Retd.) Upali Gunasekara as other members.

The recommendations made over the irregularities of Mr. Umar, by the Ministry’s Special Investigation Unit to prevent offences relating to sports, are as follows :