Over crowded 2016 All Island U19 Division II begins

With 11 teams demoted from Division I, 48 teams will battle it out for the 2016 All Island Schools’ Football U19 Division II championship and the promotion to Division I next year.

The All Island Schools’ Football U19 Division II Championship is the 2nd tier of the main event of Sri Lanka Schools’ Football Association and will commence at the end of October.

Eleven teams demoted as 2016 All Island Schools’ Division I kicks-off

The surprise relegation of 11 teams from Division I, instead of the regular two team demotion has certainly put a strain on the already overcrowded 38 team competition.

“We demoted these schools according to performance as well as some teams didn’t play some of their allotted matches. So it is unfair when other teams play all their matches. That is why we have taken a strong decision on this,” Secretary of SLSFA Nalaka Dissanayake said exclusively to ThePapare.com.

Many demoted schools beg to differ from the Secretary’s comment saying quite correctly that it is the SLSFA’s duty to organize tournaments in a way that it does not clash with the education of the student athletes as many of the U19 players are supposed to face their A/L exams the following year and pushing a tournament to such a congested time period is the reason for the inability to continue with the tournament.

The demoted schools are D.S. Senanayake College (Colombo), Zahira College (Mawanella), Wesley College (Colombo), Dharmaraja College (Kandy), St. Mary’s College (Negombo), S.Thomas’ College (Matara), De Mazenod College (Kandana), Hindu College (Colombo), St. Mary’s College (Chilaw), Nalanda College (Colombo), St. Mary’s College (Kegalle).

Royal College were the 2015 champions while Al-Aqsa College, Kinniya were the runners-up.

Surprisingly though Royal College have been the only team to be promoted to Division I whereas Al-Aqsa College who had the earned the right to be promoted had been left behind. This leads us to question the decision making methods of the SLSFA.

The 48 teams have been drawn into 16 groups of 3, where the top 2 teams will qualify for the next round. Schools which are in close proximity to each other are put into the same group so as to finish off the matches quickly.

Undoubtedly the toughest group will be Group I which features 2015 Kotmale Chox Champions St. Henry’s College, Ilavalai with their regional rivals St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna. Both the teams have qualified for the semi-finals of this year’s Kotmale Championship as well. Jaffna Central College is the other team placed along with them.

Group G is another to lookout for which features two Marians schools from Negombo and Chilaw as well as 2014 Division III champions and this year’s Kotmale Championship semi-finalists St. Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa.

Last year’s runners-up Al-Aqsa College, 2016 National Schools Games semi-finalists St. Aloysius’ College, 12th Zahira Super 16 Soccer 7’s champions Wesley College, Hewavitharana MV Rajagiriya , Zahira College Gampola and De Mazenod College are the other teams to keep an eye out for.

The final round of matches will be held on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of December in Colombo. Hopefully this year’s tournament will not be a repeat of last year’s fiasco and will give adequate breathing space to the student athletes.