The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has issued red notice on Sri Lankan Football authorities, raising concerns over the Electoral roadmap of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka.

In a letter, FIFA has noted that several media reports clearly indicate that there is a deviation from the roadmap agreed upon following the court order issued at the end of October 2022. 

FIFA has mentioned that in particular, they have noted that the election of a new Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) executive committee is to take place next January for a four-month term based on the previous version of the FFSL statutes.

“Through our sources in Sri Lanka, we have additionally observed that the new version of the FFSL statutes, adopted on September 22 by the FFSL general assembly, will be reviewed by the relevant governmental authorities and, if need be, “alterations” to the newly adopted statutes will be submitted for adoption to the FFSL”, it added.

The letter further notices that the FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) would like to recall that a roadmap has already been agreed upon following the first mission to Colombo on September 5 to September 8, 2022, during which extensive discussions took place with the respective representatives of the FFSL and the Ministry of Sports in Sri Lanka.

It has also highlighted that the FIFA and the AFC consider that the FFSL statutes as adopted on September 22, represent the statutory basis on which the FFSL must operate and organized to its upcoming elections.

The FIFA, which further draws attention to several matters to be considered by FFSL in preparing its electoral roadmap, has also demanded the FFSL to provide with an adjusted roadmap in line with their previous mutual understanding by no later than January 03, 2023.