World football’s governing body, FIFA, has warned that it will take action if the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) does not hold the election by the end of this year. This warning has been given by FIFA after extending the dates for twice to hold a congress for a new Executive Committee.
It is also believed that the FAM have asked to extend the date till March 2008 but FIFA have dismissed the request from Maldives and gave 31st October 2007 to register a new constitution of FAM and the final date to hold the election before 31st December 2007.
Since the matter got worse, today Maldives Sports Council called the present Unelected President and the unelected executive committee for an emergency meeting. The meeting ended after dismissing the present Executive Committee and the National Sports Council members formed a new Interim Executive Committee to lead the nations number one sports association for a congress before 31st December 2007. The new FAM’s Interim Executive committee consists of six members from National Sports Council. Among the 6 members former FAM General Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Ismail will be the Chairman and Former National team Manager Mr. Ahmed Shahir will be the Vice chairman.
FIFA Have previously confirmed that as a part of their road map, the FAM must register new statues and organize an election before the end of this year. But FAM or the government never bothered about World’s football governing bodys' call until March 2007 when Asian Football Confederation (AFC) called upon the top guys of FAM, who participated in the AFC congress to hold an election as soon as possible to suit the organization into FIFA and AFC constitution.
If the elections do not take place by 31st December 2007, it is believed that FIFA would fully assess the existing situation at that point and will take an appropriate action, which might be a ban too..
Note: FAM’s Unelected Executive Committee till today:
1. Ali Suzey (Victory) 2. Ali Azim (New Radiant) 3. Dhona ( Valencia) 4. Adhuham (VB Sports) 5. Visham (Vyansa) 6. Waleedh (Maaziya) 7. Nazeeh (AYL) 8. Member from Mahibadhoo 9. Ismail Zariyandh (FAM Treasurer)
Sep 20, 2007
Pressures from FIFA have forced to Sack the FAM’s Unelected Executive Committee.
Sep 13, 2007
FIFA's Map For Maldives to Reach World Cup - South Africa 2010
The Asian Football Confederation(AFC) has been given 4.5 places in the final stages of the 2010 World Cup. 43 nations will battle it out for those places. Laos, Brunei and the Phillipines have turned down the opportunity to qualify.
Australia will compete in the AFC for the first time following their move from Oceania in 2006. Australia have already competed in the 2007 Asian Cup.
The 43 nations competing from Asia have been seeded according to their performance in the 2006 World Cup. The seedings are as follows:
1. Australia 2. South Korea 3. Saudi Arabia 4. Japan 5. IR. Iran 6. Bahrain 7. Uzbekistan 8. Kuwait 9. North Korea 10. China 11. Jordan 12. Iraq 13. Lebanon 14. Oman 15. UAE 16. Qatar 17. Syria 18. Palestine 19. Thailand 20. Turkmenistan 21. Tajikistan 22. Indonesia 23. Hong Kong 24. Yemen 25. Vietnam 26. Kyrgyzstan 27. Maldives 28. India 29. Singapore 30. Sri Lanka 31. Malaysia 32. Chinese Taipei 33. Bangladesh 34. Macau 35. Pakistan 36. Afghanistan 37. Mongolia 38. Guam 39. Nepal 40. Cambodia 41. Bhutan 42. Myanmar 43. Timor-Leste
Asian World Cup qualifying will be a four round process plus a play-off for the 5th best Asian qualifier. The 5th best Asian qualifier plays the winner of Oceania qualifying for a place in the finals.
The draw for the Asian World Cup 2010 qualifying first round was made on August 6th 2007 at the AFC house in Bukit Jalil Malaysia. The top 5 seeds were given a bye to the third round. The first round consists of a 2-leg knockout tournament. The 1st leg will take place on the 8th October 2007. The 2nd leg matches will be played on the 28th October 2007.
Asia 2010 World Cup Qualifying Round 1
- Pakistan Vs Iraq
Uzbekistan Vs Chinese Taipei
Thailand Vs Macau
Sri Lanka Vs Qatar
China Vs Myanmar
Bhutan Vs Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan Vs Jordan
Vietnam United Vs Arab Emirates
Bahrain Vs Malaysia
Timor-Leste Vs Hong Kong
Syria Vs Afghanistan
Yemen Vs Maldives
Bangladesh Vs Tajikistan
Mongolia Vs North Korea
Oman Vs Nepal
Palestine Vs Singapore
Lebanon Vs India
Cambodia Vs Turkmenistan
Guam Vs Indonesia
Of the 19 winners in the first round, the 8 lowest seeded teams must play in the second round. The remaining 11 higher seeds go straight into the third round.
Asia 2010 World Cup Qualifying Round 2
1st leg 8/10/07 - 2nd leg 28/10/07
Team 1 Agg.Results Team 2
Seed 17 Vs Seed 14
Seed 16 Vs Seed 12
Seed 19 Vs Seed 15
Seed 18 Vs Seed 13
Asia 2010 World Cup Qualifying Round 3
The top 5 seeds join the 11 winners from round 1 and the 4 winners from round 2 in the third round. The 20 qualifiers for the third round will be drawn into 5 groups of 4 teams. In the group stage the teams in each group play each other home and away. The top 2 from each group qualify for the fourth round.
Asia 2010 World Cup Qualifying Round 4
The 10 teams making it through the third round will be split into 2 groups of 5 teams. The teams from each group will play each other home and away with the top 2 from each group qualifying for the 2010 World Cup final stages.
Asia 2010 World Cup Qualifying play-offs
The teams finishing 3rd from each group in the fourth qualifying round play each other home and away to determine overall 5th place in Asian World Cup qualifying. The winner from this play-off will play the winner of Oceania World Cup qualifying for a berth in the 2010 World Cup finals.
See you in South Africa 2010
Source: FIFA
Sep 11, 2007
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.
