I guess we have seen an era which can be described as one of the biggest flaws in the history of Maldivian football. Everyone of us believes that we do have an outstanding squad of players, but when it came to results or the National Team we did not perform at all.

FAM announced yesterday that coach Stoikov has resigned from his post after the disastrous humiliation in the Asian Games this year. But we do have to really analyze the reasons that led to the resignation?

Yes!!! We are a small country and we would not have adequate resources compared to the big players like India where they have huge population to select? But is this an excuse? The commentator in the Asian Games match played against India clearly said Maldives players are simply outstanding in their technical abilities compared to the other Asian countries! So why can’t we win any medals? Why can’t we win a single match?

I have not played professional football and I might have played football on the street. But that does not mean that every one who can criticize football should be a professional football player. How many coaches and how many analysts are garbage collectors , grocery owners and so on.. So let’s see my point of view

During SAFF Championship in Karachi, 2005, Maldives FA was not able to capture a coach for the tournament and after talks with other clubs, they agreed to hire New Radiant’s coach Stoikov. Some felt the inappropriateness of it as the selection process and others were very much biased to New Radiant and his closeness with New Radiant management gave more weight on it. Ofcourse it would happen naturally as he was much involved in New Radiant’s success for AFC Cup 2005’s semi final progress.

But my real question arises from it. Don’t club officials think about the procedures in foreign countries regarding hiring of coaches! Coaches are precious gifts and it goes a lot of scrutinizing process. International coaches who are currently serving in a club in that country is normally not hired because he is an outsider and he would definitely rely on the players who he knows the best! So it is always best to capture a person who is from outside who did not serve in a club. A local coach could be hired if he has worked in a club in Maldives because he knows the football history and the coverage and the strength and weakness of the players. So if you want to hire a person who knows a county’s football than it should be a local coach instead of a foreign coach.. So in my point of view the first mistake was done by Football Association of Maldives

After every tournament, FA of Maldives promises the media that there is an investigation and the news just gets shrinks from there. If a media person asks regarding the matter, FAM refuses to answer the question. But since it is for the public’s interest that information should be revealed. That’s the next mistake.

So now let us go back to the SAFF Championship! Maldives had a huge win against Afghanistan scoring 9 goals. One of the best wins in the Maldives football history. And in the next game Maldives beat their arch rivals Sri Lanka by 2-0 and it was a classic win as well. But the next match was a disappointment as Maldives team got a draw against Pakistan to enter the second round. And then suffered a defeat against India in the next round to get themselves kicked out of the tournament. Lot of criticism was based on coach’s selection process and his selection of first eleven which was mostly based on strikers and defenders. Ashfaaq, Fazeel, Thoriq, Ali Umar who are naturally born strikers were used in midfield and in striking force. Fazeel who was in his best form at that time was dropped back as a stopper and could not handle his possession and was left frustrated. It was seen on the video footage as well. Any how, FAM at that time did not want to make any changes and dropped the story down.

Later, in August of this year, Maldives Under 23 participated in the South Asian Games which I witnessed on my own despite my busy schedule. Maldives Under 23 consists of the cream of Maldivian Football but coach commented before leaving for the tournament that he did not have any confidence on his team as the decision of not including three senior players in the squad.

So before leaving for the tournament as well the moral of the players dropped dead. The manager of the team was the present Vice Chairman of Football Association of Maldives. He would sure have witnessed the matches and would see the difference between Maldives and the other nations. We cannot always put the blame on luck. The coach’s strategy was to get a draw against Sri Lanka, get a win against Bhutan and then get a draw against Pakistan. It has been ages that Maldives have never lost to Sri Lanka during normal play and why should we think of a draw. So at first the strategy was a big flop. Sri Lankans were in sheer joy after the win against Maldives. Some of the Sri Lanka Football Association members were in tears after the win. Surely a golden moment for them.

Maldives were then able to get a single goal against the minnow Bhutan and then I wrote an article about the strategy of the coach. He got heated up and started to complain about my knowledge on football and asked me to give my first eleven and the strategy that I want to apply when I met him in the lobby of team’s hotel.

For sure Maldives got a great win against the Pakistanis but was knocked out of the tournament. A news conference was also not held after the tournament.

Then came the Asian Games. The practices started with just 6 players which continued to be the fate for 6 practices. Some of the players complained regarding it as well. And later on some of the officials had to go to the player’s houses to get them up for the training.

The team left Maldives giving hopes that Maldives would be able to get wins against India and Hong Kong and it brought some kind of confidence after Maldives managed to get something out of Iran’s match. But getting a 3-1 defeat against Iran is not something I expected. I expected a one goal margin. Because Maldives were able to get a draw at home and get a two goal deficit against the South Koreans in their home ground with a stadium packed with their supporters. So why can’t we improve after two years? Simply arrogant I would say. I was infront of the television set like most of the Maldivians to see the victory of Maldives against India. But it never happened. Maldives got a defeat against India and then later against Hong Kong.

Our reporter, Shimaz Ali was in Doha and coach refused to give any comment on two occasions and was asked Shimaz to leave from the grounds during the practices when he was trying to take some pictures.

After the tournament everyone knew that he would resign for sure and the era of him ended on 10th of December 2006. So Football Association of Maldives should be in a possession to take timely decisions and to be taking a leading role in improving the football in Maldives. We do for sure have to learn from our mistakes.