There are two sport issues ongoing in our civil courts. This is an unusual occurrence.
The first of these two cases is the legitimacy of the recent FAM electoral process. (Male' FC vs. FAM).
The second is the case of sports manager Hanim, publicly lobbying for a national presidential candidate, incumbent President Gayyoom, while in the post of a senior civil servant. (Manager Hanim vs. the Maldives Civil Service Commission).
Male' FC vs. FAM
Male' FC, a member of the National FA claims the law requires the express approval of the statutes by the Registrar prior to elections. The club contends the FAM is trying to hide behind a claim made by the Registrar that the law do not specify that elections held without his approval may be deemed null and void.
What the Registrar and the Home Ministry fail to consider is the precedence set by the previous verdict in 2006. The civil court actually ruled that the Registrar's approval is mandatory. The obvious inference is that elections conducted without such approval will not be accepted by court. We are yet to see how the court may yet again justify the Registrar's claim this time around.
The Gayyoom administration is quite dismissive of the law. "Gayyoomism" dictate that corners be cut to ensure that the direct line of command is anchored at the top.... the President!
Here is a case where the Gayyoom administration is unable to fathom the notion that a party outside of the government dare raise a point of order on the way government conduct it's business. Gayyoomist culture dictate that this is not just any body's business. This is government business and others better keep out!
The Sports Ministry claims to the outside world that sports associations such as the FAM are civil society organisations. The reality however is quite different at home. The FAM is an organisation run by the Sports Ministry.
The club's claims their reason for taking this issue to court is rooted more in principle than any other ulterior motive. The club is merely upholding the requirement of the Articles of Association that members must be responsible for ensuring that the rule of law is upheld in the activities they participate.
Manager Hanim vs. the Maldives Civil Service Commission
National Football Manager Hanim is in court to reclaim his civil service Director Generalship at the Ministry of Sports. He has been recently demoted to the post of a Director by the Civil Service Commission.
The Civil Service Commission ruled Manager Hanim's public lobby on behalf of the incumbent President Gayyoom at the launching of his Presidential campaign last month contravened their regulations.
Hanim's lawyer Fizan claims the recently ratified constitution do not bar Hanim as a civil servant from participating in political activity. Lawyer Fizan is dismissive of the principle of conditionality that limits such rights based on circumstance.
In the meantime the question of Manager Hanim's actions with regards his encroachment of the statutes of a sports body have been shelved by the rather "complicit" FAM, already running for cover under pressure from the law abiding Male' FC.
Significance
The significance of both these cases and their ramifications will not escape both present and future sports administrators.
Firstly, both cases are rooted in an inability to change. The administration failed to bring about necessary reform from within. Gayyoom's Reform Agenda specified these objectives. He failed miserably.
The government is therefore constantly on the defensive. Those who believe change can only be brought from the outside is having a field day.
The government is therefore hard at work seeking devious escape routes. The Law is interpreted to justify their actions. This is topped off with administrative manipulations such as exchange of backdated correspondence between concerned ministries to build a case.
The exercise however is wearing thin. Especially when the international sports community turns up on the scene.
The entry of the international sports community on the scene is the second development. This occurrence have further complicated things for the government who have been showing them a "democratic face" for the last 30 years.
FIFA backing for the the FAM's flawed process have been quite a bombshell.
I have highlighted in earlier posts how the FIFA representative Dato Paul of the AFC appears to have initiated this flawed process by unilaterally misinterpreting the FIFA Statutes. His decision favoured government manipulation of elections.
The involvement of an important member of the the international sports community have been a pressure on the government. How the government dealt with the issue with the good Dato' leaves much to be desired in terms of best practice.
The third development is the ratification of an amended national constitution that will wrestle the judiciary free from the executive within a phased interim transitional arrangement. The impact of this development on how the court rules in both cases is yet to be seen.
Ratification is the very act that barred civil servants from political lobbying. The macho response to the July-August SAFF Cup Tour have highlighted government meddling in sport.
We must be optimistic. We await what new twists the coming court hearings will bring to Male FC's and Hanim's cases.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
South Africa FIFA World Cup and the Zimbabwea political situation
An interesting account of the Zimbabwea political situation and potential ramafications for the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup.
Mbeki's world crumbling for defending Mugabe
8 September 2008
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
ZIMBABWE - HARARE - President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is edging closer to serious trouble that could see him facing the wrath of South Africans over his failure to objectively handle the Zimbabwean political crisis for finding a solution, and now risking his country being stripped of the right to host the 2010 soccer World Cup. In that context, one of the serious issues of concern is the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki has really backed himself into a cul-de-sac by fatuously maintaining a supportive and defensive approach towards his handling of an intransigent Zanu (PF) regime headed by Robert Matibili Mugabe.
As the SADC appointed mediator on the Zimbabwe crisis, Mbeki has, shockingly, gone out of his way to block censure and punishment of Mugabe but yet without any workable solution coming out of his infamous quiet diplomacy strategy.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter in July stated that he had a Plan B based on three countries he had already advised and obtained commitment from to be able to step in and take over in the event SA fails to host the tournament.
ZimDaily has it on good authority that FIFA, who are keeping a keen eye on developments in SA and SADC in general recently sent a secret investigation team to the region with particular interest on Zimbabwe and how the situation in this country was affecting the whole region.
A damning report casting aspersions on the Zimbabwean issue was submitted, triggering desperate deliberations between FIFA, the SA government, soccer leaders as well as business.
The broader international community, particularly the west, which has been at loggerheads with Mugabe for close to a decade, is also deeply involved in the deliberations.
"Mbeki has been forced to explain the situation, particularly by his government, SA business as well as the 2010 organising committee," a highly placed source in Mbeki's administration told us in confidence.
"He managed to get another chance by promising that there would be a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis and seemed to have made a substantive breakthrough when he succeeded in having the Zimbabwe leaders to sign the MoU in July.
However, his two-week deadline has long elapsed and everything now points towards a serious confrontation over the matter."
FIFA secretary general, Jerome Valcke has in the past weeks made several correspondents to Mbeki through the SA organising committee, showing the deep concern over the situation in Zimbabwe.
"There is concern over the security situation in the SADC region because of the political situation in Zimbabwe and questions are being asked on whether this presents a conducive environment for hosting the tournament," one of the correspondents leaked to ZimDaily states.
It is for this pressure, coupled with a groundswell of grumbling within his government, which has been forcing Mbeki to spend most of his time recently trying to scrap a settlement between Mugabe and his nemesis, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
"Mbeki's last hope is beating the announcement by FIFA that an alternative host would take over, otherwise he knows what awaits him in SA," a member of the ANC, SA's ruling party said.
We also spoke to sources within the SA 2010 organising committee, and one of them said, "It is unimaginable that after all we have put together and sacrificed, the finals may be moved to another country.
The amounts put into the preparations are too much to go down the drain." A massive R5 billion is estimated to have already been spent on the preparations.
But it is in the ANC that Mbeki faces the worst prospects and harshest reprimand if the soccer tournament goes because of his "playing with Mugabe"
The troubled SA leader was given the loud message by ANC that he was no longer popular at Polokwane last year when he lost the party's presidency to Jacob Zuma, with whom he is engaged in a multi-faceted political battle often turning ugly.
"The Zuma ANC will relish an opportunity to skin Mbeki alive and that shall be very possible if the worst comes to happen around the soccer world cup issue," an SA diplomat based in Harare told us. "They (the Zuma ANC) are already seeing this coming and busy sharpening their knives for a final kill."
With unprecedented hyperinflation approaching 30 million percent, under the iron bondage of a dictator, Robert Mugabe heading a military junta and one of the worst levels of humanitarian crisis in peace time, Zimbabwe is simply a bad destination for anyone.
SA has already made it clear that it would need the serious involvement of its neighbours in hosting the teams and fans that are expected for the soccer finals, including Zimbabwe.
But not only is the impoverished country doing nothing as way of preparing infrastructure and other requirements, it is actually further sliding backwards under the current situation.
Above all this, the major concern is the political chaos Mugabe causes in and outside Zimbabwe, as recently epitomised by massive demonstrations in SA, Botswana and other SADC countries against the geriatric dictator.
"FIFA shall never take that risk for anything. There is no way the west will accept to attend the tournament under such as political situation," our SA diplomat source privy to the goings-on told us.
On Monday we reveal how Mbeki now considers ditching Mugabe to avoid the above-explained trouble, a possibility that could bring a new twist to the Zimbabwean political issue.
Zimdaily
Mbeki's world crumbling for defending Mugabe
8 September 2008
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
ZIMBABWE - HARARE - President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is edging closer to serious trouble that could see him facing the wrath of South Africans over his failure to objectively handle the Zimbabwean political crisis for finding a solution, and now risking his country being stripped of the right to host the 2010 soccer World Cup. In that context, one of the serious issues of concern is the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki has really backed himself into a cul-de-sac by fatuously maintaining a supportive and defensive approach towards his handling of an intransigent Zanu (PF) regime headed by Robert Matibili Mugabe.
As the SADC appointed mediator on the Zimbabwe crisis, Mbeki has, shockingly, gone out of his way to block censure and punishment of Mugabe but yet without any workable solution coming out of his infamous quiet diplomacy strategy.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter in July stated that he had a Plan B based on three countries he had already advised and obtained commitment from to be able to step in and take over in the event SA fails to host the tournament.
ZimDaily has it on good authority that FIFA, who are keeping a keen eye on developments in SA and SADC in general recently sent a secret investigation team to the region with particular interest on Zimbabwe and how the situation in this country was affecting the whole region.
A damning report casting aspersions on the Zimbabwean issue was submitted, triggering desperate deliberations between FIFA, the SA government, soccer leaders as well as business.
The broader international community, particularly the west, which has been at loggerheads with Mugabe for close to a decade, is also deeply involved in the deliberations.
"Mbeki has been forced to explain the situation, particularly by his government, SA business as well as the 2010 organising committee," a highly placed source in Mbeki's administration told us in confidence.
"He managed to get another chance by promising that there would be a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis and seemed to have made a substantive breakthrough when he succeeded in having the Zimbabwe leaders to sign the MoU in July.
However, his two-week deadline has long elapsed and everything now points towards a serious confrontation over the matter."
FIFA secretary general, Jerome Valcke has in the past weeks made several correspondents to Mbeki through the SA organising committee, showing the deep concern over the situation in Zimbabwe.
"There is concern over the security situation in the SADC region because of the political situation in Zimbabwe and questions are being asked on whether this presents a conducive environment for hosting the tournament," one of the correspondents leaked to ZimDaily states.
It is for this pressure, coupled with a groundswell of grumbling within his government, which has been forcing Mbeki to spend most of his time recently trying to scrap a settlement between Mugabe and his nemesis, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
"Mbeki's last hope is beating the announcement by FIFA that an alternative host would take over, otherwise he knows what awaits him in SA," a member of the ANC, SA's ruling party said.
We also spoke to sources within the SA 2010 organising committee, and one of them said, "It is unimaginable that after all we have put together and sacrificed, the finals may be moved to another country.
The amounts put into the preparations are too much to go down the drain." A massive R5 billion is estimated to have already been spent on the preparations.
But it is in the ANC that Mbeki faces the worst prospects and harshest reprimand if the soccer tournament goes because of his "playing with Mugabe"
The troubled SA leader was given the loud message by ANC that he was no longer popular at Polokwane last year when he lost the party's presidency to Jacob Zuma, with whom he is engaged in a multi-faceted political battle often turning ugly.
"The Zuma ANC will relish an opportunity to skin Mbeki alive and that shall be very possible if the worst comes to happen around the soccer world cup issue," an SA diplomat based in Harare told us. "They (the Zuma ANC) are already seeing this coming and busy sharpening their knives for a final kill."
With unprecedented hyperinflation approaching 30 million percent, under the iron bondage of a dictator, Robert Mugabe heading a military junta and one of the worst levels of humanitarian crisis in peace time, Zimbabwe is simply a bad destination for anyone.
SA has already made it clear that it would need the serious involvement of its neighbours in hosting the teams and fans that are expected for the soccer finals, including Zimbabwe.
But not only is the impoverished country doing nothing as way of preparing infrastructure and other requirements, it is actually further sliding backwards under the current situation.
Above all this, the major concern is the political chaos Mugabe causes in and outside Zimbabwe, as recently epitomised by massive demonstrations in SA, Botswana and other SADC countries against the geriatric dictator.
"FIFA shall never take that risk for anything. There is no way the west will accept to attend the tournament under such as political situation," our SA diplomat source privy to the goings-on told us.
On Monday we reveal how Mbeki now considers ditching Mugabe to avoid the above-explained trouble, a possibility that could bring a new twist to the Zimbabwean political issue.
Zimdaily
Friday, August 29, 2008
Maldives fears FIFA will suspend them if elections annulled
And quite rightly so! But, what was the FIFA doing endorsing a national association's elections over the law of the land?
The situation is highly irregular given that the Maldives Articles of Association categorically accommodate FIFA's requirements. So where did the FIFA go wrong?
Where FIFA went wrong
I have consistently argued that the FIFA backed Interim Transitional Committee was composed outside the remits of Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes.
This is where the FIFA or more aptly, it's executive, AFC Secretary General Dato' Paul went wrong. He has consistently refused to address this accusation.
The closest the good Dato' got to the issue was to admit more clubs must be accommodated. He is totally tight lipped on his seemingly unilateral decision (in the FIFA's name) to get a group of people of his choice on the interim committee.
FIFA Statutes requires even an interim committee to be composed of member clubs, not individuals of the Dato's choice.
Legitimacy
The ongoing domestic court case questions the legitimacy of the 20 July FAM elections.
The present FAM administration quote FIFA's endorsement as a curtain of credibility.
Their is however no guarantee that the illegitimacy of the Dato's interim committee and their complicity in bypassing the legal process can be swept under the carpet.
The question of "why?" will eventually be answered. In the meantime, the case continues.
FAM Defence
The FAM presented their defence Thursday 28 August at the second hearing.
The FAM submitted a letter from the Home Ministry stating that the FAM Statutes have now been approved. The letter was signed by the Registrar. He quotes the "Home Ministry". The law however mandates the Registrar to respond, not the "ministry".
In the meantime, Male' FC is said to have submitted a letter from the same Registrar Ishaq Ahmed who confirmed to the club that the FAM Statutes were not approved at the time of elections. This was immediately following last month's elections.
The issue in court is the contravention of Clause 19 of the Regulations and Clause 18 of the 2003 Articles of Association. The FIFA backed election process by-passed the law.
Ishaq is an appointee of the President.
Damage control
It is ludicrous how both ministries, Home Affairs and the the Sports Ministry get into damage control mode with backdated documentation every time they are cornered. Remember the 2006 episode!
With respect to the Courts, this will be a test of the independence of the judiciary, post-ratification. We are going through the transitional phase with a "pseudo-independent" judiciary of sorts.
Should the Male' FC win, the case is likely to open a hornet's nest.
Behind the facade of autonomy
Observers are already raising interesting questions with reference to the FIFA backed FAM Statutes.
For example Article 10, Admission restricts membership to a tight circle of twenty seven clubs, dominated by a select Male' League. An exclusive cartel of clubs such as the M-27 is not what the Articles of Association of 2003 and the recently ratified National Constitution grants us.
There are over 60 legitimate football clubs unaccounted for. These clubs are scattered among two thirds of the island nations population. They reside among the 200 island communities which make up this unusual island nation.
It is therefore doubtful if in fact the FAM Statutes allow the two "non-member" island based "Zone Champions" Thinadhoo and Khalaidhoo to participate in the 2008 Premier Dhivehi League.
Article 75 Dissolution welcomes the Government Sports Council to underwrite the FAM in case of dissolution. This opens up a whole new discussion on the IOC and FIFA rhetoric of the independence and integrity of sport.
Role of Global NGOs
One wonders how effectively such global NGOs are able to enforce their self declared obligations of curbing external (governmental or otherwise) interference, human rights, non-discrimination, respect for rule of law and Fair Play?
There are times we suspect such practices are in fact encouraged and "institutionalised" by "Officials" as in the case of the Maldives.
We now have a rather suspect cartel of clubs running our affairs with the government sports council underwriting the project.
The project is endorsed by the FIFA's Dato Paul and bankrolled by "hidden officials" of a fledgling government. The FAM executives ranging from the National Team Manager to its new President are seen openly using the FAM as a campaign platform for Gayyoom's re-election for a 7th term!
Maldives, as a nation state must be aware that the international community of sports will not intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.
We must therefore be mindful of individuals with private agendas interfering at all levels of the legal process.
In the case of the FAM it appears this has happened!
What lies ahead?
The situation do not look healthy. The Government is still unable to comprehend that this is a totally new ball game! The law applies, domestically as well as internationally.
We have seen how the Court of Arbitration for Sport recently ruled on the cases Olympic athletes. Sepp Blatter tried to hoodwink National Associations into releasing them for the Beijing Olympics.
