FIFA have claimed the Football Association of Maldives is out of line with its Statutes. The national FA is one of some fourteen national sport associations including the national Olympic Committee, controlled by the government through unelected appointees of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
Blatant disregard for national and international law has been a feature of the Maldives sports system over the last three decades. Disgruntled sports fans will welcome FIFA facilitation. Continued authoritarianism has undermined the self confidence and integrity of aspiring Maldivian athletes and sport officials. Maldives lacks a credible civil society for modern sport to flourish.
Football coach takes FAM to court
A national sprinter and player turned coach, Kuda Heena, claimed in court early last year that the FA lacked the legal foundation to sanction him in a disciplinary case. Stripped of his coaching job and a suspension of his license by the FA disciplinary committee, Kuda Heena symbolized the growing frustrations of Maldivian sportsmen.
The subsequent court ruling questioned the FA’s constitutional status. The court was concerned that the FA could not verify if it was constituted in line with national law, let alone the FIFA Statutes. The FA, with over 80 active clubs has never had a general meeting or an election. The President and Executive Committee are appointed by the government.
The court ruled that the FA be given till end July 2006 to get the association in line with law. The subsequent distancing of the Sports Minister from the issue politically and the inability of member football clubs to stage a coherent response to this court ruling have thrown the whole FA into a state of incomprehensible disarray. Lacks of awareness among club representatives of conventional sport law have not helped matters. The unelected government appointees of these sport associations do not see a need to educate their members.
Incumbent FA Secretary General Abdul Hameed Abdul Ghafoor is left temporarily in charge of a fledgling administration during a period that could turn out to be a turbulent transition.
Suspect government policy
The court ruling prompted President Gayoom to set up a National Sports Council by Presidential Decree earlier this year. The initial idea was to announce elections and coerce members of sports associations to vote into their constitutions, a clause that gives the government appointed NSC a mandate to appoint office bearers and executive members to their respective boards. The grand idea seemed to be for the government and the Sports Minister to hide behind a smoke screen created by the more respectable sounding National Sports Council.
Ridiculous as it may seem, the NSC and the Sports Minister have been caught with their pants down when these plans attracted local media scrutiny. It just so happened that the superstitiously timed local media headlines of the FIFA directive, not recognizing the government appointed FA President and executive committee sent shockwaves through the domestic sport community.
The now tainted NSC was quick to jump in the bandwagon as a partner of sport reform by initiating a “transition team” with the consent of “friendly” football clubs who endorsed these government appointees without so much as a whisper. Government appointees of the NSC failed to take note of the fact that Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes required an interim transition committee also to be completely free from external (government) influence. Maldivian law requires, that affairs of associations be decided only by members (Clause 24, Associations Act, no 1/2003).
Thanks to FIFA’s new found sense of corporate social responsibility, the Maldives FA for the first time since its founding in 1982 is laid bare for what will hopefully be a historic transition into a democratic and independent member of national and international civil society.
FIFA reaction
FIFA, claiming the Maldives FA is not in line with Article 17 of its Statutes and the election or appointment of a transitional team for the Maldives FA should be conducted without external influence, seem to indicate that FIFA may directly appoint such a team. The recent visit of the AFC Secretary General Dato’ Paul Mony Samuel representing both FIFA and the AFC is an encouraging sign to a process already bogged down with no leadership or clarity. Dato’ Paul left with a list of possible candidates from which the FIFA may select their appointees to the interim transitional team.
The FIFA initiative unfortunately seems to be “frozen” at least till the second week of November. Dato’ Paul at his pre-departure press conference last Thursday 25 Oct, have indicated a roadmap with time frames could be declared at the earliest by early November. He also seemed “flexible” with the initial FIFA declared dates of 31 October for ratification of the FA constitution and 31 December as the deadline for a free and fair election of a new FA President and an executive committee.
The larger political context
The FIFA and the AFC may be unaware of the political context in which the National FA elections may be interpreted by a 30 year old incumbent government, hell bent on surviving the imminent transition of the Maldives from a draconian dictatorship to a 21st Century democratic state.
The first major deadline for this process is to get the long overdue constitutional amendments for transition complete by 30 November this year. Opposition parties have accused government backed MPs of obstructing the constitutional amendment process past this deadline. Some MPs are looking at the possibility of this process being dragged well past the November deadline, all the way into the first quarter of 2008. It appears these two transitional processes may overlap each other, creating an opportunity for the government to take political advantage of the sport process.
Years of government domination of the FA has built around it a group of “government insiders” as club officials. These officials have indicated their “preference” to delay the FIFA dates to March 2008 which was initially rejected by the FIFA before Dato’ Paul arrived on the scene.
