Manilal Fernando holds his head high
The
contribution made for the development of football in Sri Lanka by
Manilal Vernon Fernando as the President of the Football Federation has
been tremendous and unparalled. At this time when the Ethics Committee
of FIFA has slapped a ban on Fernando for allegedly breaching FIFA
ethics code, which Fernando strongly disputes and would contest, nothing
will take away his sterling contribution.
Fernando, who is surprised and puzzled by the ruling, as are the
legion of his supporters, can surely continue to hold his head high as
he knows better than anyone else that he did no wrong.
How Fernando came into football
For the record, Fernando was brought into football by that man who
could spot a gem when he sees one - Joseph Sebastian Nithianandaraja who
is sadly no more. I was one who supported Fernando going round the
country with his supporters canvassing votes for him. Fernando was the
youngest to be elected President of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka
beating a former Deputy Inspector General of Police Herbert Weerasinghe
by two votes.
Fernando beating Arumugam's candidate was hailed by soccerites and
followers of the game at that time. Arumugam was king maker at that
time. Fernando who watched the decline and decay of football and its
administration at that time, got moving once in the hot seat. He began
his crusade to give the game, the administration and the players
hitherto unknown places in the sun.
High and respected office
Never in the history of the game in the country has any individual or
for that matter a President of the Controlling Body held the high and
respected office in the Asian Football Confederation or the world
controlling body FIFA. There are of course critics who are rushing to
pile it on Fernando who has the courage of his conviction and strength
of his own standards and beliefs to openly talk about his own side of
the story.
Being a highly respected legal eagle, Fernando is not going to
concede that goal scored by FIFA's Ethics Committee and his dream team
of legal eagles will take it up and are confident that the goal scored
by the Ethics Committee will be ruled no goal.
Deplorable local critics
While the game will be on and watched by everyone, what is deplorable
is that the local critics have already accused, convicted and condemned
Fernando. Give the man a fair chance one would need to say to vindicate
himself.
It is an inborn trait in some of us to hit a man when he is down, to
hit below the belt and another aspect if we can call it a sport to
character assassinate a human when he is hitting the big time. A man who
changed the face of that game called football, gave it a club house that
never was, introduced professionalism, built stadiums and sweated it out
for the player and country and game is today Manilal Vernon Fernando who
is a much maligned man.
Not thrive on filthy lucre
Knowing Fernando as we do, one can vouch for the fact that Fernando
is not one who will want to thrive on filthy lucre. Rather he was born
with a silver spoon in his mouth and does not need to thrive on other
resources.
When all is said and done there will come a time he will have the
last laugh. Until then he should have his chin up and hold his head
high.
His contribution to soccer in Sri Lanka has been what mattered and
will continue to matter.
All soccer fans and soccerites have pledged their support for
Fernando and are confident that he will dribble out of the unfortunat
situation and come back to continue the good work that he had been
doing.
Musfiqur man in a million
The Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim is a man in a million. Unhappy
with his form with the bat and having lost the one-day series to
Zimbabwe he quit the captaincy. When several other are clinging on to
the captaincy or continuing even after their prime, Mushfiqur as set an
example that most captains and cricketers would do well to emulate.
He has not spelt out the reasons for quitting. But it is apparent
that his form and the losing of the series are not the only reason but
probably he has not been receiving 100 per cent cooperation from his
team mates.
But the Bangladesh Cricket Board is happy with his leadership and was
wanting him to captain till the home series against New Zealand in
October. The BCB was surprised with his quitting and when the team
return will discuss the matter with Mishfiqur.
When the Bangadeshis toured Sri Lanka and the confident manner in
which they performed showed signs of their cricket being on the up and
up. As captain, batsman and wicket keeper he was par excellence. It is
hoped that BCB will get him to change his stance.
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