Colombo FC eyes global partnerships, Super League after emerging champions

Sports
By Editor_1
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By A Special Correspondent

COLOMBO – Colombo Football Club buoyed by their unprecedented success during its short history are bracing to embrace professionalism by forging global partnerships with the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) poised to kick-start a semi-professional ‘Super League’ later this year.

The 12-year-old Colombo FC underlined their supremacy in the domestic circuit with an emphatic 4-0 win over Blue Eagles SC in the final of the Vantage FFSL President’s Cup 2020, the first football tournament to be held in South Asia since the outbreak of COVID-19.

“Right now, Covid has hit many budgets of our sponsors and we have to tread carefully as a club. Nevertheless, we are engaging with some global clubs to look at a partnership or support program as we need professional guidance to help take our club to the next level,” said Saif Yusoof, founder of Colombo FC, which achieved the unique distinction of winning the country’s Premier League for three consecutive years, a feat only achieved by Saunders SC.

Saif Yusoof, founder of Colombo FC

Colombo FC has changed the landscape of football in Sri Lanka ever since Yusoof,  a young graduate, returned from the United States during the tail-end of the civil war and formed the club in April 2008 with the objective of fostering unity and brotherhood among Sri Lankan football players.

“When I had come back as a graduate from the United States ,I wanted to get involved in something that promoted peace in the country. It was 2008 and the height of war in Sri Lanka. I was blessed with many options on where I wanted to work or live in my life. I wanted to contribute to something bigger than myself. I knew after all these years I had to do something back home in Sri Lanka. Football was my passion and I always believed it united people. I said let’s start small,” said Yusoof, Managing Director of Expolanka Freight (Pvt) Ltd, who has lived in Malaysia, Singapore, USA and Canada.

“The real goal was to show people that race, religion, whether you were tall, short, black or white, didn’t matter. In football when you score a goal, the human being for a moment forgets all prejudice and you see these guys hugging each other. Football is a uniting force,” said Yusoof, who played as a defensive midfielder for Elizabeth Moir School.

The players are primarily from all over Colombo. “You have players like Niran Kanishka who has been with us from day one of the establishment of the club. There are lots of players who live in Maligawatte, Slave Island and Wellampitiya. We have Momas Yapo from the Ivory Coast and Bodric Dimitri from Cameroon,” he said.

They also have national players Charitha Rathnayake who leads Colombo FC, Mohamed Fazal, Mohamed Aakib, Afeel Mohamed, Niran Kanishka, Shabeer Razooniya and former national caps Zarwan Johar and Mohamed Imran.

Yusoof considers Colombo FC’s biggest triumph as qualifying to play in the AFC Cup.

“We beat Transport United from Bhutan 7-1 at home. That felt awesome. Also when we won the Premier League three years in a row,” he said.

Yusoof gave credit to Colombo FC coach Hassan Roomy for transforming Colombo FC into a champion after he took charge in 2010. “Any orchestra needs a good conductor. That conductor is our coach Hassan Roomy,” he said.

“We had confidence in winning this tournament when we entered the campaign and we have proved that. Our players were very positive from the beginning of the tournament. In our journey to the final we faced only one defeat in the group stage, because we wanted to do an experiment by including fresh legs, but it did not go as planned. However, players showed their commitment in the final game and brought us the cup,” said Roomy, a product of Zahira College, Colombo who has enjoyed success coaching both junior and senior teams.

“This is my 11th year with Colombo FC. Since I took over this champion team, we have won over 10 major titles and are hoping to add many more in the future,” said Roomy confidently.

He guided Colombo FC to win the Silver Cup 2010 tournament in his very first year. They went on to win it again in 2012 and claimed the prestigious FA Cup in 2015.

 

The first Division III team to reach Round 5 – FA Cup 2010, Colombo FC emerged as the Runners-up of Division III.

They gained promotion to Premier League Division II in 2011 and Division I in 2012 by the FFSL

In 2013, Colombo FC extended its growth by signing a few foreign players and finished as runner-up of the Division I tournament to be promoted to the Dialog Champions League.

FA Cup semi-finalists in 2014 and champions of the Cargills FA Cup in 2014/15, they won the Dialog Champions League for the first time in 2015/16.

Runners-up of FA Cup 2016, they qualified to the AFC Cup in 2017 with Mohun Bagan AC, India who won 4-2 on aggregate.

They retained the Dialog Champions League title in 2016/17 and qualified for the AFC Cup 2018.

Colombo FC emerged as the champions of the Dialog Champions League 2017/18 for the third consecutive year and qualified for the AFC Cup 2019 where they beat Transport United FC (Bhutan) 9-2 on aggregate in the preliminary stage before losing narrowly 1-0 to Chennaiyin FC (India).

“Our next target is the upcoming Super League which is scheduled for November. The morale among the players’ is high and we have the confidence that we can win that tournament too,” said coach Roomy.

-ENCL

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