FFSL helps tsunami victims

by Bernard Perera

The Football Federation of Sri Lanka which came up with a programme to help the victims of the tsunami disaster completed another stage on Tuesday at the Football House.

As promised earlier the FFSL donated a sum of Rs. 500,000 to Prasanna Samarajeeva. Samarajeeva, a national poolist from Galle, lost all his belongings and his house was completely washed off by the killer tidal wave on December 26.

The football family expects Samarajeeva to build his house with the donation and to continue his playing career for the country. The cheque for the above amount was handed over to him by the President of the FFSL Thilina Panditharatne.

Meanwhile the Federation also donated cash awards to football leagues that were affected by the tidal waves. These monies have to be used to develop the sport in their leagues.

Each league was given a cash award of Rs. 200,000. The leagues that received the monies were Jaffna FL, Point Pedro FL, Batticaloa FL, Trinco FL, Ampara FL, Beruwala FL, Galle FL, Matara FL and Kalutara FL. The funds for these donations were the contributions made by the governing bodies for soccer in Japan and Korea.

These were made available to the FFSL on a request made by Asian Football Federation Vice President and Chairman of Management Committee of Football Federation V. Manilal Fernando.

It was also disclosed by Media Director, FFSL that FIFA was scheduled to meet in Zurich yesterday to finalise the distribution of funds for the tsunami affected countries of the Asian region.

Earlier FIFA promised a grant of ten million US dollars for the rehabilitation of tsunami affected victims.

Two officials from FIFA Urs Zaniti and David Borja who arrived in Sri Lanka recently to evaluate the damage caused by the tidal wave.

Zaniti and Borja are scheduled to submit their report at this meeting to the officials who are expected to decide on the amount that is to be donated to these Sri Lankans. The FFSL expects a large portion of the donation for Sri Lanka which could exceed the amount promised earlier by the governing body.