We are yet to see whether the government of President Gayoom could influence the FIFA backed process to his political advantage.
Blatant disregard for national and international law has been a feature of the Maldives sports system over the last three decades. Disgruntled sports fans will welcome FIFA facilitation. Continued authoritarianism has undermined the self confidence and integrity of aspiring Maldivian athletes and sport officials. Maldives lacks a credible civil society for modern sport to flourish.
Football coach takes FAM to court
A national sprinter and player turned coach, Kuda Heena, claimed in court early last year that the FA lacked the legal foundation to sanction him in a disciplinary case. Stripped of his coaching job and a suspension of his license by the FA disciplinary committee, Kuda Heena symbolized the growing frustrations of Maldivian sportsmen.
The subsequent court ruling questioned the FA’s constitutional status. The court was concerned that the FA could not verify if it was constituted in line with national law, let alone the FIFA Statutes. The FA, with over 80 active clubs has never had a general meeting or an election. The President and Executive Committee are appointed by the government.
The court ruled that the FA be given till end July 2006 to get the association in line with law. The subsequent distancing of the Sports Minister from the issue politically and the inability of member football clubs to stage a coherent response to this court ruling have thrown the whole FA into a state of incomprehensible disarray. Lacks of awareness among club representatives of conventional sport law have not helped matters. The unelected government appointees of these sport associations do not see a need to educate their members.
Incumbent FA Secretary General Abdul Hameed Abdul Ghafoor is left temporarily in charge of a fledgling administration during a period that could turn out to be a turbulent transition.
Suspect government policy
The court ruling prompted President Gayoom to set up a National Sports Council by Presidential Decree earlier this year. The initial idea was to announce elections and coerce members of sports associations to vote into their constitutions, a clause that gives the government appointed NSC a mandate to appoint office bearers and executive members to their respective boards. The grand idea seemed to be for the government and the Sports Minister to hide behind a smoke screen created by the more respectable sounding National Sports Council.
Ridiculous as it may seem, the NSC and the Sports Minister have been caught with their pants down when these plans attracted local media scrutiny. It just so happened that the superstitiously timed local media headlines of the FIFA directive, not recognizing the government appointed FA President and executive committee sent shockwaves through the domestic sport community.
The now tainted NSC was quick to jump in the bandwagon as a partner of sport reform by initiating a “transition team” with the consent of “friendly” football clubs who endorsed these government appointees without so much as a whisper. Government appointees of the NSC failed to take note of the fact that Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes required an interim transition committee also to be completely free from external (government) influence. Maldivian law requires, that affairs of associations be decided only by members (Clause 24, Associations Act, no 1/2003).
Thanks to FIFA’s new found sense of corporate social responsibility, the Maldives FA for the first time since its founding in 1982 is laid bare for what will hopefully be a historic transition into a democratic and independent member of national and international civil society.
FIFA reaction
FIFA, claiming the Maldives FA is not in line with Article 17 of its Statutes and the election or appointment of a transitional team for the Maldives FA should be conducted without external influence, seem to indicate that FIFA may directly appoint such a team. The recent visit of the AFC Secretary General Dato’ Paul Mony Samuel representing both FIFA and the AFC is an encouraging sign to a process already bogged down with no leadership or clarity. Dato’ Paul left with a list of possible candidates from which the FIFA may select their appointees to the interim transitional team.
The FIFA initiative unfortunately seems to be “frozen” at least till the second week of November. Dato’ Paul at his pre-departure press conference last Thursday 25 Oct, have indicated a roadmap with time frames could be declared at the earliest by early November. He also seemed “flexible” with the initial FIFA declared dates of 31 October for ratification of the FA constitution and 31 December as the deadline for a free and fair election of a new FA President and an executive committee.
The larger political context
The FIFA and the AFC may be unaware of the political context in which the National FA elections may be interpreted by a 30 year old incumbent government, hell bent on surviving the imminent transition of the Maldives from a draconian dictatorship to a 21st Century democratic state.
The first major deadline for this process is to get the long overdue constitutional amendments for transition complete by 30 November this year. Opposition parties have accused government backed MPs of obstructing the constitutional amendment process past this deadline. Some MPs are looking at the possibility of this process being dragged well past the November deadline, all the way into the first quarter of 2008. It appears these two transitional processes may overlap each other, creating an opportunity for the government to take political advantage of the sport process.
Years of government domination of the FA has built around it a group of “government insiders” as club officials. These officials have indicated their “preference” to delay the FIFA dates to March 2008 which was initially rejected by the FIFA before Dato’ Paul arrived on the scene.
We are yet to see whether the government of President Gayoom could influence the FIFA backed process to his political advantage.