It is time we woke up!
We must guard ourselves from manipulations of the law. Sports officials in the civil service must be conversant with the complexity of their professional and legal responsibilities. The FAM executive committee cannot continue to be this irresponsible.
The FIFA will not be pleased at all.
The July elections were crafted, supervised and endorsed by the FIFA through it's trusted officials. One wonders how long the present government and related FA administration could use the FIFA as a weapon to shield themselves from the law?
It is most interesting to note that the AFC Vice President Mr. Manilal Fernando arrived Thursday 28 August on the date of the second hearing of the court case against the FAM. Uncanny coincidence indeed!
Furthermore, eyebrows were raised when suddenly it is no longer the good Dato' who visits to discuss FIFA assistance. Today it is Vice President Mr. Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka!
What if the FIFA is forced to suspend the FAM? I am afraid the FIFA may need to have a second round of negotiations to clean up the mess the Dato' left behind.
Players and members will not be too pleased either. They will want to know what really happened.
The situation is highly irregular given that the Maldives Articles of Association categorically accommodate FIFA's requirements. So where did the FIFA go wrong?
Where FIFA went wrong
I have consistently argued that the FIFA backed Interim Transitional Committee was composed outside the remits of Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes.
This is where the FIFA or more aptly, it's executive, AFC Secretary General Dato' Paul went wrong. He has consistently refused to address this accusation.
The closest the good Dato' got to the issue was to admit more clubs must be accommodated. He is totally tight lipped on his seemingly unilateral decision (in the FIFA's name) to get a group of people of his choice on the interim committee.
FIFA Statutes requires even an interim committee to be composed of member clubs, not individuals of the Dato's choice.
Legitimacy
The ongoing domestic court case questions the legitimacy of the 20 July FAM elections.
The present FAM administration quote FIFA's endorsement as a curtain of credibility.
Their is however no guarantee that the illegitimacy of the Dato's interim committee and their complicity in bypassing the legal process can be swept under the carpet.
The question of "why?" will eventually be answered. In the meantime, the case continues.
FAM Defence
The FAM presented their defence Thursday 28 August at the second hearing.
The FAM submitted a letter from the Home Ministry stating that the FAM Statutes have now been approved. The letter was signed by the Registrar. He quotes the "Home Ministry". The law however mandates the Registrar to respond, not the "ministry".
In the meantime, Male' FC is said to have submitted a letter from the same Registrar Ishaq Ahmed who confirmed to the club that the FAM Statutes were not approved at the time of elections. This was immediately following last month's elections.
The issue in court is the contravention of Clause 19 of the Regulations and Clause 18 of the 2003 Articles of Association. The FIFA backed election process by-passed the law.
Ishaq is an appointee of the President.
Damage control
It is ludicrous how both ministries, Home Affairs and the the Sports Ministry get into damage control mode with backdated documentation every time they are cornered. Remember the 2006 episode!
With respect to the Courts, this will be a test of the independence of the judiciary, post-ratification. We are going through the transitional phase with a "pseudo-independent" judiciary of sorts.
Should the Male' FC win, the case is likely to open a hornet's nest.
Behind the facade of autonomy
Observers are already raising interesting questions with reference to the FIFA backed FAM Statutes.
For example Article 10, Admission restricts membership to a tight circle of twenty seven clubs, dominated by a select Male' League. An exclusive cartel of clubs such as the M-27 is not what the Articles of Association of 2003 and the recently ratified National Constitution grants us.
There are over 60 legitimate football clubs unaccounted for. These clubs are scattered among two thirds of the island nations population. They reside among the 200 island communities which make up this unusual island nation.
It is therefore doubtful if in fact the FAM Statutes allow the two "non-member" island based "Zone Champions" Thinadhoo and Khalaidhoo to participate in the 2008 Premier Dhivehi League.
Article 75 Dissolution welcomes the Government Sports Council to underwrite the FAM in case of dissolution. This opens up a whole new discussion on the IOC and FIFA rhetoric of the independence and integrity of sport.
Role of Global NGOs
One wonders how effectively such global NGOs are able to enforce their self declared obligations of curbing external (governmental or otherwise) interference, human rights, non-discrimination, respect for rule of law and Fair Play?
There are times we suspect such practices are in fact encouraged and "institutionalised" by "Officials" as in the case of the Maldives.
We now have a rather suspect cartel of clubs running our affairs with the government sports council underwriting the project.
The project is endorsed by the FIFA's Dato Paul and bankrolled by "hidden officials" of a fledgling government. The FAM executives ranging from the National Team Manager to its new President are seen openly using the FAM as a campaign platform for Gayyoom's re-election for a 7th term!
Maldives, as a nation state must be aware that the international community of sports will not intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.
We must therefore be mindful of individuals with private agendas interfering at all levels of the legal process.
In the case of the FAM it appears this has happened!
What lies ahead?
The situation do not look healthy. The Government is still unable to comprehend that this is a totally new ball game! The law applies, domestically as well as internationally.
We have seen how the Court of Arbitration for Sport recently ruled on the cases Olympic athletes. Sepp Blatter tried to hoodwink National Associations into releasing them for the Beijing Olympics.
It is time we woke up!
We must guard ourselves from manipulations of the law. Sports officials in the civil service must be conversant with the complexity of their professional and legal responsibilities. The FAM executive committee cannot continue to be this irresponsible.
The FIFA will not be pleased at all.
The July elections were crafted, supervised and endorsed by the FIFA through it's trusted officials. One wonders how long the present government and related FA administration could use the FIFA as a weapon to shield themselves from the law?
It is most interesting to note that the AFC Vice President Mr. Manilal Fernando arrived Thursday 28 August on the date of the second hearing of the court case against the FAM. Uncanny coincidence indeed!
Furthermore, eyebrows were raised when suddenly it is no longer the good Dato' who visits to discuss FIFA assistance. Today it is Vice President Mr. Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka!
What if the FIFA is forced to suspend the FAM? I am afraid the FIFA may need to have a second round of negotiations to clean up the mess the Dato' left behind.
Players and members will not be too pleased either. They will want to know what really happened.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Sports must embrace the reformist spirit.
Incumbent sports officials are finding it difficult to keep pace with the transition in the spirit of the newly amended Constitution. I note two incidents from the last week.
The Beijing Olympics was in full swing and the Maldives Swimming Association decides to host their Nationals. The top two swimmers are away. A couple of the more astute sports journalists politely inquired.
The Swimming Association responded by saying they could not find an alternative date. The Athletics President Maizan Ali Maniku observed that Olympic sports, of which swimming is a mandatory event, will be aware of the dates of the Beijing Olympics from seven years back!
Jazeera pursued the issue with the Sports Council. Abdul Razzaq, Director General, Training and Research, at the Sports Ministry responded. Razzaq maintained that hosting the Nationals without the top swimmers leaves the top spots open for lesser swimmers who will in turn be motivated to compete! An appealing logic at the expense of a sport ethic.
The newly sworn Sports Minister Madam Aishath Shiham, the 7th and possibly the last of Gayyoom's sports ministers, was not any less bizarre in her observations.
When asked to comment on the currant court case, Minister Shiham confirmed that these elections will not be annulled. The problem is that this is not an issue within her mandate.
She could have been more tactful by redirecting the journalist to the Registrar of Clubs and Societies at the Ministry of Home Affairs. That's what the law says.
What we are witnessing here is a serious lack of awareness on the part of senior sports executives on issues ranging from ideology to the rule of law.
This definitely is not good news for the Maldivian sports community.
The Beijing Olympics was in full swing and the Maldives Swimming Association decides to host their Nationals. The top two swimmers are away. A couple of the more astute sports journalists politely inquired.
The Swimming Association responded by saying they could not find an alternative date. The Athletics President Maizan Ali Maniku observed that Olympic sports, of which swimming is a mandatory event, will be aware of the dates of the Beijing Olympics from seven years back!
Jazeera pursued the issue with the Sports Council. Abdul Razzaq, Director General, Training and Research, at the Sports Ministry responded. Razzaq maintained that hosting the Nationals without the top swimmers leaves the top spots open for lesser swimmers who will in turn be motivated to compete! An appealing logic at the expense of a sport ethic.
The newly sworn Sports Minister Madam Aishath Shiham, the 7th and possibly the last of Gayyoom's sports ministers, was not any less bizarre in her observations.
When asked to comment on the currant court case, Minister Shiham confirmed that these elections will not be annulled. The problem is that this is not an issue within her mandate.
She could have been more tactful by redirecting the journalist to the Registrar of Clubs and Societies at the Ministry of Home Affairs. That's what the law says.
What we are witnessing here is a serious lack of awareness on the part of senior sports executives on issues ranging from ideology to the rule of law.
This definitely is not good news for the Maldivian sports community.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Football Association of Maldives challenged in court for the second time
The Male' Football Club, have challenged the legitimacy of the recent FAM elections. The elections were conducted, supervised and endorsed by the FIFA. This is the second time the FAM have been challenged in this manner. The first was in 2006.
Speaking to journalists after last month's FAM elections, the FIFA Representative Dato' Paul of the AFC claimed he hoped more clubs will be allowed to vote next time around! He was responding to the criticism that over two thirds of member clubs were excluded from voting. The FIFA somehow claimed 11 voting members were enough to legitimise the process.
The FAM was managed by a FIFA appointed interim transitional committee at the time. I have claimed the FIFA committee was in breach of it's Article 17 which required "members" rather than selected "individuals" to comprise this committee.
In this latest challenge to the legitimacy of the FAM, Male' FC claimed in court the legal requirement that the Ministry of Sports, as the founder, failed to get approval for it's amended statutes prior to the association's elections. The law requires the Registrar of Clubs and Societies' to approve the proposed statutes prior to the elections.
Male' FC's claims have sent jitters through the "beneficiaries" of the these rogue elections. More specifically those of the FAM.
The architects (FIFA Official Dato' Paul and the subsequent Interim Committee) and the beneficiaries, the newly "elected" President and Executive Committee (financed by Gayyoom's fledgling autocracy) appear silent. The case had it's first hearing Tuesday 19 August.
While the FAM is maintaining an eerie silence on the issue, the Sports Council is reported to have been unavailable for comment. The government ministry which hosts the Registrar of Clubs and Societies have however blundered as usual!
Wednesday's Haveeru Daily reported the Ministry of Home Affairs as saying the statutes have "now" been approved. But the elections were held almost a month ago. The Ministry went on to make the feeble claim that there was nothing in the law that specified elections conducted prior to the Registrar's approval of the statutes were not valid.
The Registrar himself have however been silent. He had earlier confirmed to Male' FC in writing, that the statutes were not approved by him prior to the elections.
Amateur football player and lawyer, Shameem challenged the legality of this shaky sport institution for the first time in 2006. He was representing ex-national captain Kuda Heena at the time.
Kuda Heena's case originated from claims made in court to re-gain lost salaries and re-claim his coaching job. The FAM Disciplinary Committee had refused his salary and prohibited further employment as a football coach after accusing Heena of inciting dissent in a league match that year.
The strategy adopted by lawyer Shameem at the time was to question the legitimacy of the unelected government appointed FAM to hand down such a sentence on coach Kuda Heena. Shameem questioned the legal foundation of the association. He proved the association was not constituted in line with the new Articles of Association of 2003 which gave voting rights to all FAM members.
The court ruled in favour of the FAM!
Maldives courts of law were firmly controlled by the executive in 2006. Judge Ali Sameer will be quite aware of his ruling.
At the time, the court claimed the legal status of the FAM was in jeopardy due to the negligence of the Registrar rather than the FAM.
The Registrar was caught dragging his feet past the transitional 12 months stipulated in the amended Articles of Association.
Judge Ali Sameer maintained in 2006 that the FAM can hold elections only after the Registrar approves the statutes. This is exactly what Male' FC Lawyers, Shahudhee and Riffath is arguing for. It should be interesting to see what the present Judge Ibrahim Mahir comes up with this time.
The Gayyoom appointed FAM and the Gayyoom appointed Registrar were sent home with a slap on the wrist and a stern warning to follow the law by the Gayyoom appointed Judge.
FAM settled out of court. Kuda Heena was paid his dues and allowed to return to his coaching job. The public pressure for reform forced the FAM to relent.
Kuda Heena's case set a precedent the court is sure to consider when dealing with this new case.
At the time, the Registrar escaped the wrath of the civil court on a requirement of the Articles of Association that stated the FAM can go ahead with elections only after the Registrar have approved the amended statutes.
The court ruled that no time frame was imposed by the law on the Registrar to approve the proposed statutes in spite of the fact that the law required existing clubs and societies to to hold fresh elections within 12 months from the date the law was passed. The deadline expired in May 2004.
Today, it is "post-ratification"! An amended national constitution that separated the judiciary from the executive was ratified only two weeks ago on the 7th of this month.
It is poetic justice that this time around, Shameem is arguing that the rather undemocratic "technicality" on which he lost his previous case in 2006 is exactly why the FAM should loose it's case this time "post ratification". The Registrar is again at the heart of the controversy.
The government appointed Registrar protected the government appointed FAM in 2006. The government appointed Registrar is now singing a different tune "post-ratification". We will find out how the newly independent judiciary performs this time.
The Minister of Home Affairs who hosts the Registrar's office is livid! The Minister appears to be overriding the Registrar with his recent comments to Haveeru Daily. The Registrar have been quiet on the issue after admitting he had not approved the FAM Statutes.
The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday 28 August.
Speaking to journalists after last month's FAM elections, the FIFA Representative Dato' Paul of the AFC claimed he hoped more clubs will be allowed to vote next time around! He was responding to the criticism that over two thirds of member clubs were excluded from voting. The FIFA somehow claimed 11 voting members were enough to legitimise the process.
The FAM was managed by a FIFA appointed interim transitional committee at the time. I have claimed the FIFA committee was in breach of it's Article 17 which required "members" rather than selected "individuals" to comprise this committee.
In this latest challenge to the legitimacy of the FAM, Male' FC claimed in court the legal requirement that the Ministry of Sports, as the founder, failed to get approval for it's amended statutes prior to the association's elections. The law requires the Registrar of Clubs and Societies' to approve the proposed statutes prior to the elections.
Male' FC's claims have sent jitters through the "beneficiaries" of the these rogue elections. More specifically those of the FAM.
The architects (FIFA Official Dato' Paul and the subsequent Interim Committee) and the beneficiaries, the newly "elected" President and Executive Committee (financed by Gayyoom's fledgling autocracy) appear silent. The case had it's first hearing Tuesday 19 August.
While the FAM is maintaining an eerie silence on the issue, the Sports Council is reported to have been unavailable for comment. The government ministry which hosts the Registrar of Clubs and Societies have however blundered as usual!
Wednesday's Haveeru Daily reported the Ministry of Home Affairs as saying the statutes have "now" been approved. But the elections were held almost a month ago. The Ministry went on to make the feeble claim that there was nothing in the law that specified elections conducted prior to the Registrar's approval of the statutes were not valid.
The Registrar himself have however been silent. He had earlier confirmed to Male' FC in writing, that the statutes were not approved by him prior to the elections.
Amateur football player and lawyer, Shameem challenged the legality of this shaky sport institution for the first time in 2006. He was representing ex-national captain Kuda Heena at the time.
Kuda Heena's case originated from claims made in court to re-gain lost salaries and re-claim his coaching job. The FAM Disciplinary Committee had refused his salary and prohibited further employment as a football coach after accusing Heena of inciting dissent in a league match that year.
The strategy adopted by lawyer Shameem at the time was to question the legitimacy of the unelected government appointed FAM to hand down such a sentence on coach Kuda Heena. Shameem questioned the legal foundation of the association. He proved the association was not constituted in line with the new Articles of Association of 2003 which gave voting rights to all FAM members.
The court ruled in favour of the FAM!
Maldives courts of law were firmly controlled by the executive in 2006. Judge Ali Sameer will be quite aware of his ruling.
At the time, the court claimed the legal status of the FAM was in jeopardy due to the negligence of the Registrar rather than the FAM.
The Registrar was caught dragging his feet past the transitional 12 months stipulated in the amended Articles of Association.
Judge Ali Sameer maintained in 2006 that the FAM can hold elections only after the Registrar approves the statutes. This is exactly what Male' FC Lawyers, Shahudhee and Riffath is arguing for. It should be interesting to see what the present Judge Ibrahim Mahir comes up with this time.
The Gayyoom appointed FAM and the Gayyoom appointed Registrar were sent home with a slap on the wrist and a stern warning to follow the law by the Gayyoom appointed Judge.
FAM settled out of court. Kuda Heena was paid his dues and allowed to return to his coaching job. The public pressure for reform forced the FAM to relent.
Kuda Heena's case set a precedent the court is sure to consider when dealing with this new case.
At the time, the Registrar escaped the wrath of the civil court on a requirement of the Articles of Association that stated the FAM can go ahead with elections only after the Registrar have approved the amended statutes.
