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Time to learn from mistakes
Date: 26 Dec 2009 Ahmed Afsal (Appo) Send your Comments
Fans deserve an apology from the team for the loss
Football has been an important part of our society today in Maldives, which had paved the way to clear our differences and bring together the naturally scattered and politically divided islands to one.  The joy and euphoria brought out by the people in support for the team Maldives at SAFF Championship showed the commitment and love for the sport in the country. The expectations of the supporters were high as the team went to final against the mighty Indians who were defeated during the group stage by 2-0.  Then the most bizarre thing happened to Maldivian team, Maldives end the game draw in the final and with a disappointing 3-1, the team lost to the Indian under 23 age team in the penalty shootout.  The silence spread across the nation for few seconds with disbelief in the dream of lifting the SAFF Champion trophy second time depleting in to thin air. The disappointment didn’t weaken the strength of the support by their dedicated fans. They welcome the runners up of the SAFF Championship in most dignified fashion.  Today it’s time for the team and the governing bodies to explain what really happened during the tournament. In the article we will be highlighting issues raised at some debates in coffee shops and youth gatherings about the reasons we fail to win the SAFF Champions ship.

Almost everyone agrees that too much local politics is getting mix up with the Maldivian football. There are many reasons put forward for this to happen. One most obvious reason is that Football Association of Maldives (FAM) is administered by   those dedicated in promoting political parties in the Maldives. It is most people’s view that FAM has to be an independent body and have to be operated in a local politics free environment. We can see the deterioration of the performance of the good clubs such as New Radiant and Club Valencia with the involvement of its management in local politics. Now is the time to draw the line between politics and football, in doing so the Maldivian football will be more benefitted and good decisions will be able make for the development of the sport in the country. Otherwise the conflict of interest is there though anyone claims that they are fair but the important issues here is to eliminate any doubt in the system which leads the way to any suspiciousness.   

From those of who were with the team in Bangladesh, many noticed disciplinary issues in the team. Etiquettes of being a professional football player lacked in most of the players. The question of who is responsible for this I would leave to readers, as other than the coach there were quite a number of officials with the team. Though all the practice matches went well and the team played as coach had planned more as a team building attacks and defending, but in the tournament we saw difficulty in creating coordinated attacks and defences.  We all saw the Indian team how they played putting long balls and chasing, playing the classic English football. We also saw during the group stage matches how they were struggling especially during the game with the Nepal but one thing had maintained the Indian team consistent, giving strength to the team and keeping the team winning, which is the discipline of the players and the officials.

The focus of the Indian team was to win the cup and restore the glory from the humiliation they had face in the previous tournament. They were not looking forward for the booty associated with the cup. Sadly today Maldivian media is more concerned on issues of bonuses of the Maldivian team rather than the reasons why we had lost the cup. I wonder the Maldivian national team ever thought about that they have let down their fans because I have not seen any statement, an interview expressing the regret or apologetically made any statement on the issue.  Maldivians team’s focus was definitely moved by the politics and other such differences as the rumours indicated. This divide may be the reason the team were unable to play as a team during the tournament.

These are some weaknesses in our national football team that had been debated in coffee shops and other such places and it’s a right of the fans to know what actually happened in the tournament. Why we failed to win the cup even though this was the time we prepared for the games at our best. It’s an obligation of Football Association of Maldives to answer the fans why we failed to win the trophy as most of contribution of organising the teams activities were contributed by fans. Through mistakes we learn and turn our weaknesses in to strengths to succeed.


 
Comments
wat? classic english football?? my foot! indians were playing CLASSIC english football? had u said classic brasilian samba, it would've been much better i guess!! the only thing in their mind was to destroy maldivian game by playing the balls high. they didnt even care where they were kicking it or in which direction they were kickin the ball. but in reality, their approach was very effective. coz, at the end of the day, they were the winners. m not a football expert, but one thing i noticed was, our players were not very comfortable with urbanyi's style of play. may b its a bit earlier for them n they need more time to adopt such a style. if we had followed yanke's style, we cud've beaten india with ease! coz this time we tried to play with short passes on the ground n at times, we were not very effective in that. specially wen the indians tried to keep the ball high all the time, in which they they are experts!! anyways, i like urbanyi's style. our performance wasn't that bad. i agree with u, appo. the only bug i see in this is politics! keep up the gudwork, coach!
[ abo ] posted on: 06 Jan 2010
assad hurihaa practice match thakeh kulhun iru mubaaraathuga 11 in jaaga nulibunee keehvebaa.
[ MR ] posted on: 03 Jan 2010
Appo, thank you for the article. But have you read it yourself after writing it? It seems very one sided. Glory and success cannot be achieved overnight. Furthermore, success "NEVER" braces to those who do not deserve. I believe the players deserve the success, but there were people behind, waiting, getting ready to ride on the windfall of our success. I believe, it is because of this selfishness of some people we lost, not because we were the weaker team. I cannot stress any more than what you have said, we need to learn from our mistakes. As supporters and well wishers, let us not allow some of these people to spoil our sport. Let football grow by its own.
[ ibu ] posted on: 30 Dec 2009
I may be little pessimistic. I should have agreed if we were beaten in the semi final. But we have never managed to beat "India" except for once where divine intervention played major part. We have never reached that standard. Arrange five consecutive matches with India, I will crawl rest of my life if Maldives wins more than a single match with India. Give a ball to oppo, dhagey, or tom with no one else on the pitch. Ask them to score a goal outside the penalty area. I will crawl if all of them score the five attempts. Keep Imran in the goal, i will take penalty kicks, I shall walk upside down for the rest of my life if he manages to stop three out of five kicks. Its not the quality of football or consistency or accuracy or skill that has taken our team for most of the finals, but it is the fact that other nations do not concentrate on improving football. We reach finals because thats where we actually stand, we don't go beyond that because thats where actually stand.
[ baalhio ] posted on: 28 Dec 2009
I heard that Nepal is carrying out an investigation about their teams faliur to advance to Knock-out stage off this SAFF Championship. So why not us? Yes as some said loosing the trophy specially to that U-23 team of india is a BIG thing. FAM and the TEAM needs to apologise from the nation as this time WE sent them to play with our contribution.
[ ahan ] posted on: 28 Dec 2009
baalhio, loosing the trophy is a very big problem!
[ real-fan ] posted on: 28 Dec 2009
baalhio..are u kidding me.a team without serious issues wont be playing in the SAFF championship.a team without serious issues would be able to qualify for AFC challenge cup and world cup qualifiers and AFC cup qualifiers.because of simple minded people like you Maldives is not going to make progress in next 50 years.cause some one has installed the "small county with less resoures" mentality into some our brain..
[ r9 ] posted on: 27 Dec 2009
appo, what has the picture got to do with the article,???? Its true, the team must apologize from the public this time. but in my view, losing the trophy is not a problem. that just shows where we actually stand. No serious issues.
[ baalhio ] posted on: 27 Dec 2009
 
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