Maldives will take India very seriously in SAFF 2008 Male' Group

After last night's comfortable win, we are looking at our matches against Nepal this Thursday and India on Saturday. We will definitely not discount Nepal as a pushover. Superior aerobic endurance due to high altitude training is a factor our tacticians will address. India have to be taken still more seriously.

Our wonderful habit of punching above our weight in this regional competition have surprised, if not irritated "better" teams. But we must remember India have started moving!

Hiring English coach Houghouton is a departure from their previous strategy of relying on local coaches and at times cheap foreign coaches. Zee TV's recent interest in the Indian League and billionair Sunil Bharti Mittal interest in football coupled with the FIFA and AFC initiatives are loud and clear sign of progress. Already Indian officials are publicly stating that loosing to the Maldives will be a big blow for them. This is a sign of the pressure and anxiety that will build up for Thursday's match.

Loosing Position: While we happily celebrate our team's first win, member clubs must be mindful of the fact that they have had to start from a loosing position. Our National Team bears the brunt of a FIFA appointed interim committee that have unilaterally decided to field the Maldives National Team in this regional championship. The Maldives FA is however under "suspension" for not holding elections. This was 7 months ago last November.

It is a terrible calamity that the FIFA blindly descended on an unsuspecting Maldives FA and replaced government appointees with FIFA appointees citing government inteference. FIFA have however allowed this Interim Committee to happily go about their business without consulting member clubs as FIFA had previously accused the government appointees of doing. The FIFA had "sacked" these government appointees and replaced the FA with their own appointees. These FIFA appointees are apparantly not representatives of member clubs! The FIFA Official, AFC Secretary General opined, MOST football clubs in this country were "government controlled" as it was the case in Yemen. The strange twist is that this could not be further from the truth. Have the Dato' been taken for a ride?

Atoll based football clubs were the only democratic institution the government dared not meddle with. Thus the justification for selecting "individuals" rather than club representatives as per FIFA Statutes. While this may not have caught the ear of the average youth who grow up under President Gayoom's dictatorship, FIFA must responsibly understand it's implications with respect to international norms of democratic governence.

Democratic Governence: FIFA claims to subscribe to democratic governence through their Statutes and more pro-actively through their Associations Committee chaired by Geoff Thompson of the UK. The committee have met more than once since the Maldives FA's suspension 7 months ago. Surprisingly, our case have not featured in the committee's agenda at FIFA. The Maldives FA, in the meantime have been downgraded to the status of a mere "observer" at the recent FIFA Congress in Sydney, Australia.

Autocratic ways: This is a seriously disturbing case of the world body's autocratic ways. The FIFA went to great lengths to re-gain "nationality" for European teams at their recent Sydney Congress on 31 May. The was a breach of EU Law! Professional clubs were not happy.

FIFA actions through its appointees in the Interim Committee amount to an open declaration that the world body will dictate over Maldives clubs. The interim committee have, quoting FIFA instruction, already stipulated stiff conditions barring two thirds of member clubs from voting to ratify the new constitution. The clubs who passed this stiff criteria happens to be only a third of all member clubs. These are the clubs who have thrived on direct government handouts.

It was only last week that the FIFA threatned Iraq with suspension simply because the Iraqi cabinet dissolved the Iraq Olympic Committee.

The Maldives FA is under siege. FIFA is running the show. Unlike suspended associations, Maldives can not only play internationally, but can even host international competitions at the whim of the FIFA. This must be a worlds first!

Go for a WIN: Bizzare as it may appear, let us for a moment forget "FIFA inteference" and get down to winning the next two games. Good luck.