The court ruled that no time frame was imposed by the law on the Registrar to approve the proposed statutes in spite of the fact that the law required existing clubs and societies to to hold fresh elections within 12 months from the date the law was passed. The deadline expired in May 2004.
Today, it is "post-ratification"! An amended national constitution that separated the judiciary from the executive was ratified only two weeks ago on the 7th of this month.
It is poetic justice that this time around, Shameem is arguing that the rather undemocratic "technicality" on which he lost his previous case in 2006 is exactly why the FAM should loose it's case this time "post ratification". The Registrar is again at the heart of the controversy.
The government appointed Registrar protected the government appointed FAM in 2006. The government appointed Registrar is now singing a different tune "post-ratification". We will find out how the newly independent judiciary performs this time.
The Minister of Home Affairs who hosts the Registrar's office is livid! The Minister appears to be overriding the Registrar with his recent comments to Haveeru Daily. The Registrar have been quiet on the issue after admitting he had not approved the FAM Statutes.
The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday 28 August.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
DRP drags Sport into the National political spotlight.
Manager Hanim and “Maumoon 2008” continue to attract comment.
President Gayyoom kicked off his campaign with a grand claim that even the Maldives National Football Team was behind his rather suspect 7th bid for the Presidency. When the DRP Zaeem chose to openly abuse sports for his political survival, active members of all parties democratic took serious note.
Most agreed that Manager Hanim’s action clearly amounted to abuse of sport when he claimed his Gold Medal team backed incumbent President Gayyoom’s campaign. I believe it is not practical for sport to entangle itself in politics. It alienates fans.
In a valiant effort to wriggle out of this trap, someone raised the question of “individual right”.
The problem with "individual right" is that Manager Hanim does not have any in this instance! How would one justify that “individual right” can override the larger "collective right" of the FAM and the National Team.
The commentator conveniently ignore two basic facts to enable him to maintain this position.
Fact number one is that the team was introduced by the DRP as the National Football Team. Manager Hanim had no “individual right” to say what he pleased when displaying himself as the Manager of the National Team. He is bound by his associations statutes.
Finally, adding insult to injury, Manager Hanim clearly stated on record that the National Team was there to support President Gayyoom’s bid for power.
So now we know what the National Team was doing on the DRP Campaign stage!
The National Civil Service Commission has already taken swift action on finding out that Manager Hanim was also Civil Servant Hanim. They questioned CS Hanim’s actions and demoted him from his post of Director General to the post of a mere Director, quite a few rungs down the ladder!
Therefore it now appears that the hat fits. It is wrong for a civil servant to take a political stage.
Referring back to the comment in defense of Manager Hanim, what I am hearing now is a version that totally ignores that Manager Hanim ever indicated the National Team (FAM) backed the Candidate (DRP).
It is now claimed, Manager Hanim is supposed to have said this solely in his individual capacity! But where then does he get the right to represent the National Team or the FAM in his individual capacity?
FAM owns all rights to the Maldives National Football Team. Not Manager Hanim! He is not authorised to represent views contravening it's statutes. Article 3 - Neutrality and non-discrimination, clause 2 prohibits such comment. They are deemed "...prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion".
The FAM Executive Committee is therefore obliged to rule in favour of it's own statutes.
The FAM, FIFA and IOC Charter prohibits Manager Hanim's actions. These regulations severely prohibit national association ruling that it is acceptable for a National Team to support a Presidential bid representing a specific political party.
Manager Hanim cannot therefore make such a stark announcement without the express approval of the FAM Executive Committee. The new DRP version chose to override the FAM's right to neutrality. The issue has been “ sanitized” by the DRP spin machine and is now being promoted out of context.
The newly invented, supposedly “politically correct” version of the story plugged by “state media” is that Manager Hanim has the right to his belief (that the National Team should support President Gayyoom's bid for power).
Holding a belief, how bizarre it may be, is one thing, but going public with it is another. Fantasies may not be publicised!
There are internationally bound and nationally practiced codes of conduct that categorically prohibit such actions. I am sure Manager Hanim must be aware of these regulations.
So what is the consequence for a Sport Manager who abuse sport in cahoots with a political party?
The FAM Executive Committee decision on the issue will be a test of it's credibility. They appear to be on track so far. A statement condemning Manager Hanim's action was issued the next day. Will there be a credible reaction from the National Sports Council and or the Olympic Committee?
Unfortunately, while the DRP's "sanitized" version is being played out, the FAM surely will not be hoping that they could possibly forget this whole incident. There have been no further action since the 9th August statement The Civil Service Commission demonstrated better leadership.
President Gayyoom kicked off his campaign with a grand claim that even the Maldives National Football Team was behind his rather suspect 7th bid for the Presidency. When the DRP Zaeem chose to openly abuse sports for his political survival, active members of all parties democratic took serious note.
Most agreed that Manager Hanim’s action clearly amounted to abuse of sport when he claimed his Gold Medal team backed incumbent President Gayyoom’s campaign. I believe it is not practical for sport to entangle itself in politics. It alienates fans.
In a valiant effort to wriggle out of this trap, someone raised the question of “individual right”.
The problem with "individual right" is that Manager Hanim does not have any in this instance! How would one justify that “individual right” can override the larger "collective right" of the FAM and the National Team.
The commentator conveniently ignore two basic facts to enable him to maintain this position.
Fact number one is that the team was introduced by the DRP as the National Football Team. Manager Hanim had no “individual right” to say what he pleased when displaying himself as the Manager of the National Team. He is bound by his associations statutes.
Finally, adding insult to injury, Manager Hanim clearly stated on record that the National Team was there to support President Gayyoom’s bid for power.
So now we know what the National Team was doing on the DRP Campaign stage!
The National Civil Service Commission has already taken swift action on finding out that Manager Hanim was also Civil Servant Hanim. They questioned CS Hanim’s actions and demoted him from his post of Director General to the post of a mere Director, quite a few rungs down the ladder!
Therefore it now appears that the hat fits. It is wrong for a civil servant to take a political stage.
Referring back to the comment in defense of Manager Hanim, what I am hearing now is a version that totally ignores that Manager Hanim ever indicated the National Team (FAM) backed the Candidate (DRP).
It is now claimed, Manager Hanim is supposed to have said this solely in his individual capacity! But where then does he get the right to represent the National Team or the FAM in his individual capacity?
FAM owns all rights to the Maldives National Football Team. Not Manager Hanim! He is not authorised to represent views contravening it's statutes. Article 3 - Neutrality and non-discrimination, clause 2 prohibits such comment. They are deemed "...prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion".
The FAM Executive Committee is therefore obliged to rule in favour of it's own statutes.
The FAM, FIFA and IOC Charter prohibits Manager Hanim's actions. These regulations severely prohibit national association ruling that it is acceptable for a National Team to support a Presidential bid representing a specific political party.
Manager Hanim cannot therefore make such a stark announcement without the express approval of the FAM Executive Committee. The new DRP version chose to override the FAM's right to neutrality. The issue has been “ sanitized” by the DRP spin machine and is now being promoted out of context.
The newly invented, supposedly “politically correct” version of the story plugged by “state media” is that Manager Hanim has the right to his belief (that the National Team should support President Gayyoom's bid for power).
Holding a belief, how bizarre it may be, is one thing, but going public with it is another. Fantasies may not be publicised!
There are internationally bound and nationally practiced codes of conduct that categorically prohibit such actions. I am sure Manager Hanim must be aware of these regulations.
So what is the consequence for a Sport Manager who abuse sport in cahoots with a political party?
The FAM Executive Committee decision on the issue will be a test of it's credibility. They appear to be on track so far. A statement condemning Manager Hanim's action was issued the next day. Will there be a credible reaction from the National Sports Council and or the Olympic Committee?
Unfortunately, while the DRP's "sanitized" version is being played out, the FAM surely will not be hoping that they could possibly forget this whole incident. There have been no further action since the 9th August statement The Civil Service Commission demonstrated better leadership.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Maldives National Football Team supports the Political Party, DRP!
The Manager of our recently successful regional football gold medal team declared Friday that the team was firmly behind the DRP’s Presidential bid “Maumoon 2008”.
He declared this at the campaign’s special launching ceremony that night. He had, on the stage with him, a handful of players including the team captain.
There was immediate uproar that even shocked the football fans who already detested this blatant politicization of sport.
Saturday morning, the FAM came out with a statement indicating the seriousness of the offence. There has been no news from the FAM since. Popular media have however continued to hold the story. Such is the interest of a public enjoying new found freedoms of expression after the historic ratification Thursday of a democratic constitution.
If one cares to delve deeper into the passionate outburst of this party faithful, Hanim’s comments unearths a hornet’s nest.
Article 3, clause 2 of the newly adopted statutes state that “Discrimination of any kind against ….a group of people on account of ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, politics or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion”
Article 33, clause (m) mandates the Executive Committee to “…dismiss a person or body or suspend a Member of the FAM provisionally until the next Congress”. The next Congress is in 2012!
Should the Executive Committee “suspend or expel” Manager Hanim, I am inclined to believe the DRP will back their faithful senior member in an appeal process including in a court of Law.
The DRP, who was the “sly architect” of the newly re-invented FAM will be caught on the back foot if the FAM Executive Committee goes ahead with a fair decision as per their Statutes. It would be preposterous to believe that the FAM Executive Committee will let Manager Hanim off with a soft slap on the wrist and a demand for a public apology. I would however not put this past certain members in the Executive Committee.
We must not forget that this Executive Committee ignored the blatant use of the SAFF Cup for political purposes. Over 20 island communities have so far accused the tour as unfair use of sport for President Gayyoom’s re-election for a 7th term.
These island communities did not allow the SAFF Cup to land on their islands. The Executive Committee looked on. No action was taken!
It appears the FAM has firmly lodged itself between a rock and a hard place with Manager Hanim as the sandwich meat.
He declared this at the campaign’s special launching ceremony that night. He had, on the stage with him, a handful of players including the team captain.
There was immediate uproar that even shocked the football fans who already detested this blatant politicization of sport.
Saturday morning, the FAM came out with a statement indicating the seriousness of the offence. There has been no news from the FAM since. Popular media have however continued to hold the story. Such is the interest of a public enjoying new found freedoms of expression after the historic ratification Thursday of a democratic constitution.
If one cares to delve deeper into the passionate outburst of this party faithful, Hanim’s comments unearths a hornet’s nest.
Article 3, clause 2 of the newly adopted statutes state that “Discrimination of any kind against ….a group of people on account of ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, politics or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion”
Article 33, clause (m) mandates the Executive Committee to “…dismiss a person or body or suspend a Member of the FAM provisionally until the next Congress”. The next Congress is in 2012!
Should the Executive Committee “suspend or expel” Manager Hanim, I am inclined to believe the DRP will back their faithful senior member in an appeal process including in a court of Law.
The DRP, who was the “sly architect” of the newly re-invented FAM will be caught on the back foot if the FAM Executive Committee goes ahead with a fair decision as per their Statutes. It would be preposterous to believe that the FAM Executive Committee will let Manager Hanim off with a soft slap on the wrist and a demand for a public apology. I would however not put this past certain members in the Executive Committee.
We must not forget that this Executive Committee ignored the blatant use of the SAFF Cup for political purposes. Over 20 island communities have so far accused the tour as unfair use of sport for President Gayyoom’s re-election for a 7th term.
These island communities did not allow the SAFF Cup to land on their islands. The Executive Committee looked on. No action was taken!
It appears the FAM has firmly lodged itself between a rock and a hard place with Manager Hanim as the sandwich meat.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
China and IOC: Blocking Access to Information and Free Speech
Here is what Article 19 have to say about the status of freedom of expression in China as the Olympics loom ahead. The Chinese President in the meantime is appealing to the World not to politicise the Olympics!
PRESS RELEASE - 31 July 2008
As the countdown to the Beijing Olympics reaches a crescendo, reports are mounting that China is reneging on its commitments to free speech and access to information, and that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has failed to ensure that China’s commitments be fully implemented. The last violation to be reported is that of internet censorship: foreign journalists covering the Olympics found they could not access human rights websites and news.
“Through its continued silence, the IOC is condoning the repeated violations by China of fundamental human rights and of the commitments it made to be awarded the 2008 Olympics.” says Dr. Agnès Callamard, ARTICLE 19 Executive Director.
“The actions of the Chinese authorities will surprise very few. But the greatest mockery to the Olympic spirit must be that orchestrated by the IOC itself – the international committee responsible on paper for holding to the highest level the value of fair play and human rights.”
ARTICLE 19 calls on governments and National Olympic Committees to demand that the IOC stands up for the Olympic spirit. In particular, the IOC must protest clearly and transparently to the Chinese authorities for relegating on its promises and abusing freedom of the press and the free flow of information, and request as a matter of urgency that access to all censored websites be immediately established.
Background
Journalists from around the world have arrived in Beijing only to find out that their internet connection is censored by the Chinese government – a violation of the commitments China made in winning the Olympics.
Recent reports, denied by the IOC, have stated that IOC officials acquiesced and agreed to China’s demands for maintaining controls over access to information and the continued blocking of sites from ARTICLE 19, Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International, BBC, and many others.
Despite these apparent reversals by China, IOC President Jacques Rogge recently commented that “For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet.”
The head of the IOC Press Commission Kevan Gosper is said to have stated that he would be surprised if Rogge did not know that China had no intention of allowing free speech. Chief spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organising committee Sun Weide also conceded that censorship would not stop, “It has been our policy to provide the media with convenient and sufficient access to the Internet” (emphasis added).
PRESS RELEASE - 31 July 2008
As the countdown to the Beijing Olympics reaches a crescendo, reports are mounting that China is reneging on its commitments to free speech and access to information, and that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has failed to ensure that China’s commitments be fully implemented. The last violation to be reported is that of internet censorship: foreign journalists covering the Olympics found they could not access human rights websites and news.
“Through its continued silence, the IOC is condoning the repeated violations by China of fundamental human rights and of the commitments it made to be awarded the 2008 Olympics.” says Dr. Agnès Callamard, ARTICLE 19 Executive Director.
“The actions of the Chinese authorities will surprise very few. But the greatest mockery to the Olympic spirit must be that orchestrated by the IOC itself – the international committee responsible on paper for holding to the highest level the value of fair play and human rights.”
ARTICLE 19 calls on governments and National Olympic Committees to demand that the IOC stands up for the Olympic spirit. In particular, the IOC must protest clearly and transparently to the Chinese authorities for relegating on its promises and abusing freedom of the press and the free flow of information, and request as a matter of urgency that access to all censored websites be immediately established.
Background
Journalists from around the world have arrived in Beijing only to find out that their internet connection is censored by the Chinese government – a violation of the commitments China made in winning the Olympics.
Recent reports, denied by the IOC, have stated that IOC officials acquiesced and agreed to China’s demands for maintaining controls over access to information and the continued blocking of sites from ARTICLE 19, Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International, BBC, and many others.
Despite these apparent reversals by China, IOC President Jacques Rogge recently commented that “For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet.”
The head of the IOC Press Commission Kevan Gosper is said to have stated that he would be surprised if Rogge did not know that China had no intention of allowing free speech. Chief spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organising committee Sun Weide also conceded that censorship would not stop, “It has been our policy to provide the media with convenient and sufficient access to the Internet” (emphasis added).
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Iraqi Athletes to Compete at Beijing Olympics
INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE PRESS RELEASETUESDAY 29 JULY 2008
International Olympic Committee Brokers Agreement with Iraqi Government
Lausanne, Switzerland – An agreement between the Iraqi government and the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday clears the way for Iraqi participation in the Olympic Games in Beijing.
In a productive meeting at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, the IOC and the Government of Iraq agreed on a series of steps that will lead to a fully functioning, independent National Olympic Committee in Iraq. The agreement re-establishes the independent NOC of Iraq which will be allowed to take part in the Beijing Games.
Iraqi athletes will compete in Beijing under the Iraqi flag, led by coaches and team leaders selected by the independent Iraqi National Olympic Committee. Five government representatives will be invited by the IOC as observers to the Games in Beijing. The agreement also calls for the transparent and fair election of a new, independent Iraqi National Olympic Committee, no later than the end of November 2008. This process will be overseen by the IOC and the Olympic Council of Asia and will be held in cooperation with the Government of Iraq, and in accordance with the Olympic Charter.
“I commend the government of Iraq for reaching an agreement that serves the long-term interest of Iraqi athletes,” IOC President Jacques Rogge said. “We have said all along that we want to see Iraqi athletes in Beijing.”
The IOC helped establish an independent Iraqi National Olympic Committee in February 2004, and has provided substantial financial support and other assistance to Iraqi athletes. In May this year, the Iraqi government sought to disband the independent NOC and replace it with one headed by a government official - a clear violation of the Olympic Charter regarding government interference.
The IOC responded on 4 June by suspending the government-imposed committee. The IOC urged Iraqi officials to resolve the matter and issued an open invitation for a meeting in Lausanne.
