Kandy’s football loving public are happy over the good performance of our footballers in the13th South Asian Football Federation tournament in Maldives where they have done well and the best game was with mighty India which was a draw and yesterday was the last game, a big hand should go to the Sri Lankan players, who put football on top.
British service units such as the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery and the Royal Garrison Command were the pioneers who promoted competitive football here. The service barrack grounds at Echelon Square (where the Galadari Hotel is presently situated) and the Sports Club grounds (presently the Taj Samudra Hotel) were the popular football fields in the game’s formative years.
British administrative service and the British planting community took the sport to the Central, Up-Country and Southern regions. By early 1900 football as a competitive sport, was popular amongst the local youth. Though playing bare footed, our lads mastered the skills, and in fact, donned the Service jerseys as replacements in an exclusively white dominated game.
The first ever attempt to organize and conduct Association Football in Ceylon was when the Colombo Association Football League was formed at a meeting held in the Bristol Hotel, Colombo on April 4, 1911. However, as a result of the World War in 1914, this body understandably became inactive and ineffective. After a lapse of nine years, the Colombo Association Footbal League was revived and re-constituted in 1920. By 1924 Colombo Associaiton Football League contributed immensely to the promotion of the game in the years that followed.
In the Southern Province,the sport had a fair impact on the masses, with the planting and administrative community leading in the promotion of the game in a big way. A. British planter in Deniyaya, contributed much to the sport in the South between 1910 to 1920. The British servicemen from the Navy wireless station in Matara also helped to popularize the sport,particularly in the southern schools. The first football club formed in the south was the Galle Association Football Club in 1910, with obviously a predominantly British membership
Central Province - Kandy, the hill capital of Sri Lanka, had its baptism in football in the mid-1930s. During the Second World War, British units were stationed in Kandy, Later on Kandy Amateur Football League was formed. It subsequently changed its name to Kandy District Football Association. It served football in Matale, Gampola, Nawalapitiya, Kurunegala and Kegalle, Later the towns formed their own associations.
Northern Province - Almost at the same time the British planters, technocrats and civil servicemen were spreading the gospel of football in the Western, Central and Southern provinces. The North too, came under their spell with a flourish of football activity amongst the local populace. School leavers and young government servants got together to form football clubs,in the mid-thirties. In fact, on 8 November1939 , the Jaffna Football Association was formed. This historic meeting took place at the Jaffna YMCA and Football in the northern peninsula always remained active and vibrant until the outbreak of ethnic violence in 1983.
North Central Province -is also a province full of recreation and sport. Anuradhapura the ancient capital of Sri Lanka is a centre of activity, both cultural and recreational and football naturally takes pride of place. The origin of football in the North Central Province is no different to that of the rest of the country. The influence of the British civil servants had been at the base of its growth. These Britishers, with the assistance of the local youth, played football more as a recreation than in competition, in a ground close to the venerated Ruwanveli Seya.
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