Disequilibrium in Team Results and Fan Reactions:
The Travails of Maldives’ Football

As a tiny nation with a sparse population, what is undeniable is that, in 30 years, football in the Maldives has made monumental strides forward. The beautiful game has been intrinsically linked with the pulse of the people, since the latter days as of British protectorate.

The contemporary footballing journey of the Maldives has been tumultuous, with crowning achievements and frustrating failures. In a never-ending quest to fulfill public expectations of success, administrators keep grappling with the harsh realities of budgetary constraints, infrastructure shortage and dwindling market shares to other sports. Today, we appear to be at the cusp of an upward trend, after some years of soul searching. After all, we have won back the SAFF Championship after a decade of near misses. This is, hence, the right time to take to reevaluate, to reform and to reinvigorate the game in the Maldives.

Maldives won the SAFF Championship in 2008. Photo ImagesMV

Opinions may differ. It should! But the first positive stride forward would be to actually listen to these varied opinions. Coffee table debate often centers around the mistakes that brought football in Maldives to its recent ebb.

We all reminisce about the ‘good old days’ when the stands would fill up for top division games and when top footballers were idolized. The days when the wards of Male’ could be identified with top club affiliation, and the highest mango trees would support an even higher flag of the big clubs. Those were the days when club owners could manage expenses through small donations by diehard fans.

So, what led to the change in fortunes? What singular issue could explain the modern-day trend, a far cry from the glory days of the 80s and 90s. Some would pinpoint the arrival of the transfer market as the turning point, while others actually note today’s preoccupation with partisan politics as the source of dwindling interest in the domestic league. There is, in my humble opinion, some truth to these. Let us delve a bit deeper! I too recall, as a child, the fateful day when Kuda Moosa switched allegiances from New Radiant to Valencia. I also remember the flak he took for his honest decision to feed his family! His was a pioneering move that surely did reshape the landscape. No longer could clubs attract and retain the best talent through close friendships and the after-game snack in the designated tea shop. Players, after all, were the ones who were putting in their blood and sweat for the club’s glory. They, therefore, should be paid their rightful dues. With time, the transfer market become more organized and more extensive. In many ways, this, like many others, was a development that was inevitable. FIFA regulations would dictate such rights for players. This fact alone can, therefore, not explain the transformative change to Maldives’ football and its fortunes.

Kuda Moosa won considerable success with Club Valencia. Photo: Facebook|Kuda Moosa

Similarly, the advent of pluralist democracy and partisan politics is often identified as the root cause of change in football, especially in fan following. There is merit in this argument, as politics has become the predominant preoccupation of our people, a status that was held by football! Politics today is, unfortunately, breaking up families and friendships. Yet, it doesn’t accurately explain the change, albeit in itself. I do affirm that the dwindling number of stadium-going fans can largely be attributed to the evolving interests of the people. The current generations do not have the simpler and more innocent passions we held close to our hearts, like football! We live in a vastly different world now, with social media and the world wide web. We also live in a time when the choice of sports is exponentially greater. Its no longer a toss up between football and volleyball. Today, even in schools, the youth development programmes cater for dozens of sports and games. While football retains its status as the country’s top sport, it is doing so by the skin of its teeth, with numerous other sports also attracting large followings in players and supporters.

As is often the case, fingers are pointed at administrators. In the search for the reason and rationale behind the change in fortune of football, a most convenient source of criticism is the FAM. While the governing body has had a troublesome contemporary history, successive administrations have worked hard to improve football in the country. The very issue under deliberation here too has been debated upon at numerous FAM board meetings. Some measures too have been implemented, in the hope to resolve the issue. Drastic changes to the schedule, the tournament structure and in funding allocations, just to name a few. I have nothing but praise for FAM for its efforts. As is often the case, we criticize when things don’t go right, but rarely take the time to praise when things do! No different to politics and government here.

Speaking of government, is it, therefore, the government that is to blame? Is the government somehow not doing enough? Or is it the Olympic Committee, maybe? I would again say no! Funds have been pumped in regularly, and infrastructure and technical support made available, to the best of resource availability. Anyhow, apportioning the blame squarely on administrators is often a convenient way to escape responsibility.