The deadline for competitors entering the Beijing Olympic Games for all events except athletics passed on 23 July. As a result, the slots for five Iraqi athletes have been redistributed, but two Iraqi athletics competitors will have the opportunity to compete in Beijing.
“We look forward to seeing the Iraqi flag in Beijing,” Rogge said.
International Olympic Committee Brokers Agreement with Iraqi Government
Lausanne, Switzerland – An agreement between the Iraqi government and the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday clears the way for Iraqi participation in the Olympic Games in Beijing.
In a productive meeting at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, the IOC and the Government of Iraq agreed on a series of steps that will lead to a fully functioning, independent National Olympic Committee in Iraq. The agreement re-establishes the independent NOC of Iraq which will be allowed to take part in the Beijing Games.
Iraqi athletes will compete in Beijing under the Iraqi flag, led by coaches and team leaders selected by the independent Iraqi National Olympic Committee. Five government representatives will be invited by the IOC as observers to the Games in Beijing. The agreement also calls for the transparent and fair election of a new, independent Iraqi National Olympic Committee, no later than the end of November 2008. This process will be overseen by the IOC and the Olympic Council of Asia and will be held in cooperation with the Government of Iraq, and in accordance with the Olympic Charter.
“I commend the government of Iraq for reaching an agreement that serves the long-term interest of Iraqi athletes,” IOC President Jacques Rogge said. “We have said all along that we want to see Iraqi athletes in Beijing.”
The IOC helped establish an independent Iraqi National Olympic Committee in February 2004, and has provided substantial financial support and other assistance to Iraqi athletes. In May this year, the Iraqi government sought to disband the independent NOC and replace it with one headed by a government official - a clear violation of the Olympic Charter regarding government interference.
The IOC responded on 4 June by suspending the government-imposed committee. The IOC urged Iraqi officials to resolve the matter and issued an open invitation for a meeting in Lausanne.
The deadline for competitors entering the Beijing Olympic Games for all events except athletics passed on 23 July. As a result, the slots for five Iraqi athletes have been redistributed, but two Iraqi athletics competitors will have the opportunity to compete in Beijing.
“We look forward to seeing the Iraqi flag in Beijing,” Rogge said.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Fall of the old sports order in the Maldives, a perspective...
We are witnessing the disintegration of the Maldives sports system. The system was based on direct government management. Such practice however is no longer recognised by global sport bodies such as the IOC and the FIFA. International best practice in this day and age is the management of sports through civil society. This has never been the case in the Maldives. I believe this will be a necessary structural adjustment to enhance the growth of sport in the Maldives.
The urge for governments to intervene in sport development in their respective countries is not necessarily un-common. The point however is, how much "interference"? In our SAARC region, all governments have a stake in national sports development in a more direct manner than most European societies.
Sport is very much a European phenomena and as such, they have shown us how they have perfected this art. In Europe, sport developed principally through civil society mechanisms with governments mostly as helpful partners who recognised it's value to society. The Football Leagues of Europe are examples. In the US, the government actively pursued the development of sport through legislation. They eventually came out with their flagship sport product, a more commercial version, most recognised as "franchises".
Our region is way behind in institutionalising sport development. It has been governments and not civil bodies that have directly initiated national strategy and coverage through policy and funding. India has a government funded national Sports Authority. They however leave much of the policy and management to their civil society national associations. In the rest, more uncomfortable democracies, there is more government interference. For example Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh have required FIFA intervention to settle disputes. The IOC intervened in Nepal. National sport associations have been shaky with their civil society credentials. Maldives appear to have a pretty bad record. The undemocratic culture of our sports system is rapidly getting exposed in this people driven reform project.
The case of the Maldives
We are not looking at re-inventing the wheel! Experiences of best practice in countries outside of our region, have shown us systems of sport that have worked well. The defining features of these systems have been democracy and autonomy. That is independence from direct government interference and therefore the freedom to pursue funding not only from government, but also from public and other commercial ventures.
The general guideline is to let sport be a people thing and an activity that may not be used as a campaign tool for national leadership. It is time President Gayyoom stopped the abuse of the SAFF Trophy for his Presidential campaign. Ten island communities have protested against the Trophy tour as I write.
I believe sport can be more successfully moulded as a peoples' activity rather than a government activity. This is however possible, if the form of government in the country is a multi-party democracy. In one party dictatorships sport end up being part of the government machinery. The Communist system is a classic example. Wow! China is hosting the Olympics! Isn't it so complex!
What we are witnessing a process where a 30 year old one party dictatorship is placed under pressure to transform into a multi-party democracy. Documenting and analysing our sports experiences during this phase of rapid change will help us, if not others, understand the pitfalls of such transition.
The Experience
Our experience in this project have been both encouraging and bitter. We are encouraged that the government actually declared their intention to free up national sports associations. The declaration came in the form of the amended Article of Association or Law No. 1/2003 of of May that year.
The irony however is that this new law was not really meant to free up civil society. The real reason for getting this Law through was to replace the previous Articles of Association (No. 26/82). The problem with the previous Law was that it mentioned "parties" in addition to clubs and associations. The single party rule of President Gayyoom felt threatened that a group of reformists proposed to register a political party under the old 1982 law. The new law was therefore enacted to enable the government to erase all hints that a civil society association could be registered with the express objective of a classical political party.
There is ample evidence that amending the Articles of Association of 1982 had nothing to do with freeing up civil society. The amended Law of 2003 mandated associations already registered under the previous law to transit as per the new law within 12 months of ratification. The one year deadline expired in May 2004. Four years later (after a local court ruling in 2006 and the FIFA intervention in 2007) government registered NGOs such as national sports associations are conducting hurried elections with absolutely no regard for the new law. The government appointed Sports Council chaired by the Minister of Sports is overseeing elections! The Registrar of Clubs and Societies is not aware that elections are being held. Well...how about that! The whole thing is an eyewash. Deception... and a complete farce!
The single party government of President Gayyoom hoped to block the creation of political parties in the country. He hoped to mute reformist calls for system change. The Articles of Association ensured the separation of the concept of political parties from the usual issue specific civil society organisations. Political pluralism was the feared enemy!
The Result
The result however was not what the government had actually hoped for! The old Gayyoom government soon faced the biggest shock of its 30 year rule! In walks a young reformer in the name of Mohamed Nasheed (Anni). President Gayyoom had hoped the 2003 Articles of Association would make up for not allowing the formation of political parties. Within weeks of Nasheed's arrival from self exile in early 2005, the Maldives Parliament ratified a Presidential Decree to allow political parties.
A number of people expressed their concern that while issue specific meaningful civil society organisations were legalised through legislation, political parties were only "legal" through a mere Presidential Decree. This was however enough for the dynamic Nasheed to push his concept of multi-partyism into the heads of Maldivians. Political parties emerged! The incumbent government rushed to claim they too were a party. It was Kick-off...big time! The heat was on!
Where are we now?
We are now at the gates of transition. We are impatiently waiting for the ratification of a constitution that would guarantee us a multi-party democracy. It is within this transitional environment that the national associations that had been held back by government control are being forced into the public domain. The shock appears too much! The government machinery were unable to strategise a smooth transition. The hard fact is engraved in the simple logic that it is impossible for a Dictator to usher in Democratic Reform. This would be signing his own death warrant!
The remains of the Gayyoom one party state apparatus cringed! Entrenched government officials immediately scrammed to devise ways of holding onto these associations hoping it would help their political survival. The largest government sport association, the national FA ended up in the FIFA's lap for breaching it's Statutes. We welcomed this third party intervention. We hoped they would help us curb this governmental interference in sport.
We were rudely disappointed. The FIFA Official Dato' Paul of Malaysia unilaterally decided to maintain the status-quo and manipulate the FAM elections to ensure that only a mere 11 votes were counted out of over 90 valid votes. He then went ahead and endorsed the elections on behalf of the FIFA! Mind you, this was in breach of the FIFA Statutes! (Article 17). What was the good Dato's interest?
In the meantime our National Olympic Committee is merrily getting ready for the Olympics. We are not hearing about an election. The IOC seems content with the Maldives while they harp on about Iraq's government interfering into the affairs of their NOC.
Role of the International Sports Community
We are doing our bit. We have passed laws consistent with international best practice. We have gone out on the street to protest undemocratic FIFA backed elections of the FAM. It is time the International Sports Community recognised their obligations to ensure the rights of Maldivian sports bodies to operate without government interference in this country.
We need more "responsible" engagement. We call on the International Sports Community to live up to their fashionable claims of "corporate social responsibility"!
The urge for governments to intervene in sport development in their respective countries is not necessarily un-common. The point however is, how much "interference"? In our SAARC region, all governments have a stake in national sports development in a more direct manner than most European societies.
Sport is very much a European phenomena and as such, they have shown us how they have perfected this art. In Europe, sport developed principally through civil society mechanisms with governments mostly as helpful partners who recognised it's value to society. The Football Leagues of Europe are examples. In the US, the government actively pursued the development of sport through legislation. They eventually came out with their flagship sport product, a more commercial version, most recognised as "franchises".
Our region is way behind in institutionalising sport development. It has been governments and not civil bodies that have directly initiated national strategy and coverage through policy and funding. India has a government funded national Sports Authority. They however leave much of the policy and management to their civil society national associations. In the rest, more uncomfortable democracies, there is more government interference. For example Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh have required FIFA intervention to settle disputes. The IOC intervened in Nepal. National sport associations have been shaky with their civil society credentials. Maldives appear to have a pretty bad record. The undemocratic culture of our sports system is rapidly getting exposed in this people driven reform project.
The case of the Maldives
We are not looking at re-inventing the wheel! Experiences of best practice in countries outside of our region, have shown us systems of sport that have worked well. The defining features of these systems have been democracy and autonomy. That is independence from direct government interference and therefore the freedom to pursue funding not only from government, but also from public and other commercial ventures.
The general guideline is to let sport be a people thing and an activity that may not be used as a campaign tool for national leadership. It is time President Gayyoom stopped the abuse of the SAFF Trophy for his Presidential campaign. Ten island communities have protested against the Trophy tour as I write.
I believe sport can be more successfully moulded as a peoples' activity rather than a government activity. This is however possible, if the form of government in the country is a multi-party democracy. In one party dictatorships sport end up being part of the government machinery. The Communist system is a classic example. Wow! China is hosting the Olympics! Isn't it so complex!
What we are witnessing a process where a 30 year old one party dictatorship is placed under pressure to transform into a multi-party democracy. Documenting and analysing our sports experiences during this phase of rapid change will help us, if not others, understand the pitfalls of such transition.
The Experience
Our experience in this project have been both encouraging and bitter. We are encouraged that the government actually declared their intention to free up national sports associations. The declaration came in the form of the amended Article of Association or Law No. 1/2003 of of May that year.
The irony however is that this new law was not really meant to free up civil society. The real reason for getting this Law through was to replace the previous Articles of Association (No. 26/82). The problem with the previous Law was that it mentioned "parties" in addition to clubs and associations. The single party rule of President Gayyoom felt threatened that a group of reformists proposed to register a political party under the old 1982 law. The new law was therefore enacted to enable the government to erase all hints that a civil society association could be registered with the express objective of a classical political party.
There is ample evidence that amending the Articles of Association of 1982 had nothing to do with freeing up civil society. The amended Law of 2003 mandated associations already registered under the previous law to transit as per the new law within 12 months of ratification. The one year deadline expired in May 2004. Four years later (after a local court ruling in 2006 and the FIFA intervention in 2007) government registered NGOs such as national sports associations are conducting hurried elections with absolutely no regard for the new law. The government appointed Sports Council chaired by the Minister of Sports is overseeing elections! The Registrar of Clubs and Societies is not aware that elections are being held. Well...how about that! The whole thing is an eyewash. Deception... and a complete farce!
The single party government of President Gayyoom hoped to block the creation of political parties in the country. He hoped to mute reformist calls for system change. The Articles of Association ensured the separation of the concept of political parties from the usual issue specific civil society organisations. Political pluralism was the feared enemy!
The Result
The result however was not what the government had actually hoped for! The old Gayyoom government soon faced the biggest shock of its 30 year rule! In walks a young reformer in the name of Mohamed Nasheed (Anni). President Gayyoom had hoped the 2003 Articles of Association would make up for not allowing the formation of political parties. Within weeks of Nasheed's arrival from self exile in early 2005, the Maldives Parliament ratified a Presidential Decree to allow political parties.
A number of people expressed their concern that while issue specific meaningful civil society organisations were legalised through legislation, political parties were only "legal" through a mere Presidential Decree. This was however enough for the dynamic Nasheed to push his concept of multi-partyism into the heads of Maldivians. Political parties emerged! The incumbent government rushed to claim they too were a party. It was Kick-off...big time! The heat was on!
Where are we now?
We are now at the gates of transition. We are impatiently waiting for the ratification of a constitution that would guarantee us a multi-party democracy. It is within this transitional environment that the national associations that had been held back by government control are being forced into the public domain. The shock appears too much! The government machinery were unable to strategise a smooth transition. The hard fact is engraved in the simple logic that it is impossible for a Dictator to usher in Democratic Reform. This would be signing his own death warrant!
The remains of the Gayyoom one party state apparatus cringed! Entrenched government officials immediately scrammed to devise ways of holding onto these associations hoping it would help their political survival. The largest government sport association, the national FA ended up in the FIFA's lap for breaching it's Statutes. We welcomed this third party intervention. We hoped they would help us curb this governmental interference in sport.
We were rudely disappointed. The FIFA Official Dato' Paul of Malaysia unilaterally decided to maintain the status-quo and manipulate the FAM elections to ensure that only a mere 11 votes were counted out of over 90 valid votes. He then went ahead and endorsed the elections on behalf of the FIFA! Mind you, this was in breach of the FIFA Statutes! (Article 17). What was the good Dato's interest?
In the meantime our National Olympic Committee is merrily getting ready for the Olympics. We are not hearing about an election. The IOC seems content with the Maldives while they harp on about Iraq's government interfering into the affairs of their NOC.
Role of the International Sports Community
We are doing our bit. We have passed laws consistent with international best practice. We have gone out on the street to protest undemocratic FIFA backed elections of the FAM. It is time the International Sports Community recognised their obligations to ensure the rights of Maldivian sports bodies to operate without government interference in this country.
We need more "responsible" engagement. We call on the International Sports Community to live up to their fashionable claims of "corporate social responsibility"!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
The civil society developement project through sport continues....
The first elections of the National FA in the capital Male' on 20 July was a watershed in the growth of civil society in the Maldives. I view this process within the context of the mega democratisation project the people of this country have embarked upon. I am a serious participant in this project. The process is fuelled by people committed to the cause. It is therefore appropriate that we get ourselves up to date on the ground reality at the time of this controversial FAM elections.
Articles of Association
The teachers of this country have decided to use our Articles of Association (Law No. 1/2003) to regain their rights and a decent living. The tourism workers followed suite. We now see sports groups joining in. Civil society exploded onto the national stage to the pleasant surprise of an unsuspecting public.
This development disturbed those officials who controlled these interest groups through institutionalised government mechanisms. They were loosing their grip! They were also unable to come up with a strategy that satisfied a crop of a sophisticated opposition they never thought existed. The government have been aloof and paternalistic to this unprecedented mega-democratisation project. They had so far only paid lip service to the people's calls for Reform. The intention was to fool the International Community. The International Community however do not appear to be fooled. It now appears that it is only the International Sport Community that have been fooled so far!
The International Sport Community
Civil society suddenly took new meaning. Into this rather explosive environment, enters the FIFA! A premier member of the "respected" International Sports Community. The Viceroy turned out to be the powerful Secretary General of the Asian Football Confederation, Dato' Paul Mony Samuel. A "team spirit" of shocking proportion emerged between the government officials who were loosing their "grip" and the incoming FIFA Official who in reality came to save the FAM from this government grip!
The rather aloof Dato' Paul instead chose to turn a blind eye to calls for a strategy that would enable the FAM to transit into a meaningful civil society organisation. That is the installation of "members" rather than "individuals" into the FAM Interim Transition Committee. Requests to meet the good Viceroy were breezily brushed off! It appears our first meeting with the International Sports Community did not go too well. We need more engagement, more transparency. After all we are talking about civil society!
Government or Civil society?
The FA was an already established organisation bound by a culture of "government" rather than civil society. The government could comfortably be classified as an autocratic one party dictatorship. This was the point from which the transition process had to start.
Contrary to what we were led to believe as per the FIFA Statutes, it suddenly became brutally clear that the FIFA too were more interested in the "status-quo". They immediately endorsed the prevailing status-quo. They staged a "grand" elections with a flurry of activity by important FIFA and AFC Officials. Our "boys" were well mannered, pleasant and most of all obedient. They executed the project to the letter. By these standards Chairman Shahir definitely did a great job! They endorsed the associated corruption. The also endorsed by-passing 80 member clubs and granting the vote to a mere 11 "big" clubs. This amounted to just 12% of the Maldives Football "electorate".
