Ali Thameem
The new Dhivehi Youth League, organized by the FAM and Maldives Soccer Mates, kicked off this evening.
Both U-12 and U-14 leagues have begun today. Of the four games to be played each day, two will be played in the evening, and two at night.
The league is planned to be played in three age groups: under-12, under-14 and under-16. The organizers promise the league to be ‘an exciting showcase of youth talent’ and aim to ‘develop a pipeline of talent that strengthens both local clubs and the national team’. Across all three leagues, the DYL will include 84 games and feature over 550 young footballers.
Eight football clubs will play in all three divisions; Maziya SR, Super United Sports, TC Sports Club, Club Valencia, United Victory, Club Eagles, Victory Sports Club and Hurriyya Sports Club.
The games of the under-12 and under-14 leagues will be played until January 18th, 2025, but the under-16 league games will continue until January 28th.
A break for the new year
All three divisions of the Dhivehi Youth League are scheduled to pause around the new year. Under-12 and U-14 games will halt from 16th December until 9th January.
U-16 games will not be played from 18 December to 6 January. After that, the games of the U-16 league will be played in both Henveyru Football Ground and Galolhu Stadium. The stadium will be vacant by then because the Gold Cup will have ended on the 22nd of December.
The games of under-16 age group, which will start from December 1st, were initially scheduled to be played across three football grounds; Henveyru Ground, Galolhu Stadium and Hulhumale’ Stadium. But the schedule was later amended because it collided with the games of the Gold Cup, which is also played at Galolhu Stadium and will not end until the fourth week of December.
There have been no FAM leagues for any of the three age groups in 2023. The last time a youth league took place was in 2022 when Club Valencia became champions in both the U-14 and U-16 divisions. The U-12 league champions that year were Super United Sports.
