Are we moving in the right direction?

This is a question that we all want an answer. Recent elections at FA Maldives show that even though you have fame and fortune you don't necessarily succeed. Just take a look at who won the post of Chairman, by competing with Mohamed Kaleem, Azim won the elections. So what is the secret behind Azim's success?

Kaleem as we know is the pure gentleman of Maldivian Sports, and he is adored and idolized by many Maldivians. But why did he lose the FA Maldives election? Why was his name not forwaded by his Club? (New Radiant) or did they do it or did he refuse it?

Kaleem stood for the post of Chairman, while his counterpart Mauroof (Ma'ttay) stood for the position of Vice Chairman. Kaleem’s name was forwaded by VB Sports as mentioned earlier not by his club New Radiant . This itself is a mystery.

So what method did Azim really use. His counterpart Hiyalee is from Valencia who stood for the post of Vice Chairman who also won. So the combination of Azim and Hiyalee had worked while Kaleem and Maa’tay combination failed. It could be that Azim and Hiyalee had it more planned than Kaleem and Maa’tay.

Only time will tell whether this combination will work or not. But one thing is sure, we have taken the first step in the right direction. FA Maldives have had their first election and the institution has taken the first place in running the place n a more organized manner.

Standards of teams, Going up or down

The standard of football right now in Maldives is an interesting topic that can be discussed. It has been more than 50 years since football was first introduced to the country and a lot has taken place since then. The biggest achievement in Maldivian football history is winning the SAFF Championship of 2008.

Taking a look back in history and we have seen the rise and fall of clubs. Without an argument the 3 most prominent and successful clubs in Maldivian football history is Victory, New Radiant and Valencia. There were other clubs who have been on the fringe namely Lagoons and Hura, and there was New Lagoons who later became Orchid who later became VB Sports. When talking about the latter, VB Sports seems to be the richest and fighting for the fourth spot.
If we take a look at Maziya and Vyansa, and their consisteny over the past few seasons and also the performance of Kalhaidhoo this season and there is a lot to be talked about. We should also include the performance of AYL and Hura who will be knocking on the door of First Division this year and analyse this.
What is the reason why the so called Big 4 has not been dominant so far in this seasons’s Dhiraagu Divehi League and have not had an impact they would have preferred.

One thing is for sure the smaller clubs are more organized where as the bigger clubs have not been that well managed. The result being the smaller clubs are beginning to catch up with the big clubs and being able to compete with the bigger clubs.

This is evident in the ongoing Dhiraagu Dhivehi League. Look at the position of Valencia and compare that to Kalhaidhoo, Maziya and Vyansa. The results of the matches clearly indicate that the smaller clubs are competing with the bigger clubs on an equal platform and coming up with surprise results.

So what does this indicate? Is the standard of football of smaller clubs improving or the standard of football played by bigger clubs going down or are these one off incidents just occurring this year. Or is it that the standard of football played in Maldives going down.

Has it back fired or not?

Since the Club’s formation in 1979, Club Valencia has taken part in all major sports events held in the country. Some of these include athletics, table tennis, badminton, basketball, volleyball, football and so on.

All these started to change in the early 90’s with the introduction of paying wages to the football squad by Club Valencia. Eyebrows were back then whether this was a sustainable way of managing sports clubs in the country as there was no mechanism established for Clubs to finance themselves and there were no regulations to monitor this. We can say that this was a very bold step taken by Valencia in developing sports and respecting the player’s contribution towards achieving the Club’s targets.

We all know that back then there were 3 major Clubs in the country in football namely Victory, New Radiant, Valencia and 1 or 2 clubs competing for the fourth spot. These clubs were mainly run by very dedicated people and those who were at the club very dedicated as well. There was team spirit and a sense of belonging to their clubs, they were motivated and lastly they were unmovable from their respective clubs.

In the early 90’s Valencia signed contracts with 2 established Victory players and of course there is the famous capture of the signature of Kuda Musa from New Radiant. This started a series of events of players moving from one club to the other from season to season.

That was the story back then. If we take a very close look at various stages of this we know that eyebrows raised back then were justified. Even at present most Clubs do not have the mechanism to finance themselves. The Clubs are run on a donation basis by faithful supporters or rich entrepreneurs. When one entrepreneur or supporter is financially low the “management” would turn to the other and so on.

Is this the way to manage clubs in Maldives?

Take a look at the present scenario, VB Sports is over financed, New Radiant is well managed, Victory is organized and Valencia is in a sorry status.

Its been 2 years since the new management took over promising every thing under the sun to the supporters. Things did look rosy last year playing 2 finals winning one.

But it is a different story this year, the present squad is weak, they have not won a single trophy this season. The clubs manager was sacked because of an interview regarding lack of finance at the club and the club was not able to bring in any foreign players for Cup Winners Cup and FA Cup. The result being not even being able to qualify for the finals of these 2 tournaments. Lying second to bottom in Dhiraagu Dhiveli League 2008 the future looks very bleak for Valencia.

What Valencia started in early 90’s seems to have back fired on them? Will Valencia be able to compete with the other big 3 clubs financially in the upcoming season? One thing is for sure if Valencia fails to qualify for the second round of Dhiraagu Dhiveli League 2008 Valencia will be a thing of the past.