So much for Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes! The FIFA Official Dato' Paul told the press that voting rights for a small number of clubs were "appropriate" for the Maldives. It may come as a surprise to the informed onlooker who probably remember that our Articles of Association beg to differ with this "unilateral" decision of the FIFA official. Our Articles of Association do not discriminate between "rich" and "poor" clubs. Neither did the FIFA Statutes!
But to our shock and horror Dato' Paul was more interested in the government machinery that have been holding the FAM hostage for the last few decades. The FIFA Statutes mandate the FIFA administration to free up such associations from government control! We have however seen the FIFA do the exact opposite.
I foresaw two possible reasons for the good Dato' to come to the conclusion that the interim committee must be composed NOT of "members" as per Article 17, BUT of "non-member individuals" of his choosing which was not consistent with this Article. The more innocent reason was to believe that the FIFA Official did not have had any idea of the mega-democratic transition project into which he had stepped into when he entered the territory of this 90 member strong Maldives Football Association. The other is more sinister. Control! by whatever means.
It eventually turned out that the FIFA preferred the "control" option rather than the "free-up" option. Interests naturally aligned well for both parties. Government represented by some "loose" minister on the one hand and the rather aloof FIFA Official Dato' Paul on the other.
This is definitely another setback for Maldives football. This time at the hands of the FIFA! By its own admission the FIFA official paternally admitted that the next elections will be FAIR! Oh, what Joy!
While the teachers and tourism workers are rapidly evolving into an exemplary model of democratic civil society, the FAM was moving backwards. One could argue that we were the "innocent" victims of corrupt forces that emanated from inside and outside of this country.
Corruption
Firstly, the fact that an international NGO, FIFA was allowed to intervene was tantamount to being caught with our pants down. It was corruption of the FA through government control that prompted the FIFA into action. But lo and behold, forces inside and outside of this country immediately aligned to secure one of the two hundred or so votes that made up FIFA. The result was a process so compromised that even dumb little Maldivians could not help the stink!
I was therefore compelled to post the following comment in our rather "silent", but well informed maldivesoccer website.
Article 17 clause 2 states "Any Member’s bodies that have not been elected or appointed in compliance with the provisions of par. 1, even on an interim basis, shall not be recognised by FIFA". Granted that our interim committee was appointed as per par. 1, by FIFA and it was therefore an independent appointment, the starkly obvious requirement that a member's body shall consist of members, who are CLUBS leave the committee exposed! what a preposterous oversight even for FIFA and Dato Paul! Oh my....!!
Undemocratic
So what does this mean? The AFC suddenly comes out with allegations of corruption based on media reports of offers to buy votes from clubs contesting in the FAM elections! It appears this was a ruse to re-direct the gaze of an alert section of the football community from the real source of this corruption.
The real source of this corruption was the interim committee's undemocratic composition! That is the absence of members in a member's body. Instead, there were a handful of carefully selected individuals who did not represent member clubs. The question then is, does the FIFA Statutes mandate a FIFA Official to accommodate individuals rather than members as required by Article 17?
Terrible as it may sound, we have yet again been taken for a ride! Appointing individuals instead of representatives of member clubs appeared deliberate and did not have a legal or moral basis. The whole point of member's bodies was that the individuals representing a member clubs would be democratically elected and therefore accountable to the members of that club who in turn is accountable for it's good standing within the family of associated football clubs that make up the association.
The non-member "Individual" on the other hand have no one to be accountable to except he who appointed that "Individual". Therefore, the loyal Chairman, Shahir's assertion that he had conducted affairs as per strict orders from his appointees. The FIFA and AFC Officials who oversaw the congress admitted that all decisions were endorsed by the FIFA and the AFC. The "winners" seemed content!
Prescriptive paternalism
It therefore appears the FIFA prefers to be prescriptive. There appear to be no other reason for the FIFA to interpret Article 17 as permitting the appointment of individuals so that they will be answerable to FIFA to the exclusion of the association's members. If this is what FIFA means when they claim that it is their "corporate social responsibility" to democratise national associations, there may emerge a difference in opinion that stares in opposite directions.
Articles of Association
The teachers of this country have decided to use our Articles of Association (Law No. 1/2003) to regain their rights and a decent living. The tourism workers followed suite. We now see sports groups joining in. Civil society exploded onto the national stage to the pleasant surprise of an unsuspecting public.
This development disturbed those officials who controlled these interest groups through institutionalised government mechanisms. They were loosing their grip! They were also unable to come up with a strategy that satisfied a crop of a sophisticated opposition they never thought existed. The government have been aloof and paternalistic to this unprecedented mega-democratisation project. They had so far only paid lip service to the people's calls for Reform. The intention was to fool the International Community. The International Community however do not appear to be fooled. It now appears that it is only the International Sport Community that have been fooled so far!
The International Sport Community
Civil society suddenly took new meaning. Into this rather explosive environment, enters the FIFA! A premier member of the "respected" International Sports Community. The Viceroy turned out to be the powerful Secretary General of the Asian Football Confederation, Dato' Paul Mony Samuel. A "team spirit" of shocking proportion emerged between the government officials who were loosing their "grip" and the incoming FIFA Official who in reality came to save the FAM from this government grip!
The rather aloof Dato' Paul instead chose to turn a blind eye to calls for a strategy that would enable the FAM to transit into a meaningful civil society organisation. That is the installation of "members" rather than "individuals" into the FAM Interim Transition Committee. Requests to meet the good Viceroy were breezily brushed off! It appears our first meeting with the International Sports Community did not go too well. We need more engagement, more transparency. After all we are talking about civil society!
Government or Civil society?
The FA was an already established organisation bound by a culture of "government" rather than civil society. The government could comfortably be classified as an autocratic one party dictatorship. This was the point from which the transition process had to start.
Contrary to what we were led to believe as per the FIFA Statutes, it suddenly became brutally clear that the FIFA too were more interested in the "status-quo". They immediately endorsed the prevailing status-quo. They staged a "grand" elections with a flurry of activity by important FIFA and AFC Officials. Our "boys" were well mannered, pleasant and most of all obedient. They executed the project to the letter. By these standards Chairman Shahir definitely did a great job! They endorsed the associated corruption. The also endorsed by-passing 80 member clubs and granting the vote to a mere 11 "big" clubs. This amounted to just 12% of the Maldives Football "electorate".
So much for Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes! The FIFA Official Dato' Paul told the press that voting rights for a small number of clubs were "appropriate" for the Maldives. It may come as a surprise to the informed onlooker who probably remember that our Articles of Association beg to differ with this "unilateral" decision of the FIFA official. Our Articles of Association do not discriminate between "rich" and "poor" clubs. Neither did the FIFA Statutes!
But to our shock and horror Dato' Paul was more interested in the government machinery that have been holding the FAM hostage for the last few decades. The FIFA Statutes mandate the FIFA administration to free up such associations from government control! We have however seen the FIFA do the exact opposite.
I foresaw two possible reasons for the good Dato' to come to the conclusion that the interim committee must be composed NOT of "members" as per Article 17, BUT of "non-member individuals" of his choosing which was not consistent with this Article. The more innocent reason was to believe that the FIFA Official did not have had any idea of the mega-democratic transition project into which he had stepped into when he entered the territory of this 90 member strong Maldives Football Association. The other is more sinister. Control! by whatever means.
It eventually turned out that the FIFA preferred the "control" option rather than the "free-up" option. Interests naturally aligned well for both parties. Government represented by some "loose" minister on the one hand and the rather aloof FIFA Official Dato' Paul on the other.
This is definitely another setback for Maldives football. This time at the hands of the FIFA! By its own admission the FIFA official paternally admitted that the next elections will be FAIR! Oh, what Joy!
While the teachers and tourism workers are rapidly evolving into an exemplary model of democratic civil society, the FAM was moving backwards. One could argue that we were the "innocent" victims of corrupt forces that emanated from inside and outside of this country.
Corruption
Firstly, the fact that an international NGO, FIFA was allowed to intervene was tantamount to being caught with our pants down. It was corruption of the FA through government control that prompted the FIFA into action. But lo and behold, forces inside and outside of this country immediately aligned to secure one of the two hundred or so votes that made up FIFA. The result was a process so compromised that even dumb little Maldivians could not help the stink!
I was therefore compelled to post the following comment in our rather "silent", but well informed maldivesoccer website.
Article 17 clause 2 states "Any Member’s bodies that have not been elected or appointed in compliance with the provisions of par. 1, even on an interim basis, shall not be recognised by FIFA". Granted that our interim committee was appointed as per par. 1, by FIFA and it was therefore an independent appointment, the starkly obvious requirement that a member's body shall consist of members, who are CLUBS leave the committee exposed! what a preposterous oversight even for FIFA and Dato Paul! Oh my....!!
Undemocratic
So what does this mean? The AFC suddenly comes out with allegations of corruption based on media reports of offers to buy votes from clubs contesting in the FAM elections! It appears this was a ruse to re-direct the gaze of an alert section of the football community from the real source of this corruption.
The real source of this corruption was the interim committee's undemocratic composition! That is the absence of members in a member's body. Instead, there were a handful of carefully selected individuals who did not represent member clubs. The question then is, does the FIFA Statutes mandate a FIFA Official to accommodate individuals rather than members as required by Article 17?
Terrible as it may sound, we have yet again been taken for a ride! Appointing individuals instead of representatives of member clubs appeared deliberate and did not have a legal or moral basis. The whole point of member's bodies was that the individuals representing a member clubs would be democratically elected and therefore accountable to the members of that club who in turn is accountable for it's good standing within the family of associated football clubs that make up the association.
The non-member "Individual" on the other hand have no one to be accountable to except he who appointed that "Individual". Therefore, the loyal Chairman, Shahir's assertion that he had conducted affairs as per strict orders from his appointees. The FIFA and AFC Officials who oversaw the congress admitted that all decisions were endorsed by the FIFA and the AFC. The "winners" seemed content!
Prescriptive paternalism
It therefore appears the FIFA prefers to be prescriptive. There appear to be no other reason for the FIFA to interpret Article 17 as permitting the appointment of individuals so that they will be answerable to FIFA to the exclusion of the association's members. If this is what FIFA means when they claim that it is their "corporate social responsibility" to democratise national associations, there may emerge a difference in opinion that stares in opposite directions.
FAM conducts national elections with 11 votes!
The FAM conducted its first ever elections with a mere eleven (11) clubs, 9.00am this morning at the Social Education Center in Male'. The AFC and FIFA were present.
Ex-national players, Dhonbiley Ahmed Haleem, Ahmed Shaahid (Saabe) and I with a number of Atoll as well as Male' based clubs are lobbying to get VOTING RIGHTS for over 60 FIFA recognised clubs in the country. Over 80 clubs participate in FAM organised competitions annually.
We went to the Congress venue this morning and appealed to all 11 voters to discontinue this discriminatory practice and join our lobby to get voting rights for all member clubs. Unfortunately none of the eleven clubs were willing to consider this for the time being.
We feel the reason for this reluctance is a lack of UNDERSTANDING of the issues at stake and intense FEAR. Our clubs have been abused by a state system that have restricted civil society development through a 1982 law. This law was overturned in 2003. It appears 4 years is not enough to calm the nerves of these clubs. Our media suffers from the same condition as the clubs. Years of media restriction have not developed journalists, especially sports journalists with the knowledge and appreciation for sport and it's specific nature.
The intimidation was very apparant. When we turned up at the venu, there was significant police presence, some in rather "sporting" gear! We also enjoyed the presence of a few "boys" who had a reputation for manipulating public opinion through intimidation. We were warned by one of the candidates (who probably sent the "boys") that we will also be arrested if we protested this morning. Therefore corruption and intimidation is the norm rather than the exception.
It is however been very perplexing that the FIFA and the AFC sent officials to oversee this elections that were conducted in violation of not only Maldivian laws of association, but FIFA Statutes as well. We have yet to see how this case holds up in Maldivian courts and International Court of Arbitration for Sports in Geneva.
New Radiant's Azim and Hiyalee Mohamed Rasheed from Valencia managed the majority of these 11 votes to win the Presidency and Vice Presidency respectively.
Ex-national players, Dhonbiley Ahmed Haleem, Ahmed Shaahid (Saabe) and I with a number of Atoll as well as Male' based clubs are lobbying to get VOTING RIGHTS for over 60 FIFA recognised clubs in the country. Over 80 clubs participate in FAM organised competitions annually.
We went to the Congress venue this morning and appealed to all 11 voters to discontinue this discriminatory practice and join our lobby to get voting rights for all member clubs. Unfortunately none of the eleven clubs were willing to consider this for the time being.
We feel the reason for this reluctance is a lack of UNDERSTANDING of the issues at stake and intense FEAR. Our clubs have been abused by a state system that have restricted civil society development through a 1982 law. This law was overturned in 2003. It appears 4 years is not enough to calm the nerves of these clubs. Our media suffers from the same condition as the clubs. Years of media restriction have not developed journalists, especially sports journalists with the knowledge and appreciation for sport and it's specific nature.
The intimidation was very apparant. When we turned up at the venu, there was significant police presence, some in rather "sporting" gear! We also enjoyed the presence of a few "boys" who had a reputation for manipulating public opinion through intimidation. We were warned by one of the candidates (who probably sent the "boys") that we will also be arrested if we protested this morning. Therefore corruption and intimidation is the norm rather than the exception.
It is however been very perplexing that the FIFA and the AFC sent officials to oversee this elections that were conducted in violation of not only Maldivian laws of association, but FIFA Statutes as well. We have yet to see how this case holds up in Maldivian courts and International Court of Arbitration for Sports in Geneva.
New Radiant's Azim and Hiyalee Mohamed Rasheed from Valencia managed the majority of these 11 votes to win the Presidency and Vice Presidency respectively.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Dare to be “Little Brazil”?... Imagine!
In the late nineties a little island near Male’, by the name of HURAA became a football icon. They contributed eight players to the National Team that eventually lost to India in the Goa SAFF Cup. At that competition commentators referred to Huraa as the “little Brazil” of Maldives. The fact however is, that it is not only the island of Huraa that is a little Brazil. Most of our 200 inhabited islands are teaming with talent. The whole of Maldives can be turned into a little Brazil if the we dare take up such a challenge?
Now that we have won the SAFF Cup and our football loving public have shown us in what high regard they held football success, our government school system will be forced to admit that their kids love football. In our island communities young fishermen and kids alike, lighten up their life with a kick around. The typical island village support a thousand or so people. A baby boom has created an enormous pool of talent on the streets of our peaceful islands. Safe island streets are home to neighborhood teams. Schools are usually forced to make at times half hearted attempts to have a competition of sorts at least once a year or less. Football Kids have not been taken seriously in the past.
Older island players visit neighboring islands seeking competition. The annual Atoll, Zone and Nationals are unable to cater for the mass of kids, amateur and recreational players hungry for organized competition. Football need a major "sport for all" type approach to tap this potential.
WASTED TALENT
What I am trying to get across here very quickly is that the present football system in the Maldives is not tapping this immense talent pool. It merely scratches the surface. But we have made many finals at the South Asia level and eventually won Gold by beating mighty India all the same. Just for good measure, we have tickled both China and South Korea in past World Cup qualifiers. Wonderful spirit!
MANAGEMENT
We have a badly managed, but elaborate school system. We also have a badly managed but regular club competition. Both managed directly by government officials. The problem is we have not moved with the times.
The FAM is stuck with an old idea. There are glimmers of hope however. Unrecognized and unforeseen to the "authorities", there is an emerging football culture of localized island and atoll based competitions initiated by socially enterprising island based clubs. They visit other islands seeking competition and invite teams from neighboring islands to play in small centralized format mostly to celebrate occasions such as both Eids. A problem they face however is the lack of Referees!
The government run FAM has failed to satisfy the appetite for football in more ways than one. They have concentrated on building a football structure only on the capital island. Male’ have an elaborate league of 6, 10 and 12 teams in first, second and third divisions respectively. The Male’ based inter school competition initiated in the mid eighties that provided the last generation of players have all but disappeared within a decade.
There is no point talking about President Gayyoom’s stream of mad sports ministers and other senior “government officials” in sectors such as Education, Atolls and Tourism who have impacted sport. Their total disregard for sport as a worthy developmental tool have dashed the hopes of a decent sport system evolving in these islands. The government saw sport as a tool to suppress people’s collective identity. You shall not be more popular than my island chief, the Katheeb!
The wards of Male’, represented by local football giants such as New Radiant (Henveiru ward), Victory (Ghalolhu ward) have barely survived this inhumane policy. Lagoons, representing the Machangoali ward disappeared after a brief bright spell in the early nineties. A club from Maafannu have not materialized for the past two decades while Vilingili , a satellite island 10 minutes boat ride from central Male' have emerged in the form of Vyansa. They are already in the Male' first division. There was, understandably no motivation! Huraa managed for a while with philanthropic backing of a nearby resort owned by the Sports Minister Deen.
