FIFA expects to make about US$25 million available to Sri Lankan football over its next four-year cycle, under a development roadmap discussed when FIFA President Gianni Infantino met a Sri Lankan delegation in Baku on 26 October.
The stated ambition is to make football the most popular sport in the country within four years — a target that would displace cricket. Three verified newsrooms filed on the meeting on Tuesday: NewsFirst, the Daily Mirror at 11.46 a.m. and EconomyNext at 2.25 p.m.
EconomyNext alone dates the meeting to 26 October and alone identifies the provenance of the figures: Football Sri Lanka published them in a statement on social media. The money is a proposed commitment discussed at a meeting, not a signed disbursement.
Who was in the room
Infantino met Sunil Kumara Gamage, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, and Jaswar Umar, President of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka. NewsFirst and the Daily Mirror add two further delegates: National Sports Council Chairman Priyantha Ekanayake and High Performance Centre lead Prasanna Jayalath.
The meeting took place around the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival in Azerbaijan, which Infantino cited as the kind of event that helps young players “showcase and hone their skills while experiencing the pride of representing their country on a global stage.”
What the money is for
The US$25 million is to be spread across the national team, youth development, women’s football, and the training of coaches and referees.
The infrastructure component is the more concrete part of the roadmap:
- A state-of-the-art international football stadium. FIFA funding for a national stadium is not new: in June the foreign minister said the ground would be built on Board of Investment land at Kadolkale, Negombo. None of this week’s filings names a site, so whether this is the same project is unconfirmed.
- A football ground in every district, with work expected to begin next year.
- About 40 grounds developed through FFSL member leagues by the end of 2031 — a separate, federation-run programme. The FFSL has 61 member leagues.
- A National High-Performance Centre, with FIFA providing technical expertise and infrastructure support alongside the sports ministry and the FFSL.
Gamage said the government “appreciates FIFA’s valuable support and reaffirms its full commitment to working closely with FIFA and the FFSL to advance the sport.” Infantino said FIFA “reiterates its firm commitment to advancing Sri Lankan football.”
The funding figure was already public
The Sunday Times reported the rise to US$25 million on 25 October, the day before the Baku meeting, in a broader piece on the sport’s recent gains. The new information this week is therefore the roadmap — the stadium, the district grounds and the high-performance centre — rather than the headline number.
That piece also sets out the on-field record behind the funding. Sri Lanka won all three matches in the September–October international window, beating Seychelles 3-0 and 2-0 in Victoria on 27 and 30 September and Mauritius 3-2 in Saint Pierre on 5 October, and now stand 184th in the FIFA rankings. The team was 207th — last among the then 207 member associations — in October 2022, and has since climbed through 205th, 204th, 191st and 187th. Umar attributes the improvement to a systematic approach and to the introduction of professional players of Sri Lankan origin, a policy that drew criticism when it began.
Not reported
No filing gives a breakdown of the US$25 million by year or by programme, names a site for the stadium or the high-performance centre, or says what Sri Lanka must do to qualify for the funds. Nor does any say how the figure compares with the previous four-year cycle.
