The Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) has introduced a new selection process and criteria ahead of the National Team trials which will start this week.
FFSL elaborated more on it at the Press Conference held to officially introduce the new Head Coach of Sri Lanka, Nizam Packeer Ali.
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“We have asked the 18 clubs who participated in the 2017 DCL to send their best 5 players for the National Team trials. It would be around 90 players and we would divide them into 3 pools and we will be giving them a training under the Head Coach. Then we will do the selection along with the selection committee and the national team management committee,” President of FFSL Anura De Silva mentioned.
“Also, we have asked the Division I clubs to send their best 3 players for the trials and also the respective Football League’s to send their best who doesn’t fall into the Champions League and Premier League Division I categories,” he further added.
A criticism that has been there for years has been that a player is not given adequate time to show his or her talents when it comes to trials.
“What we have done in the past was to give an hour or hour and a half to the player and select a squad, which is absurd. We will train each pool for 4 days at Beddegana, which will give enough time for them to show their talent and for us to see,” newly appointed National Team Manager Sunil Senaweera added.
Head Coach Packeer Ali will have a huge say in the selections and the composition of the squads while there will be much more cohesion and communication between him and selection committee moving forward.
“First of all, I will introduce criteria of how the selections should be done and what we want in the National Team. The whole trial will also be according to what we need in the tournament. Before the selections I will have a talk with the selection committee and ask them to look into areas and also request them to come and watch matches and tournaments,” Packeer Ali mentioned.
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Unlike on previous occasions there will be a feeder system in place and competition for a spot in the National squad.
“We have proposed two national pools; that is pool A & pool B which will have 30 players each. We will assign a coach for pool B under the Head Coach. We expect more competition between the two pools to get into the National Team,” De Silva said.
The selection trials program will have four groups and each group will have residential training for four days. All meals and accommodation will be provided for the players while there will be two training sessions each day from 7.00am – 9.30am and 3.00pm – 6.00pm at the Beddegana National Football Training Complex. There will be a special trial program in Jaffna for the North & East players.
1st Group – 26th February – 1st March – Beddegana Football Complex.
2nd Group – 2nd March – 5th March – Beddegana Football Complex.
3rd Group – 9th March – 12th March – Beddegana Football Complex.
4th Group – 16th March – 21st March – Jaffna (North & East Players)
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