The gross indecency of this rampant policy has not only suppressed the growth of sport. It has retarded the growth of sports. Killed players Spirits! Killed that sense of Fair Play! The result is an election with a mere 11 voting members from Male' clubs to decide the fate of Football in this country. This is a sentiment echoed, rather softly however, by the influential maldivesoccer website. http://maldivesoccer.net/v4/index.php?page=story&id=2050
A PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
We have change on our horizon. We must be ready. We must now look ahead. The FAM must plan for the future. We need to now get a few structural adjustments implemented immediately. I will therefore focus on three of these concepts that I feel need urgent attention.
The first one is at the grassroots level. That is the right of clubs to actively strengthen their collective football identity through an “empowering” competition format. Implementation of the Home and Away Rule will hopefully do the trick. The second is how to get this done? This can be done through the decentralization of football management to atoll based associations who shall manage their own atoll league. The national body will be responsible for a limited number of National Competitions and general policy. The third is what to do we do with all these roaming kids!
HOME AND AWAY RULE
The atolls will conduct an exciting home and away competition that will keep the island communities excited and entertained. No inhabited island in any atoll is further than three hours travel. Island representative teams will play a seasonal home and away league to select their Atoll Champion. We will witness a booming sport tourism industry with a significant increase in day and overnight trips to watch their teams play. If only there was a nationwide transport network to support this travel explosion! But for the time being, the fishermen footballers will handle this, thank you! Their passion for the game will produce a VIP football travel service in their fishing vessels. I have seen this in action! But only if you would leave people alone to do their own football!
I have witnessed island communities stage events requiring mind boggling logistics. Host islands have created an atmosphere of immense excitement and celebration for the whole community during competitions. The whole island chips in. They are proud to play host. Some of those World Cup hosts could learn a thing or two from our island administrators. You could get served lobster with first class service from top class local chefs and waiters home from their tourism jobs, on holiday for these celebrations. I have seen islands “broadcast” their commentary “live” through the old walkie-talkies from specially constructed towers! Just imagine what we will do with FM radio, our Wataniya 3-G mobiles and the Internet!
The present policy makers will scream gloom and doom at such a proposition. They will tell you that we will have “riot competitions” instead of football competitions. They do not have faith in the people's ability to do their football on their own steam. The old guards interpret life, fun and a bit of boisterousness as rioting! Police intervention in riot gear is their favorite solution. The new administrators will handle this structurally. They will devolve power to atoll associations. They will handle this through education, football rules and as a vibrant civil society organization that will eventually lobby for sport legislation in order to safeguard their sport! Football will then flourish in the atolls.
DECENTRALIZED ATOLL LEAGUES
The second concept is decentralization. Atoll associations will have the right to work on their own development plans within the wider framework outlined by the policy making national body’s Congress and Executive Committee. The atoll associations will be granted a budget and administrative staff with the required training. Club management will be streamlined. The law will be respected. Discipline will be maintained with well formulated regulation and systematic education. A little more carrot than stick! (Errr….we have been getting a lot more stick these days!) Football ground upgrading on feasible scale will hopefully materialize with proactive government and public/private partnerships. Islands will bid to host their atoll qualifying. Atolls will bid for hosting Zone qualifying rounds. Such latitude have unfortunately not been possible with the present exclusionary, autocratic, centralized, politically undisciplined, ideological structure of national governance.
Zonal and National Leagues will be managed by the central national association. One could imagine the first practical step towards this fancy idea as formulating a North, Central and Southern League. There could be two teams from the Central or Male' League to represent a third of the total population based there. The North and South will initially come up with one team each making a four (4) team Dhivehi League final round.
We may speculate that the national league may have a second team qualify from the North and South in the years to come. This will eventually increase the Premier Dhivehi League to a six (6) team home and away final round to select the National League Champion. Let’s hope Dhiraagu will be there with a bit more cash once we get better organized. Wataniya should not be discounted! We can surely attract businesses with a sense of corporate social responsibility to chip in. Who knows if our future Premier League could be sporting Dolphin Free Tuna!
The Northern League of four zone champions could in the initial years play a centralized league round say in the Haa Dhaalu Khulhudhufushu Zone Stadium while the South League can center in Seenu Hithadhoo Zone Stadium. We brought football to the people at the atoll level through the home and away Atoll League format. The zonal level will have to wait and be restricted to a central venue until the necessary transport infrastructure evolves.
I imagine the new equivalent of the Premier Dhivehi League will initially have four teams playing a 12 game home and away format where a savvy FAM President will convince either Island Aviation or one of the Air Taxi operators to chip in with the travel. It will be now possible to see, say, New Radiant and VB from the Central Male’ League play in Maglas Club’s home turf up North on the weekend and to see VB fight their brothers in Thinadhoo down South the same weekend. Imagine the crowds…..err, when we recover from this economic mess. We could manage to get going within the span of only a few years. Perhaps not a bad kick off for our journey towards that Little Brazil status we will so dare boast about in the years to come. The clubs need to see meaningful change to regain faith in the system.
AAAH…ALL THOSE KIDS!
So what about those kids? The new FAM will maintain that, it will be those kids who will eventually tip the balance in favor of our dream. The future of the Little Brazil brand! Our small island communities are teaming with kids looking for a recreational outlet. Traffic free streets offer a starting point for a most innovative youth development program. God forbid, if we ever develop a national transport network, and get a decent tax structure to finance our cultural security, we could keep our population in comfort in the island of their choice. We will thereby easily create the safest and most natural island environment that could build amazing ball skills. Asia will be jealous! How many Dhangadey’s will we produce?
If only we could scrap that 25% duty off sports goods. If only we could have convinced those fake pseudo-intellectual Doctors of Philosophy who scrapped what was left of the Male’ Inter school football competitions. It would have at least eased to some extent, the talent glut we will face in the years to come, essentially due to the absence of this school competition. I was impressed by a remark made by one of our senior national goalkeeper, Zariandhu. He observes that the FAM Youth Development program has nothing to do with talent identification or for that matter talent development. He saw the program as a physical activity session for a well to do overweight class of Male’ residents! What insight!
The inter school is a must. The question of the collective school identity comes up again. The old guards will claim that student pass rates have dropped since the Inter school started. They will then follow up with the argument parents are demanding the schools concentrate on study, not sports. Meanwhile parents are actually lining up for more sport opportunities for their children.
I have had the President’s office on my back with such garbage! I even had a past Tourism Minister claim that tourist resorts found it troublesome with so many staff seeking leave to go and play for their island teams during the Football season.
We had two options to combat the Tourism Ministers ramblings. One was to schedule the league during the off season (monsoons) when it was rainy and the seas were too rough for inter-island travel. The more attractive option would have been to “stuff” the Tourism Minister and seek the cooperation of resort management to become a partner in this massive national social development project! But aaaaagh…! Government Policy!
And now back to these school kids. The pass rates are shameful anyway. Anyone with a decent high school education in this day and age understands that it is not sport that plummets the pass rates. It is bad management, lack of accountability and so on. Someone, please sort those striking teachers' salaries! Do not allow such ignorant technocrat/pseudo-politicians to use sport as a scapegoat for the ills of their bad policies. The FAM should fight back. The association can convince parents that, if any, sport involvement improve pass rates. Sport is a discipline and it should be managed as such. Yes, you can play street football and have excellent discipline….like avoiding angry traffic! In fact you can average A- grades. Kids do not have to be nerds to be intelligent. There is abundant proof. They even say there are intelligent football players!
Schools need their Physical Education revamped in line with national sport achievement goals. Schools need expertise in sport management and administration. Believe you me those school principals love the limelight when their school teams win. And they deserve it too! This limelight however seems to be precisely the very reasons why the Education Ministry scrapped inter school competitions. Headmasters getting too popular! Eeeeeks…!
A WIN- WIN FOR FOOTBALL AND TOURISM
This is the icing on the cake! We have a vibrant tourism industry. The love affair the FAM can have with the tourism industry knows no bounds. Imagine a separate system of Inter-resort Beach Soccer that would attract world stars to our exclusively branded Maldives Beach Soccer Classic. How about hosting an AFC or a FIFA Congress occasionally? Surely, even President Blatter would love a little bit of peace and quiet from all those fights he has with the Premier League and the EU. How about a “Tropical Stadium” or a “Maldives Stadium” in Hulu-Male'. Why not say an exclusive "Island Stadium" that could host exclusive clubs? What? Did you say Manchester United?
Asia look-out! Little Brazil will roar! Candidates, this is your challenge!
Now that we have won the SAFF Cup and our football loving public have shown us in what high regard they held football success, our government school system will be forced to admit that their kids love football. In our island communities young fishermen and kids alike, lighten up their life with a kick around. The typical island village support a thousand or so people. A baby boom has created an enormous pool of talent on the streets of our peaceful islands. Safe island streets are home to neighborhood teams. Schools are usually forced to make at times half hearted attempts to have a competition of sorts at least once a year or less. Football Kids have not been taken seriously in the past.
Older island players visit neighboring islands seeking competition. The annual Atoll, Zone and Nationals are unable to cater for the mass of kids, amateur and recreational players hungry for organized competition. Football need a major "sport for all" type approach to tap this potential.
WASTED TALENT
What I am trying to get across here very quickly is that the present football system in the Maldives is not tapping this immense talent pool. It merely scratches the surface. But we have made many finals at the South Asia level and eventually won Gold by beating mighty India all the same. Just for good measure, we have tickled both China and South Korea in past World Cup qualifiers. Wonderful spirit!
MANAGEMENT
We have a badly managed, but elaborate school system. We also have a badly managed but regular club competition. Both managed directly by government officials. The problem is we have not moved with the times.
The FAM is stuck with an old idea. There are glimmers of hope however. Unrecognized and unforeseen to the "authorities", there is an emerging football culture of localized island and atoll based competitions initiated by socially enterprising island based clubs. They visit other islands seeking competition and invite teams from neighboring islands to play in small centralized format mostly to celebrate occasions such as both Eids. A problem they face however is the lack of Referees!
The government run FAM has failed to satisfy the appetite for football in more ways than one. They have concentrated on building a football structure only on the capital island. Male’ have an elaborate league of 6, 10 and 12 teams in first, second and third divisions respectively. The Male’ based inter school competition initiated in the mid eighties that provided the last generation of players have all but disappeared within a decade.
There is no point talking about President Gayyoom’s stream of mad sports ministers and other senior “government officials” in sectors such as Education, Atolls and Tourism who have impacted sport. Their total disregard for sport as a worthy developmental tool have dashed the hopes of a decent sport system evolving in these islands. The government saw sport as a tool to suppress people’s collective identity. You shall not be more popular than my island chief, the Katheeb!
The wards of Male’, represented by local football giants such as New Radiant (Henveiru ward), Victory (Ghalolhu ward) have barely survived this inhumane policy. Lagoons, representing the Machangoali ward disappeared after a brief bright spell in the early nineties. A club from Maafannu have not materialized for the past two decades while Vilingili , a satellite island 10 minutes boat ride from central Male' have emerged in the form of Vyansa. They are already in the Male' first division. There was, understandably no motivation! Huraa managed for a while with philanthropic backing of a nearby resort owned by the Sports Minister Deen.
The gross indecency of this rampant policy has not only suppressed the growth of sport. It has retarded the growth of sports. Killed players Spirits! Killed that sense of Fair Play! The result is an election with a mere 11 voting members from Male' clubs to decide the fate of Football in this country. This is a sentiment echoed, rather softly however, by the influential maldivesoccer website. http://maldivesoccer.net/v4/index.php?page=story&id=2050
A PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
We have change on our horizon. We must be ready. We must now look ahead. The FAM must plan for the future. We need to now get a few structural adjustments implemented immediately. I will therefore focus on three of these concepts that I feel need urgent attention.
The first one is at the grassroots level. That is the right of clubs to actively strengthen their collective football identity through an “empowering” competition format. Implementation of the Home and Away Rule will hopefully do the trick. The second is how to get this done? This can be done through the decentralization of football management to atoll based associations who shall manage their own atoll league. The national body will be responsible for a limited number of National Competitions and general policy. The third is what to do we do with all these roaming kids!
HOME AND AWAY RULE
The atolls will conduct an exciting home and away competition that will keep the island communities excited and entertained. No inhabited island in any atoll is further than three hours travel. Island representative teams will play a seasonal home and away league to select their Atoll Champion. We will witness a booming sport tourism industry with a significant increase in day and overnight trips to watch their teams play. If only there was a nationwide transport network to support this travel explosion! But for the time being, the fishermen footballers will handle this, thank you! Their passion for the game will produce a VIP football travel service in their fishing vessels. I have seen this in action! But only if you would leave people alone to do their own football!
I have witnessed island communities stage events requiring mind boggling logistics. Host islands have created an atmosphere of immense excitement and celebration for the whole community during competitions. The whole island chips in. They are proud to play host. Some of those World Cup hosts could learn a thing or two from our island administrators. You could get served lobster with first class service from top class local chefs and waiters home from their tourism jobs, on holiday for these celebrations. I have seen islands “broadcast” their commentary “live” through the old walkie-talkies from specially constructed towers! Just imagine what we will do with FM radio, our Wataniya 3-G mobiles and the Internet!
The present policy makers will scream gloom and doom at such a proposition. They will tell you that we will have “riot competitions” instead of football competitions. They do not have faith in the people's ability to do their football on their own steam. The old guards interpret life, fun and a bit of boisterousness as rioting! Police intervention in riot gear is their favorite solution. The new administrators will handle this structurally. They will devolve power to atoll associations. They will handle this through education, football rules and as a vibrant civil society organization that will eventually lobby for sport legislation in order to safeguard their sport! Football will then flourish in the atolls.
DECENTRALIZED ATOLL LEAGUES
The second concept is decentralization. Atoll associations will have the right to work on their own development plans within the wider framework outlined by the policy making national body’s Congress and Executive Committee. The atoll associations will be granted a budget and administrative staff with the required training. Club management will be streamlined. The law will be respected. Discipline will be maintained with well formulated regulation and systematic education. A little more carrot than stick! (Errr….we have been getting a lot more stick these days!) Football ground upgrading on feasible scale will hopefully materialize with proactive government and public/private partnerships. Islands will bid to host their atoll qualifying. Atolls will bid for hosting Zone qualifying rounds. Such latitude have unfortunately not been possible with the present exclusionary, autocratic, centralized, politically undisciplined, ideological structure of national governance.
Zonal and National Leagues will be managed by the central national association. One could imagine the first practical step towards this fancy idea as formulating a North, Central and Southern League. There could be two teams from the Central or Male' League to represent a third of the total population based there. The North and South will initially come up with one team each making a four (4) team Dhivehi League final round.
We may speculate that the national league may have a second team qualify from the North and South in the years to come. This will eventually increase the Premier Dhivehi League to a six (6) team home and away final round to select the National League Champion. Let’s hope Dhiraagu will be there with a bit more cash once we get better organized. Wataniya should not be discounted! We can surely attract businesses with a sense of corporate social responsibility to chip in. Who knows if our future Premier League could be sporting Dolphin Free Tuna!
The Northern League of four zone champions could in the initial years play a centralized league round say in the Haa Dhaalu Khulhudhufushu Zone Stadium while the South League can center in Seenu Hithadhoo Zone Stadium. We brought football to the people at the atoll level through the home and away Atoll League format. The zonal level will have to wait and be restricted to a central venue until the necessary transport infrastructure evolves.
I imagine the new equivalent of the Premier Dhivehi League will initially have four teams playing a 12 game home and away format where a savvy FAM President will convince either Island Aviation or one of the Air Taxi operators to chip in with the travel. It will be now possible to see, say, New Radiant and VB from the Central Male’ League play in Maglas Club’s home turf up North on the weekend and to see VB fight their brothers in Thinadhoo down South the same weekend. Imagine the crowds…..err, when we recover from this economic mess. We could manage to get going within the span of only a few years. Perhaps not a bad kick off for our journey towards that Little Brazil status we will so dare boast about in the years to come. The clubs need to see meaningful change to regain faith in the system.
AAAH…ALL THOSE KIDS!
So what about those kids? The new FAM will maintain that, it will be those kids who will eventually tip the balance in favor of our dream. The future of the Little Brazil brand! Our small island communities are teaming with kids looking for a recreational outlet. Traffic free streets offer a starting point for a most innovative youth development program. God forbid, if we ever develop a national transport network, and get a decent tax structure to finance our cultural security, we could keep our population in comfort in the island of their choice. We will thereby easily create the safest and most natural island environment that could build amazing ball skills. Asia will be jealous! How many Dhangadey’s will we produce?
If only we could scrap that 25% duty off sports goods. If only we could have convinced those fake pseudo-intellectual Doctors of Philosophy who scrapped what was left of the Male’ Inter school football competitions. It would have at least eased to some extent, the talent glut we will face in the years to come, essentially due to the absence of this school competition. I was impressed by a remark made by one of our senior national goalkeeper, Zariandhu. He observes that the FAM Youth Development program has nothing to do with talent identification or for that matter talent development. He saw the program as a physical activity session for a well to do overweight class of Male’ residents! What insight!
