By Gamini Perera
To be re-elected to an international sports body, uncontested is a remarkable achievement indeed. To be re-elected sans any contest speaks volumes of the man’s devotion and dedication to the game, not only in Sri Lanka, but, in the whole of Asia.

Vernon Manilal Fernando, on his return to the island as the newly re-elected Vice President of the Asian Football Confederation, (AFC) was accorded a warm welcome.

His visions and missions for local football have been over demanding.

A live-wire of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL), he now occupies the chairmanship of the Competition Committee a position which needs vast knowledge in the game as well as expertise in handling tournaments.

In an exclusive interview with this writer in December 2001 he said, that the enlightened personalities of this hallowed sport must avoid two extremes-self-centred indifference and self-centred fanatism. "Both are dangerous as well as destructive," Fernando added.

For Fernando, respecting diversity and different views is not the only criterion.

"They should also fightfully follow these criteria," he said.

Manilal’s rise as a football official has not been a bed of roses.

He had the initial taste of football management, when he elected President of the Kalutara Football League in !976.

One of his life’s ambitions was fulfilled when he was elected to be President of the Football Federation in 1979. He still holds the record of being the youngest president to be elected to this sporting body.

Fernando received the prestigious service award for the unstinted service he had rendered to the AFC.

He had been a member of AFC’s several international delegations in charge of varied tournaments.

Thanks to Manilal’s dynamism and his dedication and determination to the sport he loves and cares so much, that the FFSL, today booasts of a superb edifice in the form of the Football House.

Fernando, an attorney-at-law, is also in the legal committee of FIFA, the world body.

During the World Cup in Korea, Japan, Fernando always held the view that the future of Football is in Asia.

"All of us in Asia must truly and fully permeate the slogan: ‘The future is Asia", especially among the continent’s youth, he added.

Surely it is the consensus of members of the AFC that Manilal possesses the right credentials to become the President of the Asian Football Conference, in the near future.