| Dhiraagu
Dhivehi League to kick off tomorrow
Is your favourite club ready for the battle?
24 July 2005
ASSAD:
Receiving Dhivehi League 2004 on behalf of Valencia.
Male',
MALDIVES - Almost all the teams who were qualified to the
upcoming “Dhiraagu Dhivehi League” are in there final
stage of preparation to the tournament. Dhivehi League is considered
to be the biggest and most challenging tournament in the Maldivian
Football season; every team puts their full effort to give a good
fight against their opponents to win the tournament. Unlike other
tournaments of the season, Dhivehi League, confirms the teams for
the remaining tournaments. The top four teams will qualify for National
Tournament and POMIS Cup.
The upcoming
Dhivehi League will be different from the past years. One such difference
is that this is the first time the tournament has been sponsored.
The Maldives' first Telecommunication company, “DHIRAAGU”
sponsored the whole Dhivehi league tournament and as a result the
tournament has been renamed to “DHIRAAGU DHIVEHI LEAGUE 2005”.
The winner will be awarded with FAM shield along with Dhiraagu trophy.
Considering these reasons, it’s obvious that this year’s
Dhivehi League will be more exciting than previous tournaments.
First division
clubs or Zone 9 has started strengthening their clubs after the
completion of the Dhivehi League Qualification which held a month
ago. Some clubs had already signed with foreign players while some
are seeking for local and others with there existing players. However,
almost all the teams qualified from zone 9 seem to have at least
one foreign player. Now let's have a closer look at team’s
preparation for the Dhivehi League.
Dhivehi league
can be tagged as a Valencia’s tournament, because they won
this league in a four consecutive years in its five year history.
To win the league for a fifth consecutive year Valencia brought
a Nigerian and an Australian player. Latest news says that Nigerian
player has joined the team and is currently participating in the
practices. Valencia’s Coach, Georghe, said that his team is
well prepared for the league and they have the potential of winning
the league. He also added there is no weak department in the team
and it’s very balanced. Reports say that Valencia’s
one of the most promising defender Faisal aka Katey is in injury.
Victory who
won the first Dhivehi League in 2000 and completed the other four
as the second, behind Valencia, has to rule out some of their key
players due to injury. Players who are so far in the injury list
include Issey, Naseem (KD) and Fazikko and also some other players
have minor injury. No new players joined Victory for the league,
but the combination of two Morocco players, who joined them in the
middle of zone-9 qualification, will surely be a threat for their
opponents defence. Once these two players joined Victory this year,
Victory’s performance has boosted.
The AFC Cup
hero, New Radiant’s sports club, started there practice for
Dhivehi League after having a rest of one week. No new player joined
the team other than the former goal keeper Muruthala. A Romanian
striker was brought to the team and now sent off due to lack of
standard. Media Coordinator Ali Azim said that due to financial
difficulties they were unable to bring a player from abroad, but
he said that they will include a foreign player for the AFC cup
quarter final matches, where they will face Al Hussein of Jordon.
New Radiant has won this year’s FA Cup and advanced to the
quarter final of AFC Cup will surely increase the mentality of their
players.
Hurriyya hasn’t
changed much for the Dhivehi League, but they brought back their
former player Samah from Guraidhoo after Guraidhoo failed to hold
a position in first division. Huraa’s coach said he is confident
that his players will give a good fight in Dhivehi League after
they held Victory to a goalless draw in Dhivehi League qualification
last match. Unfortunately that result prevented Victory winning
the qualification round. After that match Victory’s disappointed
coach Mauroof criticize Hurriyya performance saying that it’s
not easy to win against a team who plays not to lose.
IFC changed
a lot. New players joined the squad and they look better in all
departments than before. Ahmed Wadheeu and his brother Gayyoom and
Akano from Guraidhoo joined IFC. It looks everything was going in
the right direction, but coach Nizam complaints about field. He
said the field isn’t appropriate to practice a team of 35
players. He also admitted that his team is preparing well for the
Dhivehi League and the team has improved when new bloods joined
the team.
Club Eagles
has also improved a lot for Dhivehi League. Sources say that 7 players
from Vyansa have joined Eagles plus a SriLanka National team player
and brought an experienced coach Pakeer Ali to the bench. According
to Pakeer Ali, he didn’t get enough time to prepare the team
but he is expecting to qualify for the second round of Dhivehi League.
He said, he needs at least 2-3 months to prepare the team for the
League, but on the other hand he is satisfied with the skilful youngsters
he got.
Above is a brief
information on how teams are preparing for the Dhivehi League and
it looks each and every team is dressing up to give a good fight
to their opponent. We can give full guaranty that the forthcoming
DHIRAAGU Dhivehi league will be interesting and an entertaining
tournament and it will kick off tomorrow night at 2030hrs. Cheer
your team!
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