The inter school is a must. The question of the collective school identity comes up again. The old guards will claim that student pass rates have dropped since the Inter school started. They will then follow up with the argument parents are demanding the schools concentrate on study, not sports. Meanwhile parents are actually lining up for more sport opportunities for their children.
I have had the President’s office on my back with such garbage! I even had a past Tourism Minister claim that tourist resorts found it troublesome with so many staff seeking leave to go and play for their island teams during the Football season.
We had two options to combat the Tourism Ministers ramblings. One was to schedule the league during the off season (monsoons) when it was rainy and the seas were too rough for inter-island travel. The more attractive option would have been to “stuff” the Tourism Minister and seek the cooperation of resort management to become a partner in this massive national social development project! But aaaaagh…! Government Policy!
And now back to these school kids. The pass rates are shameful anyway. Anyone with a decent high school education in this day and age understands that it is not sport that plummets the pass rates. It is bad management, lack of accountability and so on. Someone, please sort those striking teachers' salaries! Do not allow such ignorant technocrat/pseudo-politicians to use sport as a scapegoat for the ills of their bad policies. The FAM should fight back. The association can convince parents that, if any, sport involvement improve pass rates. Sport is a discipline and it should be managed as such. Yes, you can play street football and have excellent discipline….like avoiding angry traffic! In fact you can average A- grades. Kids do not have to be nerds to be intelligent. There is abundant proof. They even say there are intelligent football players!
Schools need their Physical Education revamped in line with national sport achievement goals. Schools need expertise in sport management and administration. Believe you me those school principals love the limelight when their school teams win. And they deserve it too! This limelight however seems to be precisely the very reasons why the Education Ministry scrapped inter school competitions. Headmasters getting too popular! Eeeeeks…!
A WIN- WIN FOR FOOTBALL AND TOURISM
This is the icing on the cake! We have a vibrant tourism industry. The love affair the FAM can have with the tourism industry knows no bounds. Imagine a separate system of Inter-resort Beach Soccer that would attract world stars to our exclusively branded Maldives Beach Soccer Classic. How about hosting an AFC or a FIFA Congress occasionally? Surely, even President Blatter would love a little bit of peace and quiet from all those fights he has with the Premier League and the EU. How about a “Tropical Stadium” or a “Maldives Stadium” in Hulu-Male'. Why not say an exclusive "Island Stadium" that could host exclusive clubs? What? Did you say Manchester United?
Asia look-out! Little Brazil will roar! Candidates, this is your challenge!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Are the 11 Football Votes up for Sale?
The general feedback from my previous posts of 7 and 8 July indicated a predisposition on the part of commentators to go for the PERSON rather than the ISSUE!
This is understandable. We cannot discount the significance of the larger political context within which this election is being played out. Azim and Kaleem's backgrounds and reputations within this larger political context naturally took precedence.
Another feature was the tendency to speculate on the cross cutting political forces impacting the behaviour of these candidates. It appears all political forces emanate from interests closely allied with the government/DRP.
No coincidence!
This is not a coincidence! It is only to be expected. The FIFA, courtesy of the good Dato', I suspect, was one of the first casualties. He declared (dictated) five "choice individuals" to the Interim Committee, apparently with FIFA consultation!
The Interim Committee followed suite as "dictated" by its composition. This committee, "brokered" by the good Dato' was entrusted by the world parent body, the FIFA to be the guardian of Maldivian football and by default the SAFF Cup, until a new administration is elected. But the FIFA committee unilaterally "loaned" President Gayyoom the SAFF Cup for his campaign. The latest news is that the Cup was damaged as police "saved" it from a mob in Noonu Velidhoo. This is as I write!
Football have made high profile history and exposed plenty of "deadwood"! We must thank our SAFF Cup winning National Team for their timely intervention. There is no better moment to unite Maldivians through football than now.
Now, it is going to be the "elected" President and the Executive Committee that have to wriggle free from the shackles of this dominant government that have dictated everything from policy to chief guests and finally the infamous jersey number, the classic No. 1, MAUMOON!
It is absolutely foolish to believe that President Gayyoom and his cronies can still "stage manage" the FAM elections. Acting on such an assumption will not be in the interest of the candidates.
Confusion!
One, rather sympathetic observer commented that candidates "....please do not take the post cos you want to empower, but take it cos you want to serve for a better future...".
The comment reflects the disengagement we have suffered from the political processes that impact our everyday life. Sport, have not been spared! The word "politics" itself have been conceived as a threat! It throws us out of our "comfort zone". Such is the power of the fear psychosis instilled in us by good old President Gayyoom. How can one serve for a better future without empowering the people who in turn have to work tirelessly to ensure this better future?
Considering the elections are to be held some 4 days after the entry deadline of 16 July, is it too late to urge the candidates to state their plans for the association?
Policy
A general guideline of his policy direction will suffice.
Male'-centric football model: For example, are we going to continue with the Male'-centric football model, akin to the "kuda-sitee" culture which required "islanders" or "rah-fushu meehun" to get a permit to land on the capital island Male'. Though the practice ceased to exist some years back, the incumbent government have deliberately maintained the culture. The voting structure under which the FIFA Interim Committee have opened up these elections is a shining example of the dominence of this disturbing mentality!
Take football to the islands: Would the candidate depart from such anti-development norms? Would he rather take football to the people. Those thousands of fans living out there in the 200 inhabited islands. And, can we make football a celebration that dominate their everyday life? To look forward to that weekend encounter! Will he host elite Male' teams in the zone stadiums of the north and south to build confidence? Will he have the "balls" to depart from this ingrained culture of centralised governance?
Home and away rule: Will he decentralise the atolls into associations who in turn will be empowered to conduct home and away island leagues at the local, atoll level. The European experience have taught us that a key ingredient of their success was the home and away rule.
Local identity: How will the new President empower clubs to once again regain their local identities, the "avashu" or ward club, " rashu" or island clubs, atoll representative clubs? These are basic ingredients, the RIGHTS necessary to get a truly national football network up and running. "Avah" and "rashu" identities have been stifled by Gayyoom's government to serve his own political motives! Will the candidates support procedures on say, how New Radiant can become the official Henveiru club and Victory the official Ghalolhu Club. How will the candidates inspire youth into football culture? How do they plan to make football flourish?
Passion and commerce: How aware are the candidates of the underlying passion with which Maldivians have embraced football and the immense opportunities this opens up for modern commercial initiatives? We ran out of merchandised jerseys, flags and what not last month during the SAFF Cup. Some young football journalists have already raised some or most of these issues in our premier football website maldivesoccer.com.
Are these votes worth the price?
We must be alert to the challenges that lie ahead for the new FA President. Apart from the legitimacy of the elections and his future public standing, the candidate also have the un-envious task of guiding the association away from the claws of a fledgling government that would cling onto anything for political survival. Is Kaleem and Azim up to the challenge? How well are they placed to guide the FAM from the claws of such powerful interest groups?
So, the question! Are the 11 votes up for sale, and if so is the price worth it?
This is understandable. We cannot discount the significance of the larger political context within which this election is being played out. Azim and Kaleem's backgrounds and reputations within this larger political context naturally took precedence.
Another feature was the tendency to speculate on the cross cutting political forces impacting the behaviour of these candidates. It appears all political forces emanate from interests closely allied with the government/DRP.
No coincidence!
This is not a coincidence! It is only to be expected. The FIFA, courtesy of the good Dato', I suspect, was one of the first casualties. He declared (dictated) five "choice individuals" to the Interim Committee, apparently with FIFA consultation!
The Interim Committee followed suite as "dictated" by its composition. This committee, "brokered" by the good Dato' was entrusted by the world parent body, the FIFA to be the guardian of Maldivian football and by default the SAFF Cup, until a new administration is elected. But the FIFA committee unilaterally "loaned" President Gayyoom the SAFF Cup for his campaign. The latest news is that the Cup was damaged as police "saved" it from a mob in Noonu Velidhoo. This is as I write!
Football have made high profile history and exposed plenty of "deadwood"! We must thank our SAFF Cup winning National Team for their timely intervention. There is no better moment to unite Maldivians through football than now.
Now, it is going to be the "elected" President and the Executive Committee that have to wriggle free from the shackles of this dominant government that have dictated everything from policy to chief guests and finally the infamous jersey number, the classic No. 1, MAUMOON!
It is absolutely foolish to believe that President Gayyoom and his cronies can still "stage manage" the FAM elections. Acting on such an assumption will not be in the interest of the candidates.
Confusion!
One, rather sympathetic observer commented that candidates "....please do not take the post cos you want to empower, but take it cos you want to serve for a better future...".
The comment reflects the disengagement we have suffered from the political processes that impact our everyday life. Sport, have not been spared! The word "politics" itself have been conceived as a threat! It throws us out of our "comfort zone". Such is the power of the fear psychosis instilled in us by good old President Gayyoom. How can one serve for a better future without empowering the people who in turn have to work tirelessly to ensure this better future?
Considering the elections are to be held some 4 days after the entry deadline of 16 July, is it too late to urge the candidates to state their plans for the association?
Policy
A general guideline of his policy direction will suffice.
Male'-centric football model: For example, are we going to continue with the Male'-centric football model, akin to the "kuda-sitee" culture which required "islanders" or "rah-fushu meehun" to get a permit to land on the capital island Male'. Though the practice ceased to exist some years back, the incumbent government have deliberately maintained the culture. The voting structure under which the FIFA Interim Committee have opened up these elections is a shining example of the dominence of this disturbing mentality!
Take football to the islands: Would the candidate depart from such anti-development norms? Would he rather take football to the people. Those thousands of fans living out there in the 200 inhabited islands. And, can we make football a celebration that dominate their everyday life? To look forward to that weekend encounter! Will he host elite Male' teams in the zone stadiums of the north and south to build confidence? Will he have the "balls" to depart from this ingrained culture of centralised governance?
Home and away rule: Will he decentralise the atolls into associations who in turn will be empowered to conduct home and away island leagues at the local, atoll level. The European experience have taught us that a key ingredient of their success was the home and away rule.
Local identity: How will the new President empower clubs to once again regain their local identities, the "avashu" or ward club, " rashu" or island clubs, atoll representative clubs? These are basic ingredients, the RIGHTS necessary to get a truly national football network up and running. "Avah" and "rashu" identities have been stifled by Gayyoom's government to serve his own political motives! Will the candidates support procedures on say, how New Radiant can become the official Henveiru club and Victory the official Ghalolhu Club. How will the candidates inspire youth into football culture? How do they plan to make football flourish?
Passion and commerce: How aware are the candidates of the underlying passion with which Maldivians have embraced football and the immense opportunities this opens up for modern commercial initiatives? We ran out of merchandised jerseys, flags and what not last month during the SAFF Cup. Some young football journalists have already raised some or most of these issues in our premier football website maldivesoccer.com.
Are these votes worth the price?
We must be alert to the challenges that lie ahead for the new FA President. Apart from the legitimacy of the elections and his future public standing, the candidate also have the un-envious task of guiding the association away from the claws of a fledgling government that would cling onto anything for political survival. Is Kaleem and Azim up to the challenge? How well are they placed to guide the FAM from the claws of such powerful interest groups?
So, the question! Are the 11 votes up for sale, and if so is the price worth it?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Who is a credible President for the FAM?
I guess this is the million dollar question! Maldives football is embarking on the treacherous journey of growing up! The process of guiding the FAM out of a culture of total government dominance to an autonomous civil society organisation with international benchmarks of good governence will not be without it's challenges.
The fact that the FIFA had to intervene with a five member interim transitional committee in November 2007 is proof of the serious lack of capacity on the part of government to bring about this transition from "within". The government's rhetoric of reform turned out to be an empty promise.
Kaleem was the government appointed Chairman and Azim was the New Radiant representative on the government appointed executive committee. While Azim was lobbying for his club, Kaleem accepted the grander ideal of positioning Maldives Football as a truly national representative body that would look after the interest of all football clubs, rich and poor alike.
Lost opportunity
I urged both Azim and Kaleem to initiate the transition around mid 2007. By then the FIFA was breathing down the FAM's neck and the government was scurrying to get a makeshift election organised. FIFA cried foul and the government backed off in fear of international suspension. I advised both Kaleem and Azim, that the Sports Ministry had lost it's legal mandate to control the FAM after the one year interim transition period specified in the 2003 Articles of Association expired in May 2004. The time was perfect for Kaleem to seek the support of the elite clubs in the executive committee and declare elections! Mattey and Hiyalee, both directly involved with the affairs of the FAM, preferred to take a back seat. Unfortunately none had the vision nor the resolve to provide the radical leadership necessary to fast track the transition process.
That is behind us now. Kaleem and Azim left their posts and let the FIFA representative Dato' Paul take over!
FIFA Interim Committee manipulates voter eligibility
The good Dato', in broad daylight, appointed five handpicked "individuals" to oversee FAM transition. The Interim Transitional Committee members were weak, lacked vision and leadership. The Committee is now caught attempting to legitimise the election of the FAM by a mere 11 clubs. Our National Team's SAFF success was a blessing in disguise. The fledgling FAM was thrown onto the national political stage when President Gayyoom sent the Cup off on a national tour for his personal campaign. The Interim Committee spinelessly watched on as the SAFF Cup was turned into a Political Football.
The national spotlight hopefully will not only highlight the politicization of the SAFF Cup. This is an opportune time as any to fix our gaze on the transitional process, specifically the ELECTIONS.
So who is the best candidate?
As part answer to this million dollar question, we must focus on the elections. Kaleem and Azim will have to lobby for a minimum of 6 out of the 11 votes to win. What are the candidates offering? MONEY or POLICIES? We would want each candidate to present us with their manifesto, their vision and how they plan to achieve it.
Azim and Kaleem failed to score in the first half. They failed to capitalise on the recent opportunity to provide leadership. The FIFA then intervened, in the guise of Dato' Paul! The outcome was the manupulation of the FA elections in favour of a mere 11 elite clubs out of a ninety strong membership. To our shock and horror, these candidates are now hoping they will win the legal mandate to provide the FAM with future leadership by securing a mere 6 votes! This really takes the cake!
Moral authority
All I know is, this election exclusively dominated by a mere eleven Male' based clubs will not secure either Azim or Kaleem the moral authority to lead Maldives Football. Island clubs out there on our 200 islands are watching what the Interim committee and these two candidates are up to.
The two best "zone" (or island) teams who are competing in the premier Dhivehi League do not have the right to vote in the FAM elections! This league is ongoing as we speak.
Laamu Khalaidhoo and Gaafu Dhaalu Thinadhoo qualified to play by going through an arduous process. Unlike Male' clubs, they have to play three qualifying rounds, atoll, zone and zone champions round. The qualification process takes over three months. Amateur players have to travel to the atoll, zone and Male venues to qualify. In sharp contrast, the elite eleven clubs with voting rights live, work and play in Male'. The financial burden excludes the over sixty (60) island based clubs from maintaining the participation targets favoured by the 28 Male' based clubs who recently ratified the FA Statutes under the watchful eyes of the FIFA Official Dato' Paul in Male' on 16 June.
Time will tell how events will unfold! How can the FAM take root without the support of the majority of its members? FIFA itself assures us, through their 2006 Big Count, that the Maldives can boast 60 active football clubs within it's territory.
I would like to see the candidates declare their position on the question of the excluded majority. I would like to see them state their commitment to right this wrong as an election promise. Should the 11 clubs vote with the candidate who stays silent on the exclusion of the majority, let these 11 clubs beware, the majority are watching you!
The fact that the FIFA had to intervene with a five member interim transitional committee in November 2007 is proof of the serious lack of capacity on the part of government to bring about this transition from "within". The government's rhetoric of reform turned out to be an empty promise.
Kaleem was the government appointed Chairman and Azim was the New Radiant representative on the government appointed executive committee. While Azim was lobbying for his club, Kaleem accepted the grander ideal of positioning Maldives Football as a truly national representative body that would look after the interest of all football clubs, rich and poor alike.
Lost opportunity
I urged both Azim and Kaleem to initiate the transition around mid 2007. By then the FIFA was breathing down the FAM's neck and the government was scurrying to get a makeshift election organised. FIFA cried foul and the government backed off in fear of international suspension. I advised both Kaleem and Azim, that the Sports Ministry had lost it's legal mandate to control the FAM after the one year interim transition period specified in the 2003 Articles of Association expired in May 2004. The time was perfect for Kaleem to seek the support of the elite clubs in the executive committee and declare elections! Mattey and Hiyalee, both directly involved with the affairs of the FAM, preferred to take a back seat. Unfortunately none had the vision nor the resolve to provide the radical leadership necessary to fast track the transition process.
That is behind us now. Kaleem and Azim left their posts and let the FIFA representative Dato' Paul take over!
