The another chapter of Football Association of Maldives youth development program, the under 19 youth championship is set to kick off in late August.

Though Boalha.mv have not received any official confirmation from the FAM, it is strongly believed that the under 19 youth championship will be played during the last week of August. Furthermore, the championship will be played in the break days of Dhivehi Premier League, which is given to senior national side to get ready for the upcoming SAFF Championship 2018.

Unlike the last five years, this time FAM has taken a thoughtful decision to lower the age category from under 21 to under 19. Therefor this year and in the upcoming few years, youth championship will be targeted for under 19 players.

Speaking to Boalha.mv, deputy technical director of Football Association of Maldives, Ihsan Abdul Ghani (Coach Saanthi), a person who has hugely believes in youth and proven the idea with Club Eagles, has explained that the change in the age category of youth championship is to give more chance to young players.

“Yes, it is right. FAM will be conducting this year youth championship for under 19 players. Past 5 to 6 years FAM has targeted the youth championship for under 21 players. The change is not only for this year, we have the mind to carry on with the same idea for few more years ahead” Coach Ihsan explained.

“The main objective of this change is to provide a platform for much younger players to show their potential in this level. From past youth championships, it has served good number of youth players whom are under 21 or under 23, is currently playing in first division clubs. Every first division squad includes a very good number of players who are under 21 or under 23”. He added.

Speaking about the numbers of under 23 players in first division squads, according to FAM statistics on STO Male’ League 2018 round 1, in first division eight club squads, there are total 108 under 23 players out of 225 players registered for Male’ League. Out of that 108, 53 players have played in the league. Therefor as FAM says, there are a good number of under 23 players involved in the first division football.

And adding to the objective, Coach Ihsan also said that the idea is to prepare these under 19 players to the future tournaments as there is AFC U-19 championship 2019 on the horizon.

“Next year there will be AFC U-19. So most of players from this year youth championship have the possibility in playing in next year AFC”.

Most successful club in youth championship is Club Eagles as they have won the championship straight three years, in 2014,2016 and 2017.