FA Maldives Needs a Clear, Agreed Plan which Provides Defined set of Objectives

Football is the worlds leading sport. The game provides healthy, enjoyable outlet for children and adults all over the globe. In Maldives, football is the central part of sporting culture and plays a vital role in developing individuals and in achieving international success in regional level.
The Maldives Government policy should increasingly stress and recognized the importance of sports to social, cultural, economical and educational progress and through the policies of Ministry of Youth and sports, the Government should seek to increase participation in sports and maximise performance on the international stage.
While slight progress has been made in developing the game in this country to date, there is growing recognition that the sports governing body, the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) needs to proactively reform the way in which football is developed and managed. On the National Sports Vision Development seminar in 1998 and 2006 the need for a new direction was forcefully highlighted by all the clubs, coaches, media and veteran players.
Development of individual players at national and international level also reinforce the need for changes in the way the game is organized in this country and the Asian football governing body AFC has recently signalled the importance of developing grass roots football in a planned and systematic way. Within Maldives, the sports involved citizens or sports experts have highlighted the need for more strategic approach to the development of sports, while most successful countries in sports have drawn attention to the fact that player development is a long-term process, taking ten years or more.
There was and had never been, since the foundation of the Association, a clear and concise plan to meet the needs of players at each stage of their development and this has led to lack of quality playing and coaching opportunities within the game in comparison with other football developing nations in SAARC and ASEAN While interests in playing the game has grown dramatically, the structures required to sustain this interest are not fully in place. This has led to situation where certain areas of the country and particularly target groups are still struggling to find opportunities to play the game at their own level.
On the international stage Maldivian teams have achieved many great results in SAARC and in Asia too, specially the performances over the years from Maldivian clubs in AFC Cup are recognised all over Asia but in order to sustain this success and to achieve a higher target the game in Maldives must be developed in line with international best practice where the leading football nations in Asia have through their relevant Football Associations integrated the development of players into their overall thinking, practice, philosophy and structure.
The next step, therefore, must be to ensure that the game is developed on a technically sound basis in this country. This essential phase in the development of the FAM must take full account of the needs of players at each phase of their development.
There is a need for a clear, agreed plan which provides a defined set of objectives for the development of the game and outlines a clear programme of action, the identification of who is responsible for implementing these actions must be determined and realistic timescales for their implementation must be outlined.
The delivery and implementation of the plan will provide a sound philosophy and framework to guide decision making at all levels of the game and within the organization.