New problems for new season

Interim committee chairman (C) and Secretary (L); new problems had been raise dunder the IC's term

If controversies are good recipes for disaster football season 2008 is already is on a bad note. Sobah is fighting a legal battle after signing for two clubs and VB Sports belated running after Arif (Bakaa) for dishonoring club’s contract is another contentious issue with no happy ending. New Radiant had played its three foreign players without any valid work permit. The more high-impacting news had been about Velencia’s Dhona. The long-serving man’s unceremonious dismissal has been the talking point of town for a while and the fact that FAM is closing on its deadline are not the stuff of fantasies but rather the reality of our football fraternity.

So what has it been all about? How come football season 2008 is on news for all the wrong reasons when it has yet to start for some teams?

On the face of it, the problems are simple enough to be sorted out by any sport governing body if there are proper rules and regulation in place. But here we are talking about a football guardian running under the aegis of an Interim Committee that had its hand already full with problems of their own, let alone tending others. It is wishful thinking to assume that things are going on an even keel. The reality is on a different plane.

Rather than being part of solution, FAM is the part of its own problems. On the whole, all is due to the makeshift status of FAM. Discharging and execution of services, cooperation and communication among the many committees are all in a limbo thanks to the amateurish attitude of its many committees which need to turn professional. For one, look how New Radiant survived a severe backlash.

On a legal ground, whether New Radiant taking advantage of the loop holes in FAM’s constitution or not merit an immediate deportation of the players. According to Labour Ministry rules no employers could allow its expatriate workers to work on any condition without valid immigration documents. Another place, another time, the rule of law might have been applied. Instead it happened here under the guise of FAM and, we are talking about a semi-professional setup, it is only natural that no punishment is taken against the offender as FAM, like it happened on many an occasion, always capitulate to the image of bigger clubs.

Indeed, FAM is lurching from one crisis to another. With an underbelly full of its own problems to tend to they are in an eternal dilemma over Sobah’s double signature fiasco. Working to the tune of necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention theory they seem to have a philosophy of tending to problems as it crop up. Only when Sobah has appealed over his suspension has there been frantic activity to set-up Appeal Committee; it was non-existent in FAM’s fold.

Bakaa has jumped the ships and heaven knows how bad VB Sports had suffered in terms of financial losses over a player who spent a good part of the last season on the injury list. Whether it was a case of genuine injury or not that is not the real concern but rather compensation for the lost man power and player salary that is the real issue. As things stand it seems FAM’s belated intervention stopped VB’s hot pursuit in its track.

As if these setbacks are not enough for a season already strewn with myriad of problems Valencia have one or two surprises up it sleeve. In an era of boardroom upheavals and Dhona’s back-door exit, Valencia’s adventurous sojourn to the new season had them in tatters as they suffered a merciless drubbing by the arch-rivals Victory. Losing 8 -1 in a morale-shattering first match it’s all repair work now for Bimma’s young brigade. If goal pay rent Velencia is badly in arrears.

Whether Sobah’s appeal will be upheld and allowed to be a part of Maldives national team or Bimma could emulate his boss' magnificent last season and crown themselves champions second time in raw or if FAM rules are not porous enough in future to be broken and re-broken only time will tell. But what we don’t know is how far FAM has allowed eroding of its credibility. Too often players and clubs get away with minor penalty when it awaits much hasher punishment in the eyes of others.

If FAM is to continue with its present trend of surrendering to the demands of clubs the growing embers of distrust with FAM and it affiliated committees could result in a fire that could cremate the national sport of Maldives once and for all. Period.

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