Wednesday's semi-finals in Colombo and Male' have confirmed Maldives and India as the finalists of the 2008 SAFF Championships.
In Male', India scraped through against Bhutan with a last minute goal in extra time. In Colombo Maldives beat a tough Sri Lankan home side by a goal. The Sri Lankans played good football on the pitch.
It was however a different ball game at the managers meeting.
The hosts forced Maldives players to change their traditional RED jersey in the semi-finals simply because the Sri Lankan goalkeeper wished to wear Red. Sri Lanka team wore their traditional yellow. So there was no need to change our jersey colour. The Sri Lanka keeper could have changed to say Black for all we care. Sadly, our officials are seasoned "yes men". They could have given the nod to this ridiculous suggestion more as a conditioned reflex than intelligent thought. Maldives played in BLUE! Fans who travelled all the way to Colombo wore RED.
Local media reports the lighting at Sugathadhasa was short of required intensity. Some claimed the intensity was 600 lux short. One wonders if the Sri Lankan FA and the AFC have thought of rating this match as provided under Articles 15 and 27 of the FIFA Safety Guidelines. This would have given fans more confidence in the light of the tense security situation in Colombo all week. In spite of such pressures and misgivings, the Players delivered the goods with a win. There were no security hitches at the semi-finals. We therfore have let all this pass as an "oversight"!
The Maldives team's campaign for the SAFF Cup 2008 is "....this time it's ours".
True to the theme, the Maldives Team was backed by an unprecedented "home crowd" at Sugathadhasa last night. This Colombo finals is appearing to be more a home game for the Maldives as over 3000 fans are set to decorate the Colombo stadium in RED.
I also believe "this time it's ours". Good luck fellas.
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