FIFA Interim Committee manipulates voter eligibility
The good Dato', in broad daylight, appointed five handpicked "individuals" to oversee FAM transition. The Interim Transitional Committee members were weak, lacked vision and leadership. The Committee is now caught attempting to legitimise the election of the FAM by a mere 11 clubs. Our National Team's SAFF success was a blessing in disguise. The fledgling FAM was thrown onto the national political stage when President Gayyoom sent the Cup off on a national tour for his personal campaign. The Interim Committee spinelessly watched on as the SAFF Cup was turned into a Political Football.
The national spotlight hopefully will not only highlight the politicization of the SAFF Cup. This is an opportune time as any to fix our gaze on the transitional process, specifically the ELECTIONS.
So who is the best candidate?
As part answer to this million dollar question, we must focus on the elections. Kaleem and Azim will have to lobby for a minimum of 6 out of the 11 votes to win. What are the candidates offering? MONEY or POLICIES? We would want each candidate to present us with their manifesto, their vision and how they plan to achieve it.
Azim and Kaleem failed to score in the first half. They failed to capitalise on the recent opportunity to provide leadership. The FIFA then intervened, in the guise of Dato' Paul! The outcome was the manupulation of the FA elections in favour of a mere 11 elite clubs out of a ninety strong membership. To our shock and horror, these candidates are now hoping they will win the legal mandate to provide the FAM with future leadership by securing a mere 6 votes! This really takes the cake!
Moral authority
All I know is, this election exclusively dominated by a mere eleven Male' based clubs will not secure either Azim or Kaleem the moral authority to lead Maldives Football. Island clubs out there on our 200 islands are watching what the Interim committee and these two candidates are up to.
The two best "zone" (or island) teams who are competing in the premier Dhivehi League do not have the right to vote in the FAM elections! This league is ongoing as we speak.
Laamu Khalaidhoo and Gaafu Dhaalu Thinadhoo qualified to play by going through an arduous process. Unlike Male' clubs, they have to play three qualifying rounds, atoll, zone and zone champions round. The qualification process takes over three months. Amateur players have to travel to the atoll, zone and Male venues to qualify. In sharp contrast, the elite eleven clubs with voting rights live, work and play in Male'. The financial burden excludes the over sixty (60) island based clubs from maintaining the participation targets favoured by the 28 Male' based clubs who recently ratified the FA Statutes under the watchful eyes of the FIFA Official Dato' Paul in Male' on 16 June.
Time will tell how events will unfold! How can the FAM take root without the support of the majority of its members? FIFA itself assures us, through their 2006 Big Count, that the Maldives can boast 60 active football clubs within it's territory.
I would like to see the candidates declare their position on the question of the excluded majority. I would like to see them state their commitment to right this wrong as an election promise. Should the 11 clubs vote with the candidate who stays silent on the exclusion of the majority, let these 11 clubs beware, the majority are watching you!
Monday, July 7, 2008
FAM elections warms up!
The FIFA Interim Committee have opened the door for interested members to propose candidates for the posts of President and Executive Committee membership.
With just two weeks to go for the entry deadline of 16 July, two factions seem to be emerging to compete for the Presidency. One is headed by New Radiant Chairman Ali Azim and the other a surprising associate of the club, the previously deposed, but widely respected ex. National Captain and Cup winning coach for New Radiant, Mohamed Kaleem.
Behind Azim stands Hiyalee, a rather tarnished but vibrant CEO. Behind Kaleem is the equally famous Mattey. Mattey is said by some to have back paddled from contesting the FAM Presidency, making way for Kaleem to emerge the front runner.
Most of the other first division clubs seem content with a seat on the executive committee.
Both parties contesting the leadership of the FAM are equally backed with the best playing and management experience this country can offer. This definitely is the upside.
There however is the downside. That is the issue of voter eligibility. The FIFA Interim Committee claims that the 5 year uninturrupted participation clause excluding the two third majority of upto 60 football playing island based clubs was a condition specified by the FIFA. This appears strange as the FIFA have claimed in their 2006 Big Count that they could statistically verify sixty (60) associated football clubs in the Maldives.
The FIFA Interim Committee makes the preposterous claim that ONLY Eleven (11) clubs are entitled to vote to elect the President and executive committee of the FAM. The FAM is a over 90 member strong association with upto 80 member clubs participating in FAM organised competitions annually, throught this island nation. Someone, somewhere needs some serious answers ready for the island based majority clubs who are being taken for a free ride in this FAM's historical first election.
We will have to wait and see how this landmark election takes shape!
With just two weeks to go for the entry deadline of 16 July, two factions seem to be emerging to compete for the Presidency. One is headed by New Radiant Chairman Ali Azim and the other a surprising associate of the club, the previously deposed, but widely respected ex. National Captain and Cup winning coach for New Radiant, Mohamed Kaleem.
Behind Azim stands Hiyalee, a rather tarnished but vibrant CEO. Behind Kaleem is the equally famous Mattey. Mattey is said by some to have back paddled from contesting the FAM Presidency, making way for Kaleem to emerge the front runner.
Most of the other first division clubs seem content with a seat on the executive committee.
Both parties contesting the leadership of the FAM are equally backed with the best playing and management experience this country can offer. This definitely is the upside.
There however is the downside. That is the issue of voter eligibility. The FIFA Interim Committee claims that the 5 year uninturrupted participation clause excluding the two third majority of upto 60 football playing island based clubs was a condition specified by the FIFA. This appears strange as the FIFA have claimed in their 2006 Big Count that they could statistically verify sixty (60) associated football clubs in the Maldives.
The FIFA Interim Committee makes the preposterous claim that ONLY Eleven (11) clubs are entitled to vote to elect the President and executive committee of the FAM. The FAM is a over 90 member strong association with upto 80 member clubs participating in FAM organised competitions annually, throught this island nation. Someone, somewhere needs some serious answers ready for the island based majority clubs who are being taken for a free ride in this FAM's historical first election.
We will have to wait and see how this landmark election takes shape!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Maldives National Football Team ....left holding the SAFF Cup.
The first Congress of the Maldives FA was a secretive affair. It was held under cover as thousands of Maldivians poured onto the streets to celebrate this first truly international success. This Congress will go down as one of the most shady affairs in this country's sport history. It is both remarkable and ironic that a mere 20% of the 90 member strong association was taken for a ride under cover of the ecstatic frenzy of winning the SAFF Championship on 14 June in Colombo.
The Congress was held on the morning of 16 June in Male' at the Nalahiyaa Hotel. Club officials had to rushed back from Colombo the night before. The sordid affair was attended by the Secretary General of the Asian Football Confederation. We were told that out of 90 active member clubs, only 28 clubs were eligible to vote. A mere 18 attended.
Unlawful beginnings
The Football Association of Maldives was registered in 1983 under a new law of association passed the previous year. The existence of a national association facilitated the Maldives to join the world body FIFA and thus play internationally. What the world did not know was, that Maldives FA was an association based on a model similar to those of North Korea and Burma.
These national associations were never meant to be elected. The law enabled the country's autocratic president Gayoom to use the Maldives FA as a political tool. While this was taboo in international sport, President Gayoom believed otherwise. He appoints people of his choosing to head these associations. The IOC and FIFA seems to understand difficulties small time Dictators have with civil society. In the 80s, world sports bodies were more than happy to see even a rubber stamp association, as long as they added to their global membership.
Times have changed. Maldives however remained stagnant. Gayoom’s autocratic reign of 30 years guaranteed that this country kept the lid sealed firmly on civil society. The FA was therefore never elected. The phenomenal commercialization of world football in the meantime has forced the FIFA to “go legal”.
FIFA goes legal
FIFA’s initiative to activate an Associations committee in 2005 coincided with the eruption of an unprecedented reform movement in the Maldives. The FIFA Associations committee was mandated with the job of identifying and enabling the transition of legally defunct member associations in line with 21st century global reality. It did not take long for the FIFA to identify the FAM as a sick brethren. The Maldives FA was curtly ordered to hold elections around the middle of last year.
The culprit, Minister of Sports Deen immediately launched into full democratic mode and unilaterally mandated the National Sports Council to oversee “free and fair” elections! FIFA cried foul accusing “government interference”. The subsequent FIFA Interim Committee chairman was however a member of this council!
FIFA Interference
The FIFA official in the guise of the AFC Secretary General was the first to arrive on the scene. He had an innocent story to tell. The good Dato’ was oblivious to the fact that our Law of Association was amended in 2003. Under this law, the Home Ministry had a mandate to ensure all civil society organizations including the Maldives FA comply with the new provisions under a transition clause. The law allowed twelve months for this transition. The new law had no qualms with the FIFA Statutes. He seemed unaware that, some two years after the legal deadline, a civil court in 2006 had already ordered the Home Ministry to get on with it!
Executive inteference by Gayoom's Home Ministers continued to drag the legal process against the force of the Law. The present Defence Minister Ismail Shafeeu headed the Home Ministry at the time the Law of Association was passed. He failed to even start the process mandated to him by this new Law. Hon Thasmeen Ali who replaced Hon Shafeeu, (now the Atolls Minister) ignored the court order and deliberately blocked the FA elections. Now our favourite Hon Kamaluddin is warming the Home Ministers seat as he allows Gayoom's cronies to steal the FA from its grassroots.
The Dato’s story was that, apparently as is the case in Yemen, all Maldivian clubs were state controlled. He could not have been further from the truth. Sports clubs are among the the few democratic institutions that have survived years of autocratic dominence of national life by successive Presidents.
Based on this conveniently ill informed assumption, he justifies the appointment of certain “individuals” of someone’s choosing, to an Interim Transition Committee. The five member normalization committee which FIFA was claimed to have endorsed were not members of football clubs. Local Football bosses in cohorts with international football officials have taken full advantage of both the Maldives reform efforts and the cover of the national team's success to tighten their grip on the games administration. None of the FIFA Associations Committee meetings have seen the Maldives on their agenda!
We are unsure how well this goes down with Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes which is adamant that only members should be involved in sorting such mess. One wonders what the Law of the Land has to say to this arrogant intrusion into domestic affairs.
So what are we left with?
We are now left with a set of Statutes endorsed by a mere 20 percent of members. In this country of 300,000, a third of all football clubs are squashed on the 1.5 square kilometer primate capital of Male' which carries over 100,000 population. The majority of clubs is island based and enjoys a democratic existence compared to the government favored Capital City lads. As tradition would have it, the island lads have been spared the inconvenience of democracy. The saying goes that all islanders (rural population) are lighter by 5 grams, a sarcastic reference to their intellect. The message is that the entrenched minority can still call the shots. Nice one Dato’!
But hold on! Our premier football website http://www.maldivesoccer.com/ displays a telling photo of this secretive and rushed congress. Mauroof Ahmed, our greatest goalkeeper is seen happily holding a YES sign. Mauroof is a budding football man worthy of the upcoming Presidency of the Maldives FA. Seeing such icons taken for a ride by callous football officials to legitimize their corrupt practices makes one wonder if we have been stripped of not five but 10 grams of brain tissue!
While our leading football officials dance to a more sinister tune, the question of who was responsible for damaging the country's innocent football community will definitely be addressed in time to come. Claiming ignorance will not be an excuse.
The good news is that the political space created by weakening Gayoom's grip on national sport associations was enough to win us our first SAFF Gold. Imagine what we could do when the man is gone for good.
I wonder what the Island lads will have to say to President Gayoom who on the one hand have totally sidelined them while promising to take the SAFF Cup to every one of the 200 inhabited islands of the over 1300 hundred islands that make up this island nation. This could be the begining of a very different type of competition among politicians. Football is the BALL.
For the time being Ashfag and co. are left holding the Cup!
Sincere congratulations again to our National Heros.
The Congress was held on the morning of 16 June in Male' at the Nalahiyaa Hotel. Club officials had to rushed back from Colombo the night before. The sordid affair was attended by the Secretary General of the Asian Football Confederation. We were told that out of 90 active member clubs, only 28 clubs were eligible to vote. A mere 18 attended.
Unlawful beginnings
The Football Association of Maldives was registered in 1983 under a new law of association passed the previous year. The existence of a national association facilitated the Maldives to join the world body FIFA and thus play internationally. What the world did not know was, that Maldives FA was an association based on a model similar to those of North Korea and Burma.
These national associations were never meant to be elected. The law enabled the country's autocratic president Gayoom to use the Maldives FA as a political tool. While this was taboo in international sport, President Gayoom believed otherwise. He appoints people of his choosing to head these associations. The IOC and FIFA seems to understand difficulties small time Dictators have with civil society. In the 80s, world sports bodies were more than happy to see even a rubber stamp association, as long as they added to their global membership.
Times have changed. Maldives however remained stagnant. Gayoom’s autocratic reign of 30 years guaranteed that this country kept the lid sealed firmly on civil society. The FA was therefore never elected. The phenomenal commercialization of world football in the meantime has forced the FIFA to “go legal”.
FIFA goes legal
FIFA’s initiative to activate an Associations committee in 2005 coincided with the eruption of an unprecedented reform movement in the Maldives. The FIFA Associations committee was mandated with the job of identifying and enabling the transition of legally defunct member associations in line with 21st century global reality. It did not take long for the FIFA to identify the FAM as a sick brethren. The Maldives FA was curtly ordered to hold elections around the middle of last year.
The culprit, Minister of Sports Deen immediately launched into full democratic mode and unilaterally mandated the National Sports Council to oversee “free and fair” elections! FIFA cried foul accusing “government interference”. The subsequent FIFA Interim Committee chairman was however a member of this council!
FIFA Interference
The FIFA official in the guise of the AFC Secretary General was the first to arrive on the scene. He had an innocent story to tell. The good Dato’ was oblivious to the fact that our Law of Association was amended in 2003. Under this law, the Home Ministry had a mandate to ensure all civil society organizations including the Maldives FA comply with the new provisions under a transition clause. The law allowed twelve months for this transition. The new law had no qualms with the FIFA Statutes. He seemed unaware that, some two years after the legal deadline, a civil court in 2006 had already ordered the Home Ministry to get on with it!
Executive inteference by Gayoom's Home Ministers continued to drag the legal process against the force of the Law. The present Defence Minister Ismail Shafeeu headed the Home Ministry at the time the Law of Association was passed. He failed to even start the process mandated to him by this new Law. Hon Thasmeen Ali who replaced Hon Shafeeu, (now the Atolls Minister) ignored the court order and deliberately blocked the FA elections. Now our favourite Hon Kamaluddin is warming the Home Ministers seat as he allows Gayoom's cronies to steal the FA from its grassroots.
The Dato’s story was that, apparently as is the case in Yemen, all Maldivian clubs were state controlled. He could not have been further from the truth. Sports clubs are among the the few democratic institutions that have survived years of autocratic dominence of national life by successive Presidents.
Based on this conveniently ill informed assumption, he justifies the appointment of certain “individuals” of someone’s choosing, to an Interim Transition Committee. The five member normalization committee which FIFA was claimed to have endorsed were not members of football clubs. Local Football bosses in cohorts with international football officials have taken full advantage of both the Maldives reform efforts and the cover of the national team's success to tighten their grip on the games administration. None of the FIFA Associations Committee meetings have seen the Maldives on their agenda!
We are unsure how well this goes down with Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes which is adamant that only members should be involved in sorting such mess. One wonders what the Law of the Land has to say to this arrogant intrusion into domestic affairs.
So what are we left with?
We are now left with a set of Statutes endorsed by a mere 20 percent of members. In this country of 300,000, a third of all football clubs are squashed on the 1.5 square kilometer primate capital of Male' which carries over 100,000 population. The majority of clubs is island based and enjoys a democratic existence compared to the government favored Capital City lads. As tradition would have it, the island lads have been spared the inconvenience of democracy. The saying goes that all islanders (rural population) are lighter by 5 grams, a sarcastic reference to their intellect. The message is that the entrenched minority can still call the shots. Nice one Dato’!
But hold on! Our premier football website http://www.maldivesoccer.com/ displays a telling photo of this secretive and rushed congress. Mauroof Ahmed, our greatest goalkeeper is seen happily holding a YES sign. Mauroof is a budding football man worthy of the upcoming Presidency of the Maldives FA. Seeing such icons taken for a ride by callous football officials to legitimize their corrupt practices makes one wonder if we have been stripped of not five but 10 grams of brain tissue!
While our leading football officials dance to a more sinister tune, the question of who was responsible for damaging the country's innocent football community will definitely be addressed in time to come. Claiming ignorance will not be an excuse.
The good news is that the political space created by weakening Gayoom's grip on national sport associations was enough to win us our first SAFF Gold. Imagine what we could do when the man is gone for good.
I wonder what the Island lads will have to say to President Gayoom who on the one hand have totally sidelined them while promising to take the SAFF Cup to every one of the 200 inhabited islands of the over 1300 hundred islands that make up this island nation. This could be the begining of a very different type of competition among politicians. Football is the BALL.
For the time being Ashfag and co. are left holding the Cup!
Sincere congratulations again to our National Heros.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)