When crowds filled the stands. Photo: Facebook| Club Valencia

This brings me to my core message! The way forward requires soul search, consultation and effort. FAM alone cannot do this, no can any other stakeholder. It must be a collective effort involving veteran and current players and coaches, the government, FAM, MOC, clubs, sponsors and even AFC and FIFA. The structure in place today is unviable and unsustainable at many critical nodes. Barring a handful, clubs have huge financial issues. We continue to hear about salaries not being paid and clubs going into liquidity. Of reputed clubs seeking funding support through politicians or moguls. The accusation of bias is rampant, with FAM being blamed for the current formula of funds allocation.

The government, in a wholehearted effort, has built a lot of infrastructure lately, but most have focused on futsal rather than football. It is a whole different topic of discussion as to whether the growth of futsal in Maldives has helped or hindered football!

A lot of Futsal stadiums have sprung up across the nation. Photo: Facebook|Kuda Henveiru

We need a wider network of sponsorship and marketing for the sport. Easier and cheaper airtime, with ample focus on club and player profiling. We need to take the sport nationwide, with more competitive games played across the country.

Private organisations and resorts need to be welcomed into the fold rather than demarking them as outsiders by law and in spirit.

Agents need to focus on taking our talent overseas. The exploits overseas by Ashfaq did more to promote the game locally than any strategic masterplan in recent memory. We need more of our top players employed abroad.

Clubs need to form their own identities, by locality, and focus on membership and core support bases.

The main national stadium needs improving, or maybe even replacing altogether.

Ali Ashfaq (Dhagandey) was a big hit in the Malaysian top tier. Photo: Facebook| Ali Ashfaq

Players need to be given greater support, to augment their current training. Dieticians, physiotherapists and even psychologists can help enhance performance. The national team should play more games, especially on FIFA designated dates for international friendlies. We know that the travails of our clubs don’t extend to our national team – they can still fill a stadium with supporters.

We need to invest more in women’s football, with better coaching and a full-fledged women’s league to mirror the men’s game.

All the above may appear to some to be baby steps. As a collective, if planned well and implemented even better, they can deliver the necessary big leap forward in improving our game. The results, though, may not be immediate. We would still need to be patient.

Some people ridiculed the current national coach recently when he said that his wish was to take us to the Qatar 2022 World Cup. While it maybe a bit too ambitious, I strongly believe that until and unless we do actually set out bar higher, we will make little if any gains at all. While I do rejoice along with my countrymen when we regained the coveted SAFF Championship trophy recently, I honestly believe that our sights should not be set on regional supremacy alone. FIFA and AFC have tournaments catering to tiers of growth, and its high time we attempt at excellence at the next level.

Maldives, 2018 SAFF Championship Winners. Photo: ImagesMV

It is also important to insert a word of caution here. Do not try to fix things that are not broken! What is right about the game need to be sustained. In spite of recent criticism and emotional outbursts on social media, I honestly believe that the current national coach (and any coach for that matter) should be given ample time to produce results. While most will applaud, we can’t forget that the vast majority in fact gave him no hope in the lead up to the SAFF Championships. Coaches should be judged on performance, and the young team has delivered. On this front, we must encourage and enhance resources to ensure that the results are sustained, rather than allowing knee-jerk reactions leading to ad-hoc changes. Similarly, I believe that the Minivan Championship should be continued with some subtle changes based on feedback from those involved.

Minivan Championship has been successful so far.

When all is said and all is done, there is nothing left! As they say, if Iceland can do it, so can we! After all, we did frustrate the then might South Koreans, by parking the bus in front of our sticks. We take pride in the fact that our results are outstanding given our meagre talent pool. We also boast a league with more imports than any other in the neighborhood. So, a collective effort to take the game forward without clashing egos can make a big difference. Logic says that we need every hand on deck. In such a small ship, we can ill afford divisiveness and friction. After all, we owe it to the game. We owe it to our country!

From Mundhu Shareef

(The content of this is from our readers, we do not necessarily agree or disagree with its contents- the readers may mail to this column at [email protected] or message our Facebook page. You may mail us in essay form or in point form, we will write it for you if it is more than 300 words we will post in this column)

Slider Photo: Facebook | Mauroof Ahmed

04 November 2018