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.